Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Friday, May 30,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
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Top 5 or bust: Track heads to regionals
The men have a handful of athletes leading
their fields, but the middle Ducks will be key
Men’s track and field
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
Two weeks ago at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships,
Washington State sprinters Anthony Buchanan and Bennie
Chatman ganged up on Oregon’s Sarnie Parker.
The Cougar runners laughed and talked about Parker. They
tried to get a recall, knowing Parker has a blistering start.
“It kinda — well, I can’t say ‘kinda’ — it did work,” Parker
said Wednesday. “It threw me off, because I was going out there
to win it. I should have won it.”
Parker finished third behind Buchanan and Chatman. To
day at the West Regionals in Stanford, Calif., it’s time for
some Parker payback.
“Hopefully they’re ready this week because I’m bringing it
all,” Parker said. “With the little games they were playing, that
just gets me fired up even more.”
So that’s Parker’s motivation for the regional meet. For most
of the rest of the Oregon men’s track and field squad, making
the NCAA Championships will be motivation enough.
The new regional-meet system presents a unique challenge
to every last athlete in the nation: Win or go home. Finish in
the top five of your event or miss the NCAA Championships,
unless you get one of the rare wild-card entries.
The regional-meet system might just benefit a team
like Oregon.
“I think it’s great for our group because we don’t have the SC
star power that was evident down at Pac-lOs,” pole vaulter
Trevor Woods said. “We have lots of depth throughout. It’s real
ly good for a guy like (800-meter runner) Ryan Flaherty, who
might pot have the times to get to the national meet, but he fin
ishes top five this weekend, he’s in there.”
Turn to Men's, page 8
Danielle Hickey Emerald
Samie Parker will face his WSU adversaries this weekend in Stanford.
Oregon sends a talented group of athletes to
the regional meet to make attempts at nationals
Women’s track and field
Jesse Thomas
Sports Reporter
It’s come to that time of year when the best of the best get to
gether.
Nearly four months to the day since the outdoor track and
field season started, the competitors have been whittled down
to the elite.
But unlike other years, athletes have to prove their
abilities once more before taking the big step to the
NCAA Championships.
In the first ever NCAA West Regional Championships this
weekend, the Oregon women’s team is sending 21 individuals
and a 4x400-meter relay to do battle in Stanford.
The idea for the new system came from the U.S. Track
Coaches Association in hopes the meet would lower the stress
es of earning national marks early in the season.
Athletes who place in the top five of their event for each of
the four regions are automatically qualified for nationals. An
additional six to eight athletes per event nationally will be in
vited based on season performance.
Of the near two dozen athletes for Oregon, six are ranked
top-10 in the region, and two stand atop the nation.
Oregon’s pole vault squad leads the way, sending five athletes
to the competition at Cobb Track and Angell Field. Senior
Becky Holliday earned her first Pacific-10 Conference crown
two weeks ago and is the nation’s top-ranked pole vaulter with a
personal best of 14 feet, 6 inches.
Senior All-American Niki McEwen ranks fourth nationally at
14-1 1/4. Her runner-up finish at Pac-lOs tied her best finish
ever at the meet despite clearing 13-3 1/2.
On the runway, the sophomore All-American javelin duo of
Turn to Women's, page 8
Adam Amato Emerald
Brandon Holliday will use a fall at Rac-10s and recent off-track troubles to motivate him this weekend at regionals.
NO HOLLIDAY
Hurdler Brandon Holliday has
faced a landslide of adversity
this month, but now he’s
focused on the regional meet
Men’s track and field
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
At his final practice before hitching a
plane ride to California for the NCAA
West Regionals, Oregon hurdler Bran
don Holliday stoically went through his
warmups Wednesday at Hayward Field.
Sprinters Samie Parker and Jason
Willis horsed around nearby, chasing
each other around the track. A group of
women’s pole vaulters ran by Holliday,
nearly clipping him.
But in that moment, an Apache heli
copter could’ve fallen from the sky and
crashed into the Hayward grandstand.
A gang of killer raccoons could’ve ran
onto the track and ripped the rest of the
Oregon athletes to shreds.
Holliday, it seemed, would’ve
stretched and jogged through the
whole thing.
This week has been all about focus
for Holliday, an athlete whose entire ex
istence is defined by focusing on the
next obstacle on the track.
But recendy, Holliday has been facing
obstacles off the track. On May 11, one
week before the Pacific-10 Conference
Championship meet, Holliday was in
volved in an incident at Taylor’s Bar and
Grille that is still under investigation by
the Athletic Department and police. Ac
cording to a police report, Holliday was
punched by football free safety Keith
Lewis after a brief verbal altercation.
Holliday still hesitates to talk about
it. But undoubtedly, the incident played
some part in his Pac-10 performance a
week later. Holliday fell over a hurdle
and didn’t make it out of the prelimi
nary round in the 400-meter hurdles.
That, after Holliday won the Pac-10
crown in the event in 2002.
“A lot of stuff happened before that
meet, and during the race I was trying to
not press so much, just to get through the
round,” Holliday said. “I just lost focus for
a second and hit a hurdle.”
Focus. He lost it for a second two
weeks ago, and today he’ll try to get it
back. He’s ranked seventh in the West
Region heading into today’s meet. He
runs the prelims at 7:45 tonight and the
finals Saturday evening at 4:35. The
West Regionals are being held at Stan
ford’s Cobb Track and Angell Field.
Fellow Oregon hurdler Terry Ellis
thinks Holliday’s fall at Pac-lOs could
have had more to do with the track it
self than Holliday’s mental state. He
said the USG track, which hosted Pae
10s, has a different setup from most.
“The curves are shorter, and the
straightaways are longer,” Ellis said. “In
relation to our track, Stanford’s track,
anybody else’s track, USG has that
shorter curve. So the turn is sharper,
and that’s where he fell.”
If you’ve got a hearing aid, you turn
it up to hear Holliday. He’s no chest
thumper. But this month’s adversity is
n’t the first he’s faced in his career. Not
that everything’s been bar fights and
police reports.
Two years ago, Holliday made the
Pac-lOs but didn’t make Oregon’s list
of participants. Through an odd con
ference rule, only a certain amount
Turn to Holliday, page 9