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Helpful hurdlers
A competitive yet playful spirit with one another defines Oregon's hurdlers
By Alex Tam
Sports Reporter
Four women with one goal in
mind: To be the best.
They compete with — and against
— each other. It's not mean-spirited
by any means, but the competition is
enough to want to be the best.
"I definitely want my teammates
to do well,” junior hurdler Kayla
Mellott said. "I know what their
goals are and I always want them to
be achieving them. I know they want
the same for me, but you always
want to do really well for yourself.
It's friendly competition."
"You want to beat people
and you want to beat your
teammates. But it's just
all in fun — to get better
as a group and bring
each other up to the
same level."
C’Rel McAllister
Oregon hurdler
The 21-year-old Mellott is one of
four Oregon 400-meter hurdlers slat
ed to compete at the 18th annual
Women's Pacific-10 Conference Track
and Field Championships in Tucson,
Ariz., beginning today.
Two other hurdlers, seniors C'Rel
McAllister and Abby Andrus, are the
elders of the unit. Both are 23 and
share the same passion to outdo
their opponents and teammates as
their final season on the Oregon
track team winds down.
"You want to beat people and you
want to beat your teammates," McAl
lister said. "But it's just all in fun — to
get better as a group and bring each
other up to the same level."
ihe final member of the group is the
youngest and receives the most grief be
cause she's a freshman. Amanda San
tana, 18, is referred to as the "baby of
the bunch," according to McAllister.
"You have to hold her hand and be
there for her," McAllister said. "She's
just so naive."
During one practice, the group re
calls Santana not even knowing the
number of hurdles within her own
event — the 400 hurdles.
"You kind of need to know that
when you do it," McAllister said.
"But on the track, she's all business,
she works hard and she's got a great
work ethic."
However, that need to support one
another represents a strong emphasis
on the team this season. Each of the
four athletes is fairly new to the 400
event. As a result, there is no clear
leader among the hurdlers.
And that is not a problem.
"1 actually don't think there's a
leader, Mellott said. There s not re
ally someone that has been doing it
for a really long time, so I think we all
just help each other out. *
Mellott, a Bellingham, Wash, native,
did not seriously start running the hur
dles until her senior year in high
school. 1 ler first experience with the
event was not a positive one during her
years in middle school. She competed
in the shortened 80-meter hurdle race
and came out of it dejected.
"I bit it," Mellott said. "I fell so hard
on the track and scratched myself up
and didn't finish the race. I swore I'd
never hurdle again."
But her track coach, Mark Kerr of
Sehome High School, encouraged
her to try again and Mellott has never
looked back. She claimed a league ti
tle in the 300 hurdles her senior year
and was one of the top sprinters in
Washington. At the Oregon Twilight
two weeks ago, Mellott earned a per
sonal best of 1 minute, .08 seconds
in the 400 hurdles.
Being one of the more experienced
hurdlers, Mellott is looked upon to
teach and advise the other hurdlers.
Because McAllister started running
the hurdles last season, she and Mel
lott have developed a close relation
ship as training partners.
"1 had no clue last year what was
going on," McAllister said. "Now I'm
a little more confident, but still, I ask
Kayla a lot of questions and she's
more like the person who guides me
through races. She's probably the per
son 1 look to the most for track-wise."
McAllister showed her own leader
ship skills when she had served as a
guide for Andrus on her recruiting
trip. An odd impression was left as the
soft-spoken Andrus barely said a word
on the entire visit to Eugene. The two
finally became close around one year
ago at the Pac-10 Championships.
"C'rel is pretty loud. She
talks a lot and she has a
comment for anything.
She was a good little host.
When you go on
recruiting trips, you're
kind of nervous, but she
was really nice."
Abby Andrus
Oregon hurdler
"Just looking at her, you think she's a
really quiet, really reserved person but
she's not," McAllister said. "Abby's got
a great personality. She loves to laugh,
she loves to make people laugh."
Andrus admits she is shy. She re
members her trip to Oregon and the
initial encounter with her future
teammate that had an impact on her
decision to be a Duck.
"C'Rel is pretty loud," Andrus
Erik R. Bishoff Photographer
Freshman Amanda Santana is the Oregon track and field team’s "baby of the bunch."
Oregon’s hurdlers are heading to the Pacific-10 Championships this weekend, and achieve
success as a team by being supportive of each other while still being competitive.
said. "She talks a lot and she has a
comment for anything. She was a
good little host. When you go on re
cruiting trips, you're kind of nerv
ous, but she was really nice."
Andrus now ranks among the top
women athletes in Oregon history.
She owns the fifth-best heptathlon
score at 5,325 points, achieved last
Saturday at the Pac-10 Champi
onships. She will also compete in the
400 hurdles this weekend.
Even though there is no defined no
leader, the younger Ducks look up to
Andrus as a model for what it takes to
be successful at the collegiate level.
"Abby's just an amazing athlete,"
Santana said. "She's very modest and
she is so amazingly strong and just
able to fight through anything. She's
very good and 1 idol that big time."
Ibis quartet is a close-knit group
with a mix of youth and experience.
Santana, a Eugene native, added that it
is a joy to be able to practice with her
fellow hurdlers everyday.
"It's awesome because we all are
wanting the same goals and have the
same mindset," Santana said. "It's
nice to all help each out with our
weaknesses and strengths. Because
we're all about the same, we all feed
off each other."
Contact the sports reporter
at alextam@dailyemeraid.com.
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