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For a team without a home track, the Pilot men and women nailed solid performances at an unseasonably warm and sunny Oregon Preview last Saturday, March 20, at Historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. This was UP's first meet of the outdoor season.
Pilot strength in recent years has been in its squad of distance runners, but UP showed up at Hayward Field with 4x400 teams for men (3:29.90 for third place) and women (4:05.89 for fifth place), hurdlers Kiyah Williams (14.71w - 100h/64.24 400h), Anastasia Borok (17.37 - 100h) Jon Squires (16.84 - 110hh) and Pono Hanson (58.42 - 400h), sprinters Arturo Bimrose (11.59) and Brian Walker (11.79), and long jumper/triple jumper Carolyn Borsch. The Pilot sprint group trains either upstairs in the Chiles Center, or at Jefferson or Roosevelt High Schools.
UP middle and distance runners were also numerous at the Oregon Preview.
Marit Tegelaar, a sophomore from the Netherlands, ran a personal-best 9:49.64 in the women's 3,000 behind Oregon's Lauren Zaludek (9:37.71) and OTC Elite's Julia Lucas (9:44.45). Women's coach Ian Solof noted via e-mail,
"Marit redshirted last year outdoors, so she is a freshman in terms of eligibility. The 9:49 ... is currently seventh fastest in the NCAA and might be number 1 in the Netherlands. It also puts her no. 8 on our UP all-time outdoor list."
Tommy Betterbed won section 2 of the 1,500 with 3:55.43. Trey Parry was second with 3:55.79 while Cody Wells was fifth with 3:57.15.
Theresa Hailey, running her first steeplechase ever, placed third in the 2000-meter version with 7:31.03 behind Oregon Duck 3k steeple school record holder Claire Michel, who set a meet record to win with 6:44.08.
Meanwhile, cross country season is not over yet for one Pilot, freshman Trevor Dunbar. After running personal bests as a redshirt during the past indoor season (8:04 and 8:01 for 3000 meter), and winning the U.S. Junior Cross Country Championships in Spokane in February, Dunbar left Monday for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships. He competes in the junior 8000 meter event Sunday in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
"He'll do his best," Portland men's coach Rob Conner told Ken Goe of the Oregonian. "We're assuming that will be pretty good."
"Trevor will return from Poland and run a track season focusing on the 1500," e-mailed Conner. "His schedule, depending on fitness and health, will be centered around the two Oregon meets (1500) and the Cardinal Invite (5000)."
Dunbar will redshirt the 2010 outdoor season, as will freshmen Joash Osoro and Lars Erik Malde. Malde set a PR of 14:03.65 in the indoor 5000 meter at the 2010 Husky Classic in February, lowering his time from 14:30, which he ran last summer in Norway.
Another 2010 indoor performance of note that bodes well for the outdoor season came from redshirt junior Cori Moore.
Moore was the only UP athlete to qualify for the 2010 NCAA Division 1 Track and Field Indoor Championships at the Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas earlier this month. She finished the meet with the 10th best overall time in the 800, missing the opportunity to run in the final by just 0.72 seconds.
The Everett, Wash. native broke her previous 800 PR by three seconds at the UW Final Qualifier Indoor with a time of 2:05.41, which was the 14th fastest qualifying time in the nation going into the NCAA Championships.
In qualifying for the NCAA indoor, Moore became just the third UP track and field woman to compete in the NCAA indoor championship meet, joining Julie Elliott (2005, ninth in high jump) and Nicole Karr (1995, third in the 3000 meter)
"Cori ran 2:10 last year while redshirting outdoors, then 2:08 this indoor season, then 2:05 to qualify, then 2:06 at the NCAA meet," Solof said. "I expect her to run a great 1500 this spring, right around 4:20 give or take. I think she is ultimately a 1500 runner more than an 800 runner but we need to continue to build strength. She has increased her endurance by leaps and bounds and she can now do workouts she couldn't have attempted two years ago."
This weekend at the Stanford Invitational the Pilots will run sophomore Alfred Kipchumba, senior Tommy Betterbed and sophomore Matt Frerker in the 5k. All three will be running the 10,000 at Mt. SAC Relays in April, each hoping for an NCAA regional qualifier in that event.
Meanwhile, the Pilots will send four women to Stanford: senior Dana Morgan in the 1500 or 5k, Moore in the 1500 and senior Sifrash Ademe in the 10k. Senior Natalie Hemphill will run either the 1500 or 5k.
Kim Spir works for the
School of Engineering.
She can be contacted at
spir@up.edu
