Oregon's English Gardner hands off the baton to Lauryn Newson in the Women 400 meter relay. The Oregon Women's team finished first with a time of 43.72. (Tess Freeman/Oregon Daily Emerald)
After pulling off a rousing sweep at the Pac-12 Championships in early May, Oregon track and field will travel to Austin, Texas for the NCAA West Preliminary rounds.
The Ducks will send 31 entries on the women’s side, while the men will send 26 athletes. The top dozen finishers in each event will earn a berth to the NCAA Championships, taking place June 6-9 in Des Moines, Iowa. Two Ducks have already earned a trip to the Midwest: heptathlete Brianne Theisen and decathlete Dakotah Keys, who secured spots after winning their respective events at the Pac-12 meet.@@http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2012/05/brianne_theisen_and_dakotah_ke.html@@
Competition in Austin will be steep, as the NCAA West Preliminary is chock-full of contenders from the USTFCCCA top 25. On the women’s side, 16 ranked squads will be present, while the men’s competition will feature 15 top-25 teams.
The women’s teams include No. 2 Kansas, No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Oregon, No. 6 Texas A&M, No. 8 Arizona, No. 10 Stanford, No. 11 Texas Tech, No. 12 Arizona State, No. 13 Arkansas, No. 16 Oklahoma, No. 17 Illinois State, No. 18 Southern Illinois, No. 19 Illinois, No. 21 Baylor, No. 23 USC and No. 25 Iowa State.
No. 1 Texas A&M leads the men’s teams, followed by No. 5 Texas, No. 6 Arizona, No. 8 Arkansas, No. 9 Texas Tech, No. 10 Nebraska, No. 13 USC, No. 14 Arizona State, No. 15 Wisconsin, No. 18 Stanford, No. 20 Kansas, No. 21 Oregon, No. 22 Oklahoma, No. 23 Iowa and No. 24 Baylor.
Of the 26 Oregon men slated to compete, 15 will be making their first postseason appearance. Six Duck men will enter the meet as a top-12 seeds (and favorites to advance): Mike Berry (No. 7, 400 meters), Johnathan Cabral (No. 5, 110-meter hurdles), Arthur Delaney (No. 11, 100-meter dash), Elijah Greer (No. 6, 800 meters), Luke Puskedra (No. 4, 10,000 meters) and Parker Stinson (No. 10, 10,000).
For the women, Oregon boasts the top seed in the 100 meters (English Gardner) and has a total of 15 top-12 seeds. Ducks looking to advance to Des Moines include Bronwyn Crossman (No. 11, 10,000), Claudia Francis (No. 6, 800), Phyllis Francis (No. 5, 400), Jordan Hasay (No. 3, 1,500), Anne Kesselring (No. 10, 800), Alex Kosinski (No. 4, 5,000), Kimber Mattox (No. 7, steeplechase), Lauryn Newson (No. 9, 100; No. 7, 200; No. 3, triple jump), Laura Roesler (No. 7, 800), Chancey Summers (No. 7, high jump), Lanie Thompson (No. 11, steeplechase), 4×100 Relay (No. 4) and 4×400 Relay (No. 9).@@all checked@@
Competition will take place Thursday through Saturday at Mike A. Myers Stadium on the University of Texas campus. Field events start at 9 a.m. each day. On Thursday, running events begin at 2:30 p.m., Friday’s races start at 3 p.m. and Saturday’s running events get underway at 4 p.m. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205430038@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=243&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205427297@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=243&SPSID=4364@@
A free, live webcast of the NCAA West meet will be available at www.texassports.com. Oregon’s results can be followed live via Twitter (@OregonTF).