Wednesday afternoon, Oregon track and field finally reached the precipice of its season: the 2012 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205437049@@
The Ducks kicked off day one with a few surprising performances as well as a few letdowns. The high point of the day was a rousing, school-record effort from Lanie Thompson in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase. Luke Puskedra also had a great turnout in his final outdoor race as a Duck, finishing fourth in the 10,000 meters in front of 4,052 fans Wednesday at Drake Stadium.
Also advancing for the Oregon women are English Gardner in the 100 meters, Phyllis Francis in the 400, Anne Kesselring and Laura Roesler in the 800, Kimber Mattox in the steeplechase and the 4×100-meter relay team.
On the men’s side, Mike Berry moved on in the 400 meters, while Elijah Greer advanced in the 800.
“It was a good day,” Associate Athletic Director Vin Lananna said to GoDucks.com. “It’s always good not to be surprised on the first day. We still have a long way to go.”
Competition started with the multi-events, meaning redshirt freshman Dakotah Keys would take on the field in the decathlon. Keys opened with a personal-best 11.14 in the 100 meters. He then went 22-2.5/6.77 meters in the long jump before fouling twice in the shot put, finishing with 38-7.75 on his third attempt.
In the high jump, Keys brushed the bar but managed to clear 6-6.25 on his third attempt. He finished his day by running a personal-best 50.15 in the 400 meters. Keys currently sits in 16th after day one of the decathlon with 3,789 points.
In the men’s 4×100, Oregon sent out the same quartet that ran at the NCAA West Preliminaries: Dior Mathis, Arthur Delaney, Joeal Hotchkins and Berry. They finished sixth in their heat in 40.03 and failed to advance.
But the Ducks’ women’s 4×100 squad had better luck. The quartet of Francis, Gardner, Lauryn Newson and Amber Purvis finished second to Texas A&M in 43.32 — the second-fastest time in school history and good enough to automatically qualify for the finals.
In the men’s 400, Berry predictably cruised to victory in 45.05 to automatically advance. In the women’s 400, Phyllis Francis recorded a personal-best 51.2 to advance. Chizoba Okodogbe finished in 53.3 but failed to move on.
Oregon’s middle-distance runners largely impressed on Wednesday. In the men’s 800 meters, Greer advanced after finishing third in his heat in 1:46.22, while Boru Guyota failed to move forward after running in 1:48.01.
In the women’s 800, Kesselring finished second in her heat in 2:02.66 to advance to the final. Also moving on was Roesler, who ran a personal-best of 2:02.09.
The Ducks had three entries in the women’s steeplechase: Mattox, Thompson and Taylor Wallace. Thompson and Wallace, running in the same heat, hung with the lead pack the whole race. Thompson moved into the top five with 250 meters to go before finishing with the best time in Oregon history (9:59.90) to advance. Mattox crossed the line in seventh in 10:08.39 and will also move on to the finals.
The day ended with Puskedra capping his Oregon outdoor career in the 10,000 meters. He broke away with the lead pack midway through the race before moving into second and then taking the lead with five laps to go. However, Puskedra fell off the pace in the final lap, finishing fourth in 28:24.24. Southern Utah’s Cameron Levins finished in 28:07.14 to claim the NCAA title in the 10k.
The meet will resume on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. in the field with the men’s javelin. Track events begin with the men’s 200-meter preliminaries at 5:30. @@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&KEY=&SPID=243&SPSID=4364@@