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Lead Stories: Monday, December 1, 2008

TFS News Briefs: 4/02/08

Posted April 2nd, 2008 at 2:30 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Track & Field, Olympics

Team USA Secret Weapons Revealed
Cooling vests used by Deena Kastor and Meb Keflezighi at the 2004 Olympics gave them the edge in the heat of the Athens marathons. What are USOC’s scientists doing now to prepare US athletes for Beijing? This Washington Post article reveals a Manhattan Project-like effort.
Read more at: [Washington Post]

Transitional Year For Oregon Track Team
An article in Eugene’s Register Guard provides a good overview of the current states of the University of Oregon’s track team Ducks’ coach Vin Lananna said, “we’re looking at this year as a very interesting gap. We have a spectacularly young team, and how we do depends on their learning curve … but honestly, we need to be focusing our attention on 2010 when the NCAAs are here [in Eugene, OR]. That’s when we need to be firing on all cylinders, and we’ve got two years to get it right.”
Read more at: [The Register-Guard]

Warehouse No. 812 May Spawn Olympians
An article in Northern California’s Modesto Bee profiles Tri-Valley Athletics who train in Warehouse No. 812 located in an old Navy warehouse at the Port of Stockton. Athletes include two-time Olympian Suzy Powell, pole vaulter Tye Harvey and his wife Three-time Olympian Amy Acuff.
Read more at: [Modesto Bee]
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Rupp Hopes Wanamaker Mile Will Help Him Get to Beijing, Faster

Posted January 29th, 2008 at 5:00 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, College

When he steps on the track Friday night for the Wanamaker Mile at the 101st Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden, Galen Rupp will be looking well past the finish line, all the way to Eugene, Ore. It will be there in six months time that the 21 year-old NCAA 10,000m record holder will be trying to make his first Olympic team, and he wants to be ready if his 10,000m qualifying race comes down to a kick.

“Obviously, the 10-K is my best event and that’s what I’ll be running this summer and at the Trials,” Rupp said at today’s New York Track Writers’ luncheon as he sat next to his coach, Alberto Salazar. “The goal this winter is to drop down in distance.”

Rupp, who is on a leave of absence from the University of Oregon, has yet to break four minutes for the mile. He has terrific endurance, evidenced by his 27:33.48 10,000m personal best. But improving his raw speed, Salazar said, will give him another tool to win longer races, even if it means losing in the short term.

“I’m going to take my licks,” said Rupp boyishly.
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Eugene set to host 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials and ‘09, ‘11 Championships

Posted December 13th, 2007 at 7:40 AM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

USA Track & Field and the U.S. Olympic Committee on Wednesday announced their intent to host the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field in Eugene, Oregon, USATF CEO Craig Masback announced Wednesday. The announcement was made at an afternoon press conference on the University of Oregon campus.

Eugene, which next year will host the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field, also will host the 2009 and 2011 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, Masback announced.

Site of the 1972, ‘76, ‘80 and 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field and the 1999 and 2001 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field will be the site of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, where the roster for Team USA will be selected for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. In 2009, Team USA will select its roster for the 2009 IAAF World Outdoor Championships in Berlin, Germany, and 2011 will see the selection of the American squad for the 2011 IAAF World Outdoor Championships in Daegu, South Korea.
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McDougal Prevails Over Rupp at NCAA D-I Cross Country Championships

Posted November 19th, 2007 at 7:30 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Cross Country, College

The coaches’ pre-meet rankings held up as the top-ranked Oregon men and Stanford women won the team titles at today’s NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships at Terre Haute’s Laverne Gibson Championships Cross Country Course.

Liberty’s Josh McDougal took an exciting men’s race over a dry course with temperatures in the upper 50s.

Despite the near perfect racing conditions, the men’s race sent out slowly with nearly everyone still in contention through 3 km in 8:57, and the halfway point in 15:09.

“I wasn’t surprised that the race went out so slow,” said McDougal after the race. “Two years under nearly identical conditions, the race went out slow.”
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NCAA West Regional Cross Country Preview

Posted November 8th, 2007 at 5:21 PM by Martin Kennedy

Section: News & Results, Cross Country, College

The University of Oregon proudly welcomes one of the top cross country meets on U.S. soil to Track Town, USA as the NCAA West Regional Championships make their first trip to the Springfield Country Club, Saturday, November 10.

On that day, Eugene-Springfield is one of nine host sites across the nation that automatically advance the top two team finishers and top four individuals from non-qualifying teams to the NCAA Championships, scheduled for Monday, November 19 at Indiana State University’s LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute, Ind.

Another 13 at-large teams and two at-large individuals will be added from across the nation to the 31-team, 255-runner M&W NCAA fields on the evening of Sun., Nov. 11. At-large team selection criteria is based on teams’ head-to-head records against other actual and potential NCAA qualifiers.

MEN’S RACE PREVIEW

In 2006, the Oregon men scored their first regional men’s team championship since 1989 thanks to five top-20 finishers – four of which return in ’07.
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TFS News Briefs: 11/08/07

Posted November 8th, 2007 at 2:23 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Cross Country, Track & Field, Olympics, TFS News Briefs

Craig Masback on Ryan Shay: What More Can We Do?
In a USA Today article Christine Brennan asks USATF CEO Craig Masback the question: What responsibilities, if any, do sports governing bodies have in preventing tragedies such as this? And now that this has happened, a death in the Olympic marathon trials, should anything change?
Masback answers: “We’re really looking to the medical community to answer that question. If there’s something we can do that would reliably stop something like this from happening, we would absolutely do it. Read more at: [USA Today]

Oregon X-C Coach Lananna on NCAA West Regionals: Top Two For Both Men and Women
University of Oregon Cross-Country coach Vin Lananna has an ambitious goal for his Ducks this coming Saturday: “We’ll run what we have to run in order to be in the top two for both the men and women.” A top-2 finish would guarantee both the men’s a women’s team a slot in the upcoming NCAA Cross-Country Championships. Read more at: [The Register-Guard, OR]

Honor System for 2,300 NYC Marathoners
A timing glitch caused by 3 minutes of frequency interference affected 2,300 participants (some 5.8% of the total runners) in last Sunday’s New York City Marathon. Organizers are now relying on the honor system to get the affected runners to tell them how long it took them to cross the starting line. Read more at: [Bloomberg.com]
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Oregon Ducks Add Chapters to Pac-10 Cross Country History

Posted October 29th, 2007 at 10:17 AM by Andrew Goodman

Section: News & Results, Cross Country

The top-two nationally ranked Duck cross country teams savored some of their best showings ever Saturday in the Pacific-10 Conference Championships, hosted by Oregon State University at at Trysting Tree Golf Course.

Under sunny, 62-degree nearly cloudless skies, the No. 1 Duck men won their 15th league title and were led by juniors Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott and Galen Rupp who nearly finished together and went 1-2 overall.

The No. 2 Oregon women claimed second place - their highest finish since 1997 - and were led by freshman Alexandra Kosinski and sophomore Nicole Blood who placed third and fourth overall.

Complete results are available in the link to the right, a photo gallery is available by clicking here.
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Lagat completes first half of double title defense

Posted June 23rd, 2007 at 12:11 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

After finishing second in the first heat of the 1500m preliminaries tonight, a reporter asked Bernard Lagat where he would be at 8:35 p.m. when the 5000m final would begin. Smiling mischievously, the 32 year-old from Tucson, Ariz. said simply, “We will see.”

A little more than two hours later, with the daylight in this Midwest city just beginning to fade, Lagat was standing on the 5000m starting line, and he was indeed ready to race.

“Every time I go on to the track I want to win,” he said later.

And win he did, using the kind of leg speed that only a two-time Olympic medalist can summon so late in the race. Running a distant second to Matt Tegenkamp at the bell, Lagat blasted down the backstraight after Adam Goucher launched a long kick 300m from home and tried to pass him. Lagat not only beat back Goucher’s challenge, but as he pulled away rounding turn three, he could see the gap to Tegenkamp was closing. Coming out of turn four, Lagat got past the tall redhead, and kept his speed to the line, breaking the tape in 13:30.73. Despite starting his kick fairly late, he still recorded a swift 56.1 second final lap.
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