Oregon Preview

Sort of responsive. Doesn’t look finalized

goducks.com/documents/2024/2/23/Oregon_Preview_Tentative_Schedule.pdf

I don’t think I wasn’t to touch your second question. I think it’s asking too much to have your athletes compete at home when you have an entire second meet where none of your athletes will be resting for big run for the championship in the conference meet the following week.

This Preview meet will be showing quite a few more "developmental" athletes than the past few years. This meet will also give us a first look at a few of the younger Duck athletes. For example, we will get to watch Caleb Hagan in both the 100 and 200; Fuad Omer will be in the 400 meter race; Ella Thorset is entered in the 1500 meter race; Sam McDonnell is entered in both the 800 on Saturday and the Steeple on Friday.

The most entertaining events should be the Steeple on Friday night with three women and four men entered for Oregon. I expect these races will give us a good feel as to how competitive Oregon is going to be in this event for the next couple years. Defending Pac 12 Hammer champion, Shelby Moran, who already threw 210' this season, will be throwing on Friday evening. Another Friday event worth watching should be the Javelin, with five women and five men entered for Oregon. Kohana Nakato already has a 158' throw to her credit from last week's OSU meet. Finally, on Friday, we can watch some Oregon High Jumpers with real potential in Cheyla Scott, Jack Normand and Osawese Agbonkonkon competing Outdoors for the Ducks for the first time.

As interesting as Friday might be, the men's 800/1500 races on Saturday have to hold the most interest. If even most of the entries show up, we could see some team fireworks in both these events. Finally, we might actually get the watch the likes of Elliott Cook, James Harding, Tomas Palfrey, Rheinhardt Harrison, Simeon Birnbaum, Ku Stevens, Isaiah Steury and Luke Affolder challenging themselves and each other. IMO, this will be a decent meet, offering first views of many of Oregon's developmental athletes.

A new era?

Here is some perspective

The full interview with Elliott Cook is here:
www.dyestat.com/gprofile.php?mgroup_id=44531&mgroup_event_id=52&year=2024&do=videos&video_id=387525

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4wVptjPktG

Nice Hammer result from Shelby Moran this afternoon (218' 7"), with the #2 distance for Div 1 throwers for this very early on Outdoor season. Tough going for all the athletes today, with the rainy conditions.

Nice 5K team racing tonight from Maddy Elmore, Anika Thompson, and Silan Ayyildiz. The Athletic lists them as #1, #2 and #3 for Division 1 right now. It is appearing that Ayyildiz will be joining Elmore as a workhorse for this team, as the two sophomores are showing excellent range from 800 meters to 5K.


live.athletictiming.net/meets/30671/events/individual/1159398

It was good to see many of the new men distance runners at Hayward with Oregon singlets on yesterday but it was clear the veteran, Elliott Cook, is the one most ready to compete winning both the 1500m and 800m. It was especially nice to see Rheinhardt Harrison looking really sharp in his role as pacemaker for the 1500m and 800m, running 1200m and 600m respectively. I suppose it is a testament to the level of training he has yet to accomplish. I'm looking forward to seeing him in real competition later this season. Likewise, it was clear that Simeon Birnbaum level of fitness is getting close but not quite at the level of Cook yet. We should all be expecting big things from him.

The others, Erickson, Steury, and Affolder, all looked good, and special "kudos" to Ku Stevens, who clearly running a distance he normally will never run in competition, stuck in there and came in under 4 min for a new PB.

A little disappointing that Thomas Palfrey didn't show as he was on the entries list. Connor Burns is rehabbing an achilles problem.

Excited to see where he is at with his fitness when he actually competes next weekend.