On Friday the men’s and women’s Duck track teams started off with a strong showing at the Rod McCravy Memorial Track Meet in Louisville, KY. The meet features five of the top ten men’s collegiate teams in the nation and seven of the top ten women’s teams.
On the women’s side, Jenna Prandini took second in the women’s long jump and Jasmine Todd nabbed fourth. This year, Prandini is the Duck representative on the Bowerman Award watchlist. This award goes to the best men and women amateur track athletes in the nation and last year, Oregon 800 meter specialist, Laura Roesler won the women’s award.
The Oregon men swept the top three places in the 5000 meters. Senior Erik Jensen won the race, out-distancing the field in 13:31.76, third all-time for Oregon at that distance. Ducks’ Parker Stinson and Will Geoghegan took second and third, respectively. In the field events, Greg Skipper placed fourth in the men’s weight throw with a toss of 67-1.50.
The men wrapped up their first day of competition with a victory in the distance medley relay (DMR). The team won in a time of 9:32.61, paced by Edward “The King” Cheserek. The Oregon women took fourth in their DMR.
Action continues Saturday with a bevy of Ducks competing. Cheserek will try to double up in the men’s 3000 meter run while Sam Prakel,Daniel Winn, Blake Haney, Matt Jablonski and Jeramy Elkaim will take aim at another sweep in the Bill Lee Mile run. For the women, Annie LeBlanc will compete in the 800 meters and Prandini anchors the women in the 1600-meter relay.
Top Photo by Gary Breedlove
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Raised in the Central Oregon mill town of Prineville beneath deep blue skies and rim rock, I attended the University of Oregon and during my collegiate summers, I worked in a lumber mill and also fought range fires on the Oregon High Desert for the Bureau of Land Management. After graduating from college at the University of Oregon, I swung from being budding hippy to cop work. I’m still wondering about how that came about. I was a police officer with the Port of Portland and after leaving police work, I obtained an MFA degree in Creative Writing from Vermont College. I live in Portland, Oregon with my wife, my daughter and a spunky bichon frise named Pumpkin. I’ve had short stories publishing in two Main Street Press anthologies. Harkness is my first novel.
