Nothing like the smell of Quack in the morning:
- We're halfway through NCAA track and field championships, and at the end of day 2, the Oregon men are in the lead, with a total of twenty points (leading by 6), while the Oregon women are tied for 4th, with 8 points (trailing by 5 points).
- The Oregon men's scores are entirely attributed to Galen Rupp and Ashton Eaton, who won the 10,000m and decathlon, respectively. Rupp's win was especially impressive as he was facing a "team" of Shawn Forrest of Arkansas and Sam Chelanga of Liberty, but blew them away in the final 800m, which was clocked at two minutes flat. Eaton was dominant as always, winning his second title in a row, and he also PR'd the event.
- However, as Ken Goe reports (and his piece is excellent), not everything went as planned for the Duck men. Matthew Centrowitz, inexplicably dropped out of contention in the final 150 meteres of the 1,500m race, which he was expected to win. Centrowitz came in last in his qualifying lead. Oregon came into the meet as 10-point favotites to win the championship, and now that has disappeared.
- We're in for a close finish, and it should be quite exciting. To watch live, visit the official NCAA site.
- In recruiting news, DuckTerritory has been all over the NIKE camp which is being held at Oregon this weekend. There is a three part series covering all of the prep athletes that will be attending. Make sure to check out parts 1, 2, and 3. While I don't get worked up about most commits, anytime you can get a kid to visit or participate, that shows serious interest. Also, if you like the pipe dream recruits, here's a video of Trovon Reed, the number 2 WR in the country, who is interested in Oregon.
- Lastly, Matt Hinton (Doc Saturday) takes a premature look at Cal. He predicts an 8-10 win season, but I think this quote sums up his (any my feelings): "The answer is that Best, like Reggie Bush, is not that kind of carry-the-load kind of back. The big difference between the kind of fringe top-25 team the Bears were last year and the fringe top-10 team they're widely expected to be this year could be mainly in how much hay they can make on the three-fourths of plays when Best isn't getting the ball." This is why I can't get on board California Golden Bears as a serious threat to USC at this point.
There seems to be a bit more to discuss out there than usual, so if something's on your mind, comment away! GO DUCKS!