It was a pretty great weekend for the Ducks. Pac-10 championships, series wins, we have it all. Also, there was some Pac-12 news I found interesting, so make sure to check that out after the jump:
- Oregon's track and field dominance in the Pac-10 continued over the weekend, as the men won their 5th straight conference title, and the women won their 3rd straight. For the men, Mike Berry stole the show when we set the school record in the 400m with a time of 44.91. Outside of him, as we hoped, the Ducks used their depth to get the win. They scored points in many different events, and got first place finished from Centrowitz and steeplechaser Steve Finley to get to 129 points.
- The Oregon women were favored to win, but it ended up being much closer than anyone thought. A botched handoff in the 4x100 put the pressure on the Ducks. But the Ducks didn't make any other major mistakes, and English Gardner wowed the crowd when she set a school record in the 100m (11.03). That, and a number of other great performances helped the Ducks overcome the Arizona Wildcats in the final few events, and the Ducks won 154.5 to 150.
- Oregon baseball won a series this weekend against Stanford, winning the last game of the series yesterday in the late innings by a score of 6-5. It was a close affair the whole game, and an RBI in the 7th gave the Ducks the lead for good. Kris will have more on the series later today.
- Oregon softball's great season was rewarded with the 13th overall seed in the NCAA tournament which starts next weekend. Unfortunately, the Ducks will not get to host the tournament. Intead, they'll have to travel to Happy Valley, Pa. where they will be the top seed in a regional that includes Albany, Penn State, and Fordham. Despite being essentially a road, the Ducks have a great chance to advance. If they can channel this disappointment into focus and hard work, they should be in great shape.
- Duck fans worrying about the offensive line got a nice surprise over the weekend. After a couple years of hearing nothing, it came out over the weekend that heralded center Hamani Stevens would be returning to Oregon after a two year LDS mission. He'll come back to Eugene in June for summer school and workouts with the football team. It sounds like he did his best to stay in playing shape, and if so, he would have a chance to make an impact quickly, as center remains one of Oregon's biggest question marks going into 2010.
- Ted Miller had a number of polls going last week, and has the results compiled into one large post. Oregon plays a prominent role in a number of the polls, and is picked as the Pac-12 favorite by 54% of Ted's readers. Cliff Harris was picked as the defensive player of the year, and Darron Thomas narrowly fell to Andrew Luck as the "impact" player. While the results of the polls are interesting, Ted has a lot of good commentary to supplement each result.
- In Cal news, Jeff Tedford has picked Zach Maynard as the Bears' starting QB. I have to say, this is pretty shocking to me. Maynard, a transfer from Buffalo, always seemed like a throw-in with the Keenan Allen signing. A big reason that Allen went to Cal was because they were one of the few big schools to offer Maynard. Well, he's now going to be the starter for Cal. This really will be a test of Tedford's ability to coach QB's this season. Can he pull a Chip Kelly and turn a 2-star transfer into a star. I'm not betting on it.
- One advantage Tedford will have, no more Ludwig on staff. Cal Golden Blogs takes a look at the Cal coaching changes over the offseason.
- Bruins Nation takes a look at UCLA's uniforms, and after comparing them to Oregon, find them a bit lacking. While schools like ASU and WSU have rolled out new uniforms this offseason, I don't know how much of a difference these changes will make. Yeah, it's nice to have updated uniforms, but Oregon has set the trend. It's not just about keeping up with the latest trends, it's about innovating and creating the new trends. Oregon has moved up in the college football world because of their innovation, and their future success will depend on it.
Hopefully that fulfilled your quack need. But make to leave anything else in the comments. GO DUCKS!