UO Athletes
“I triple-dog dare you!” From that point on, University of Oregon basketball point guard Casey Benson didn’t have much choice. His 8 year-old partner, Finley, had challenged Benson to write his name backward. When Benson hesitated, Finley jumped on him with one of the ultimate playground taunts, the sinister “triple-dog dare.” But unlike the famous scene from the classic film, “A Christmas Story,” this didn’t take place around a frozen flagpole at Warren G. Harding Elementary. Rather Benson and Finley were part of a unique collaboration between the academic and athletic sides of the University, and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Benson and 15 student-athletes representing a half dozen UO teams welcomed Finley and 20 or so at-risk/special needs kids to the Museum, where they spent part of Saturday afternoon in Eugene creating art, and more importantly learning from each other in a room where the words on the wall read “Discover Art. Discover People.”
USATF Saturday
Oregon athletes continued their success at the third day of the USA Track and Field Championships in Eugene at Historic Hayward Field, Saturday, adding seven more representatives at either the IAAF World Championships or the Junior Pan-American Games later this summer. UO grad Matthew Centrowitz powered his way to a win in the men’s 1,500, a race that was filled with Ducks. Jasmine Todd qualified to the IAAF World Championships in her second event, Saturday, finishing fourth in the long jump after taking third in the 100 on Friday. Todd now joins Galen Rupp as the only two Oregon athletes to ever qualify for the World Championships in two individual events. Rupp qualified in both the 5,000 and 10,000 in 2007 and 2013 and has a chance to add his third double in tomorrow morning’s 5,000. Oregon added two more U.S. Champions in Raevyn Rogers in the junior women’s 800 and Blake Haney in the junior men’s 1,500.
USATF Sunday
Two weeks after leading the Oregon women’s track and field team to its first championship in 30 years, Jenna Prandini brought the Hayward Field crowd of 10,746 to its feet again as she became only the second collegian to win a U.S. women’s 200-meter title, Sunday. After a strong start, Prandini rounded the Bowerman Curve and showed her amazing top-end speed down the home stretch before raising both arms in joy as she crossed the finish line in 22.20, breaking her own school record. The performance added to an already remarkable year for the redshirt junior who won an NCAA Championship in the long jump indoors, the 100 outdoors and will now represent her country on the world stage for the first time. Galen Rupp, already a 2015 U.S. Champion in the 10,000, qualified for his second event with a third-place finish in the men’s 5,000. A school record eight Oregon athletes will go to Beijing as members of the U.S. Team, Aug. 22-30, three of whom are current Ducks (Jasmine Todd, Prandini and Marcus Chambers).