Men's Recap: Oregon Revives Mid-Season Team-Focused Track Format, Pulls Enough Out Of Distance And Throws To Hold Off Texas A&M

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Kim Spir photos

RESULTS/VIDEOS | INTERVIEWS

Oregon coach Jerry Schumacher and Texas A&M coach Pat Henry are among a growing number of high-profile college track and field coaches coming to the realization that something has to change to keep the sport thriving and relevant in a chancing NCAA sports landscape. 

Conversations between the two helped create the Oregon Team Invitational, a meet held Friday and Hayward Field that was part experiment but didn't stray too far from traditional. 

In order to remain within the NCAA rules, the meet was officially not scored. Oregon employed what it called "fan scoring" for the sake of engaging fans in-stadium and on the Big Ten broadcast. 

With five teams in the men's meet and two entries per team across 11 events, all 10 places scored: 10 points for first, nine for second, and so on. 

For the sake of saving it for posterity, the unofficial scoring tally was: Oregon 137.5, Texas A&M 129, Oklahoma State 101.5, Kansas State 97.5, Wichita State 96.5.

Although unofficial, the score was actually the thing that made the meet interesting on a weekend big meets across the country where athletes were chasing qualifying times and marks for NCAA preliminary consideration. 

And that storyline was part of Saturday's meet at Hayward Field, too. 

Oklahoma State distance runners Fouad Messaoudi and Ryan Schoppe ran away from everyone in the men's 5,000 meters for a 1-2 finish. But they also ran fast. Messaoudi ran 13:28.17 and Schoppe 13:28.88 -- times that will secure them top-48 positions ahead of the West preliminary meet. 

Schumacher's initial reaction was positive.

"Loved it," he said. "There's always things you are going to want to improve upon, after getting a chance to sit back and reflect and talk to other coaches, but in our first go and bringing a team meet back to Eugene and college track, it was a lot of fun. The athletes had a great time, I think the coaches had a good time with it, there were a lot of good performances collegiately. I think it was a big success."

Oregon throwers Kobe Lawrence and Aidan Elbettar played a big role in the outcome. Lawrence won the shot put with 19.28m (63-3.25) and Elbettar was sixth. In the discus, Elbettar won it with 57.81m (189-8) and Lawrence was second with 55.35 (181-7). 

Texas A&M pole vaulter Aleksandr Solovev, who won the open pole vault on Friday, was pressed into duty in the shot put and discus. He was 10th in both events but scraped out a point in both. 

Henry, in his 51st year of coaching, has long believed college track should be presented in a team format. 

"Track has got to change," he said. "And if you don't see that, you're blind right now. If we don't go to teams, and qualify for the national championships as teams, and spend all year long as a team, and go to scored events, then our sport's in big trouble. It's in trouble right now."

Mason Mangum and Khybah Dawson gave the Aggies a 1-2 finish in the men's long jump. Mangum won it with 7.72m (25-4).

Ja'Qualon Scott ran an NCAA#3 time of 13.30 to win the men's 110-meter hurdles. 

The Aggies' Hossam Hatib won the 400 in 46.71 and teammate Cutler Zamzow was second in 47.14. Ernest Campbell gave Texas A&M another win in the 100 meters, where he ran 10.57. 

Matthew Erickson and Koitatoi Kidali finished 1-2 in the men's 800 meters. Erickson, the NCAA Indoor champion, ran 1:47.59 and Kidali ran 1:48.14.

Asked how he and Schumacher had strategized the race, Erickson said his coach told him to solely concentrate on winning and not worry about the time. 

Texas A&M's Luca Santorum ran down Oregon's Rheinhardt Harrison in the final 40 meters to steal the 1,500 meters in a personal best time of 3:38.91. Harrison ran 3:39.07 

Oregon's Shaun Miller Jr won the high jump with a clearance at 2.11m (6-11).