Beavers Travel To Eugene For Oregon Invitational
When Oregon State makes the trip to Hayward Field for this weekend’s Oregon Invitational women’s track and field meet, at least one Beaver will be getting a glimpse of her future. The Eugene track will be the site of the NCAA West Regionals in just over a month, and OSU’s Lauren Denfeld has already qualified for that meet in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
The Oregon Invitational, which will be held Friday and Saturday, is one of the high-caliber meets in which the Beavers will be competing this season. Against some top-level competition, OSU would love to see more of its squad make a run at getting into the NCAA West Regionals, which will be held May 25-26.
"It’s like the meet at Stanford," OSU head coach Kelly Sullivan said, referring to the Stanford Invitational. "It has the same quality of runners with a lot of different sections. There are going to be a lot of talented runners and teams coming to the meet. We are looking forward to it."
The Beavers took last weekend off from competition after running at the Willamette Invitational on April 6-7.
"The women are excited," Sullivan said. "Especially since we took a weekend off, this got them a little more anxious about racing again."
It was at the Stanford Invitational that Denfeld qualified for the NCAA regionals, and she’ll have an opportunity to practice running on the same track where that meet will be held.
"The main thing is that Regionals are going to be held at Oregon," Sullivan said. "Lauren has only raced once in the steeplechase at Oregon, and that was last spring so it’s a great opportunity for her to run the steeplechase where she is going to run it for Regionals."
Denfeld is among the Pac-10 leaders in the 3,000 steeplechase, with her season-best time of 10 minutes, 46.54 seconds ranking sixth in the conference. Jean-Marie Peterson ranks 11th in the conference in the event at 11:06.99, and she’ll also run the 3,000 steeplechase at the Oregon meet.
Also competing for the Beavers are Noelle Harer, Julie Garcia, and Katelyn Van Brunt in the 800 meters; Sylvia Veal, Holli Dieu, Holly Thomson, and Elise Aschwanden in the 1,500 meters; Neoma Palmer, Krista Stangel, Hayley Oveson, and Ashley Francis in the 5,000 meters; Rebecca Mishler, Lorene Young, Samantha Godfrey, and Jenny O’Connor in the 10,000 meters.
The Beavers continue to run well against some of the top runners in the nation. Sullivan sees the Oregon Invitational as a meet that can help the Beavers in preparation for the Pacific-10 meet.
"We need to continue with what we have done to this point," Sullivan said. "It’s more of seeing them compete, and getting them ready for the Pacific-10, than it is about times."
Teams who will be participating this weekend include Air Force, Albertson, British Columbia, Cal State-Fullerton, Central Michigan, Central Washington, Charlotte, Chico State, Colorado, Colorado State, Concordia (Ore.), Eastern Michigan, Eastern Washington, Gonzaga, Humboldt State, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Marquette, Minnesota, Montana, Montana State, Nevada, North Dakota State, Notre Dame, Oregon, Portland, Portland State, Sacramento State, Seattle Pacific, Seattle, Simon Fraser, Southern Oregon, California-Santa Barbara, Utah State, Warner Pacific, Washington, Weber State, Western Oregon, Western Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
The Beavers will begin running Friday at 5:20 p.m. in the 5,000 meters, followed at 7:27 p.m. by the 3,000-meter steeplechase and ending with the 10,000 meters at 9 p.m. Events involving OSU continue Saturday at 10:40 a.m. with the 800 meters and wrap up at 11:02 a.m. with the 1,500 meters.
For this week's complete OSU women's track and field release, view the PDF file accompanying this page.
