Whyte T&F Center To Receive Generous Gift Of Equipment
May 31, 2013
CORVALLIS, Ore. - The completion of Phase II of the Whyte Track and Field Center will take a huge step forward next Saturday with the delivery of an entire facility's worth of vital equipment.
UCS, the official supplier of the NCAA and four Olympic Games, will unload its trucks in Corvallis with much of the infrastructure being used at the NCAA Championships in Eugene from June 5-8. The equipment, which includes pole vault and high jump landing areas, hurdles, starting blocks and steeplechase barriers, is a gift from the Whyte family, the lead benefactors in the complex's construction.
"I cannot even begin to describe how significant this is," Oregon State head coach Kelly Sullivan said of the donation. "It's like wishing for one thing and receiving something I never could have dreamt of in return. This equipment is important for the program, our alumni base and our current student-athletes and provides a huge boost to the completion of Phase II. It serves as another milestone which shows that Oregon State, along with the Whyte family, is significantly invested in seeing this project to completion."
The IAAF-certified equipment, which retails for well over six figures, will give Oregon State the opportunity to run every single event when hosting a meet. This past season, the Beavers welcomed track and field competitors to Corvallis for the first time since 1988, but were unable to hold some events, like the hurdles, due to lack of equipment.
UCS, which produces top-level equipment for the NCAA Division I, II and III National Championships, both indoor and outdoor, and also provided that used at the Summer Olympics in 1984, 1988, 1992 and 2000, often tries to identify local buyers after the completion of the championships. However, doing it all in one shot, for one university, is quite rare.
"The entire project has been on our radar for four or five years now," Mike Chappell of UCS said. "We've been paying close attention to what's going on at OSU. We did a little bit of equipment during the installation phase of the track itself and have stayed in touch with Kelly [Sullivan] about the program's equipment needs."
Delivery trucks will roll up Highway 99 and arrive at Oregon State around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 8, which coincides with a celebration in memory of the late, great Berny Wagner at the Whyte Track and Field Center beginning at 6 p.m. Wagner coached track and field and cross country at OSU from 1965-75 and was a driving force in the reinstatement of the program and the construction of the Beavers' new facility.
The majority of the equipment will have been used at the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field a few days prior and will undergo some minor branding modifications. The hurdles, for example, will have their boards replaced with Oregon State's logo and color scheme. The pole vault and high jump landing areas, however, will be brand new because of the custom orange and black color configuration. Those used in Eugene will be blue, the color of the NCAA.
The recently completed first phase of Oregon State's construction project was officially unveiled at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in September and features an IAAF-certified Olympic-caliber surface, FieldTurf infield, nine-lane track, high jump aprons, long jump and triple jump runways, pole vault and javelin runways, shot put area throw sectors and dual discus rings. Phase II, for which fundraising it still ongoing, consists of a larger portion of the infrastructure needed to host a meet - grandstands and hammer facility and equipment like hurdles, a pole vault pit and timing system.
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