April 23 2006 - Nobody who was at the Oregon Invite this weekend will pretend it was ideal conditions for great performances. Runners were met all day by a fierce wind on the back stretch while jumpers and throwers had to adjust all day to the endless gale. It's a good thing that nothing can hold down the energy at historic Hayward Field, especially with the help of the 6000 fans in attendance. With this energy, many athletes, including numerous XO athletes, came away from the Oregon Invite with PR's and new team records.

Tyler May led Team XO with his win in the decathlon which was held the two days prior to the high performance section of the meet. In a tightly contested competition, May broke away from the field after the 400 meters which he won in almost two seconds clocking a 48.70 never to look back.

Team XO owned the jumps on Saturday: Leonidas Watson, claimed a double victory in the long (25-6.75, w. 3.4) and triple jumps (50-3.25, w. 2.2) while Simi Adeagbo landed a personal record under any conditions (44-9.75, w. 4.9) in the women’s triple jump to take the victory. Colin McArthur placed 2nd in the long jump (23-11.5, w. 1.8) behind Watson. Niki McEwen tied for the win with another ex-Duck, Becky Holliday at 14-1.25 while high jumpers Kyley Johnson and Jason Boness notched 2nd and 3rd place finishes. Also on the infield, Cari Soong held onto 2nd place on a day when the ball and chain wasn’t soaring quite as far as usual – only 206 feet today.

Representing XO in the sprints once again was Phil Alexander who took 2nd place in the 200 (21.22, w. 2.7) and 4th in the 400 (48.81). Dylan Mason took over a minute off his personal record (30:48.36) in a stacked 10,000 meter field at Friday night’s distance carnival.

XO, as well as countless other athletes, look forward to the Western Oregon Twilight next Friday and the Oregon Twilight in two weeks at Hayward Field.

Kevin Ullman
800m specialist
XO PR Writer