New Pac 10 Champs!

[vaultguru6]

The Pacific-10 Conference announced Thursday that the University of Oregon men`s track and field team was named the 2003 conference team champion after the former champion, USC, had to forfeit points due to an ineligible scorer in the Pacific-10 Championships.

The Trojans initially won the conference finale on their home track on May 17-18 with a score of 139 points, ahead of Stanford (second, 128), Oregon (third, 127) and UCLA (fourth, 127) in the tightest 1-4 finish since 1969.

However, the conference announced Thursday that the recalculated score without the disqualified USC student-athlete made Oregon the new team champion based on the revised scores and placings (10-1st, 8-2nd, 6-3rd, 5-4th, 4-5th, 3-6th, 2-7th, 1-8th).

The conference did not disclose the name of the offending student-athlete or the revised team scores, but did state that the eligibility mistake came from a failure by the institution`s registrar`s office to communicate the student-athlete`s ineligibility to the athlete, coaching staff or athletic department staff. The violation was self-reported by the institution.

The victory marked Oregon`s first since 1991 when the Ducks claimed the title after Washington State was forced to forfeit its win, while the Ducks won the title outright the previous season in 1990. The ‘Men of Oregon` also won Pac-10 titles in 1979 and 1986, and Pac-8 titles in 1965, 1967 and 1978 (with the latter another year when USC forfeited a would-be title).

The revised finish continued the steady progress for the Ducks at the conference level who finished sixth in head coach Martin Smith`s first year at the helm in 1999, seventh in 2000, fifth in 2001, and second in 2002.

Looking ahead to the 2003-04 season, the entire Duck track and field program will come under Smith`s auspices as director of men`s and women`s track and field for the first time after the retirement of former women`s head coach Tom Heinonen.

www.goducks.com


And..........Go Ducks

[rainbowgirl28]

Sooo you guys are really good at winning when another team forfeits

Congrats on the title

[PVJunkie]

OUCH

No really they won all along.............whats that old saying......cheaters never win and winners never cheat. Ok even I had a little chuckle at that one.

[vaultguru6]

Yea from what i hear there's not a whole lot of celebrating going on in Eugene. I don't think we'll even get rings. Coach Martin Smith said something along the lines of "Thats unfortunate for USC" and nothing about "good for us." We just now have lots of pressure to prove ourselves this next year.