FOR IMMEDIATE USE
January 13, 2010
NCAA Track & Field Championship Tickets to go on Sale Jan. 22
Historic Hayward Field will host the NCAA meet for the 10th time.
EUGENE, Ore. -- All-session tickets for the 2010 NCAA Track & Field Championships will go on sale to the public on Friday, Jan. 22.
The University of Oregon is hosting the NCAA Championships at Historic Hayward Field June 9-12. Tickets will be available on line at www.goducks.com, via phone (1-800-932-3668/541-346-4461) or in person at the Athletic Ticket Office in the Len Casanova Center.
The four-day, all-session ticket prices are $80 for reserved seating, $60 for adult general admission and $40 for youth and senior general admission and U of O students.
“The excitement for the return of the NCAA Championships to Hayward Field has been building for months,” said Oregon Associate Athletic Director Vin Lananna. “Our ticket office has been fielding many calls from people anxiously awaiting the opportunity to buy NCAA tickets.
“If you are planning to buy tickets for the NCAAs, we strongly encourage you to do so on January 22,” said Lananna.
For the first time in its history, the NCAA Championships will feature a streamlined competition schedule with each of the four days featuring only semifinals or finals.
The 2010 Championships should also be among the most compelling in recent history with the reigning champion Texas A&M men’s and women’s teams defending their titles against the host school, Oregon, which finished as the runner-up in both races a season ago in Fayetteville, Ark.
The Ducks feature three defending NCAA Champions on their current roster, including senior Ashton Eaton in the men’s decathlon, senior Andrew Wheating in the men’s 800 meters and junior Brianne Theisen in the women’s heptathlon. In addition, the Duck teams boast a combined 23 All-Americans, 12 men and 11 women.
The talent traveling from around the nation to Track Town, USA, will be impressive.
The men alone figure to have 14 of the 19 individual event champions back to defend their crowns in 2010, including every running event between 100 and 1,500 meters.
In addition to Eaton (decathlon) and Wheating (800 meters), the list of returning NCAA men’s champions includes Trindon Holliday of Louisiana State (100 meters), Charles Clark of Florida State (200 meters), Jonathan Borlee of Florida State (400 meters), German Fernandez of Oklahoma State (1,500 meters), Ronnie Ash of Bethune-Cookman (110 meter hurdles), Jeshua Anderson of Washington State (400 meter hurdles), Jason Colwick of Rice (pole vault), Ngonidzashe Makusha of Florida State (long jump), Will Claye of Oklahoma (triple jump), Ryan Whiting of Arizona State (shot put), Marcel Lomnicky of Virginia Tech (hammer) and Chris Hill of Georgia (javelin).
Conversely, the women’s competition looks to have Bowerman Award finalist Porscha Lucas of Texas A&M back to defend her title in the 200 meters, in addition to Kimberly Williams of Florida State, who is the defending NCAA champ in both the long jump and the triple jump. Other women looking to defend include Joanna Atkins of Auburn (400 meters), Angela Bizzarri of Illinois (5,000 meters), Kylie Hutson of Indiana State (pole vault), Mariam Kevkhishvili of Florida (shot put) and Theisen in the heptathlon.
If the 2009 Championships are any indication, the 2010 team races could come down to the final event. The women’s competition was decided in the final 20 minutes of the meet, while the men’s came down to the last event, the 4x400 meter relay, with four different teams — Oregon, Florida, Florida State and Texas A&M — vying for the title before the Aggies eked out a two-point victory.
This will be the Championships’ first appearance in Eugene since 2001, and will be the 10th time overall that Hayward Field has hosted the NCAA meet. Chicago (13) and Eugene will be the only cities to have hosted at least 10 NCAA Track & Field Championships.
For additional information on the NCAA Championships, visit www.NCAA.com.
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