Cross country champions lead Hall brigade.

Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

The first University of Oregon women's team to win an NCAA championship will be inducted into the school's sports hall of fame in November.

The 1983 cross country team, led by all-Americans Kathy Hayes, Lisa Martin and Kim Roth and coached by Tom Heinonen, finished three points ahead of Stanford that year, and Heinonen was named NCAA cross country coach of the year.

The team is part of the 15th class that will be enshrined in the UO's Athletics Hall of Fame and honored during festivities Nov. 3 and Nov. 4, when the Ducks host Washington in football. Tickets for the Nov. 3 induction banquet, to be held at the Casanova Center, are $50 and available by calling the Duck Athletic Fund office at 346-5433.

In addition to the championship cross country team, the Hall of Fame class will include former men's gymnastics coach Bill Ballester, softball star Julie Cavanaugh, multi-talented baseball player Terry Maddox and football player Anthony Newman.

The Ducks will also formally induct track and field stars Lisa Martin and George Rasmussen, named to the hall of fame last year but unable to attend the banquet then.

A closer look at the 2006 hall of fame class:

1983 women's cross country. Oregon had dominated Stanford in winning the Region VIII meet that year, but the NCAA meet was very close, with the Oregon victory ultimately resting on the Ducks' fifth-place finisher, sophomore Gretchen Nelson, who placed 52nd.

Hayes, then a junior, finished third overall to lead the Ducks, Martin, a senior, was 17th and sophomore Roth was 27th. The other Oregon scorer was freshman Kim Ryan, 41st. Also on the championship team were junior Claudette Groenendaal, who would win a pair of NCAA track titles during her Oregon career and who finished 63rd, and Birgit Petersen, who finished 72nd.

Bill Ballester. The Oregon men's gymnastics coach from 1971-81, Ballester guided the Ducks to five NCAA top-five finishes between 1977-81 and four times was named Pac-8 or Pac-10 coach of the year as the Ducks won four consecutive league titles.

With a record of 132-18, Ballester coached 19 NCAA all-Americans and three Olympians. He was twice named the NCAA Western Region coach of the year, and he coached U.S. teams in international competition that included a victory over Japan, then the world champions.

Julie Cavanaugh. Initially a catcher, then a first baseman, Cavanaugh led the Ducks to their first NCAA Women's College World Series appearance in 1989, and to an NCAA Regional berth in 1990. As a senior in 1991, she was a first-team all-American at first base, when she led the Pac-10 in batting, hits, runs and stolen bases.

A graduate of Sprague High School, Cavanaugh hit .339 for her career and set single-season records in runs scored (44), stolen bases (24), and tied the record for hits (74). Her career mark of 234 hits remains the Oregon record.

Terry Maddox. The Medford native played baseball for the Ducks in the mid-1950s, starring as both a pitcher and outfielder, and is one of the school's five all-Americans in the sport. As a sophomore in 1955, Maddox led the Northern Division with a record of 7-1, establishing a single-season school record for wins and winning percentage while leading the team with an earned run average of 2.80

Offensively, Maddox had his best season in 1956, hitting .330 and driving in 28 runs. He had a career batting average of .321 while scoring 57 runs and driving in 50 to lead the Ducks to Northern Division titles in 1955 and '57.

Anthony Newman. A three-year starter and 1987 honorable mention all-America, Newman was one of the first high-profile in-state recruits to choose Oregon during an era in which the program was struggling, and help turn it upward. As a senior in 1987, he had a tremendous game in Oregon's season-opening upset of Colorado in what became a turning-point season for Oregon football, a year in which the Ducks defeated Southern California and Washington in the same season for the first time in 16 years.

Newman went on to play 12 years in the National Football League, and serves as the analyst on Oregon Sports Network telecasts of Oregon football.

The 2005 selections who will be inducted belatedly were both Duck track and field stars.

Martin is recognized as the first UO female athlete to win a track and field medal at the Olympics with her second place in the marathon at the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea. She participated in two other Olympics for her native Australia after concluding her running career at Oregon, where she was a three-time all-American in track and field and cross country.

Rasmussen shared the NCAA title in the pole vault in 1947 and '48, and was ranked third in the country in 1949 when he was accorded his third all-America honor after recording his personal best of 14 feet, 4 inches. He also finished second twice in the USA national championships as a post-collegian.

The UO athletics hall of fame has previously inducted 142 individuals and 15 teams.

The Register-Guard