Current, ex-Ducks highlight Twilight.

Byline: Curtis Anderson The Register-Guard

The maturation of Matt Scherer took another step forward Saturday.

The former Duck all-American, who moved up to the 800 meters this season, shaved another second off his PR with a winning time of 1 minute, 47.89 seconds before a crowd of 5,398 at the Oregon Twilight Meet at Hayward Field.

In only the fifth 800-meter race of his career, Scherer, who now competes for Oregon Track Club Elite, came within 39-hundredths of a second of meeting the `A' standard (1:47.50) for the 2007 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships this June.

`I was really happy with my time,' said Scherer, last year's Pac-10 champion in the 400, who sat behind pace-setter Marc Sylvester before taking the lead with 300 meters to go. `It felt great to be out front, that's where I like to be; I don't like to be around all those elbows.'

Despite a stiff wind on the backstretch, Scherer held off late charges from teammate Elliott Blount and Will Fitts, who finished second and third, respectively, at 1:48.76 and 1:49.09. Oregon's Andrew Wheating placed fourth with a two-second PR and regional qualifying mark of 1:50.17.

`My workouts have been going great, so I felt ready to make the drop (in time),' Scherer said. `It was windy out there. That was tough to have to go through that twice.'

It was Wheating's first outdoor 800 of the season.

The 6-foot-5 freshman, who is only in his second season of track, got off to a sluggish start. He and fellow UO freshman A.J. Acosta trailed the entire field for the first quarter-mile, but Wheating came on strong over the last 200 meters.

`That was not the plan at all,' Wheating said. `We were supposed to be at the front ready to go, but I'm not very good at getting into the race at the start. I'm always about catching up at the end. I think it's just part of the learning curve.'

UO director of track and field Vin Lananna would second that sentiment.

The Duck men, who were doing their best to get ready for next week's Pac-10 championships at Stanford, finished with mixed results.

`I think we still have a little work to do this week,' Lananna said. `The reality was, we were doing everything we could to put everybody in events to make final decisions for Pac-10s and regionals. That was the whole purpose of the meet, and while a lot of questions were answered, we created some new ones for our staff. We'll see how it plays out.'

There was no shortage of UO victories on the track. Junior Phil Alexander won the 100 (10.50), junior Marcus Dillon took first in the 200 (21.23), freshman Chad Barlow finished on top in the 400 (47.69) and sophomore Jared Huske captured the 110 hurdles (14.19).

In the field events, with four-time NCAA champion Tommy Skipper still recovering from injury, senior David Moore won the pole vault (16-6 3/4 ). Sophomore Mark Lewis won the shot put (53-6 1/2 ).

Freshman Kenny Klotz, who ran his first outdoor race as a Duck, provided some stressful moments for Lananna before putting on a late burst to hit the regional qualifying mark in the 5,000. Geoff Kerr won the race in 13:57.03, and Klotz took fourth in 14:07.78, safely under the standard of 14:12.00.

Two of the men's throwing events provided some of the best competition of the night.

In the javelin, Barry Krammes, a high school history teacher and track coach from Pennsylvania, grabbed the lead in the second round with a 238-0 effort, and that mark was never threatened. Although he was hoping for more in his first appearance at Hayward Field, Krammes was content with the early-season victory.

`I think I can throw a lot farther,' said Krammes, who set his PR of 241-11 last season. `It was my second-best mark ever, so it was good to get back to where I was last year. I usually do well in bigger meets, and it was cool to come out here.'

Eric Brown, the NCAA runner-up from Arkansas last season, finished second at 231-11 - a mark that came on his first throw - and Mike Hazle, ranked third in the U.S. last season, placed third at 231-6. UO senior Ryan Brandel settled for fourth at 228-11.

Although none of the men's hammer throwers reached the Olympic Trials `A' standard of 236-3, Travis Nutter survived a three-way battle with James Parker and Mattias Jons with a first-place effort of 234-8.

Parker took second at 233-6 and Jons was third at 232-4.

In the traditional Twilight Mile, Canada's Ryan McKenzie made a valiant attempt to get under 4 minutes, but just missed with a winning time of 4:01.00, followed by Adam Goucher (4:02.45), Jason Woolhouse (4:02.62) and Lane Community College's Jordan McNamara (4:03.36).