Dodson makes long trip worth it.

Byline: Shawn Miller The Register-Guard

TRACK AND FIELD

Jeremy Dodson said he had a sluggish start, but he won by nearly four-tenths of a second in the Young Men's (high school juniors and seniors) 100-meter dash Saturday, qualifying him for today's Race of Champions at the 29th annual Track City International Classic at Hayward Field.

Dodson, who recently graduated from high school in Denver, finished with a wind-aided time of 10.64 seconds, 39-hundredths of a second ahead of second-place Gabriel Aguilar. Dodson's younger brother Quinton placed third with a time of 11.08.

It was the first and likely the last time that the brothers will compete against each other.

Quinton Dodson, a high school junior-to-be, recently moved up in class, while Jeremy Dodson is currently deciding which university to run for next year.

He said after this weekend that the University of Oregon is now in the picture.

`It's normal to me,' Quinton Dodson said of watching his brother win. `It's actually encouraging trying to keep up with him - knowing that somebody I know like my brother is ahead of me pushes me harder.'

The Dodson brothers will join forces in the 4x100-meter relay, while Jeremy Dodson plans to run the 200 and 400 as well. All of those event finals are today.

Travel has already taken its toll on the Dodsons, who drove into Eugene on Thursday night from Denver with teammates from the Datac Track Club.

`My start was a little horrible,' Jeremy Dodson said. `I'm a little sore from yesterday, so I kind of stumbled out a little. The long travel up here from Colorado was kind of hard.

`Basically, you try to stretch out and keep your body loose.'

Quinton Dodson is trying to overcome a hip injury and noted that the long travel was difficult to deal with.

`Sitting in that van for 20-some-odd hours puts some stress on that hip,' he said.

Jeremy Dodson won the 100 two years ago at this meet, but finished fourth in the Race of Champions.

`I lost to some little kid,' Dodson said. `I want to try to get that Champions.'

The first-place finisher of each 100 division earns a spot to compete in the Race of Champions, which figures the winner's time into a formula to calculate a staggered start.

The Sub-Bantam (the youngest division) winner often runs approximately 80 meters while the Young Men's top finisher runs the full 100 meters, setting up what is designed to be a photo finish, meet director Ken Farrier said.

`It always kind of strikes me as the little brother who did something he wasn't supposed to do and the big brother is chasing him down,' Farrier said.

On the Young Women's side, Shaleisha Mitchell won the 100 with a wind-aided time of 12.21.

Mitchell pulled away in the final 30 meters from a close battle between herself, Andra Harris and Nina De Hass.

Harris finished second at 12.60, followed by De Hass with a time of 12.71.

Mitchell is scheduled to compete in the 200 and the 4x400-meter relay with her teammates from Antelope Valley Track Club of Palmdale, Calif.

Four athletes with area ties won their events Saturday, led by Emerald Valley Track Club's Javan Gray, who won the Youth Boys shot put (41 feet, 4 1/2 inches) and javelin (148-8).

Danny Bellissimo, Gray's Emerald Valley teammate, won the Youth Boys 800 in 2:19.71; Josh Frasier of Prefontaine Track Club in Coos Bay won the Young Men's 3,000 in 9:21.37; and A.J. O'Connell of Track City Track Club won the Young Men's high jump at 6-8 1/4 .