Ducks' goals simple: aim for the stars.

Byline: Curtis Anderson The Register-Guard

There is no confusion over the ultimate destination of the Oregon men's and women's track and field programs.

By the spring of 2010, when Hayward Field will be the site of the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships for the 10th time, the Ducks plan to be title contenders, and along the way, their grand strategy calls for winning national crowns in cross country, both men and women.

That's the big picture.

UO director of track and field Vin Lananna cautions that it will take some time to bring everything into focus, but with the coaching staff in place, high-level recruits on their way, and several Oregon athletes getting their first taste of the NCAA meet in Sacramento this past week, the course has been plotted.

`There is no fast fix,' Lananna said. `If you're trying to build a culture it takes a long time, and it takes a solid foundation. That's what we're doing, and we are right in the midst of that process.'

It's difficult to doubt Lananna's ability to achieve those goals.

In previous coaching stints at Dartmouth and Stanford, he built teams that contended for conference and national titles on a regular basis.

When he arrived at Oregon in the summer of 2005, he had five NCAA championships to his credit, and after two years with the Ducks, he has added two league titles for a total of 31.

The question on most people's minds is what will the future Oregon teams look like?

Will the Ducks continue to be a balanced program with a liberal dose of top-end throwers, sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers augmenting a solid base of middle distance and distance runners, or will they shift all of their resources into becoming a dominant middle distance and distance program?

`It's a fair question,' said UO assistant coach Dan Steele, who just completed his fifth season overseeing the men's sprints and hurdles.

`One of Vin's strong points is that he can look at a situation and see where it's going to be successful. At Stanford and Dartmouth, they had a dominant distance corps, and that was the only way for them to be successful at the national level.

`Oregon is a different program. We need a national presence in the distances, but we're also unique enough that we can have a balanced program. One of the things Vin and I talked about when he first got here was his vision for the program, and he was very serious about maintaining a balanced program. Vin loves the sprints and hurdles and what we've been able to do.'

Make no mistake about it.

The Ducks absolutely are committed to the development of a viable middle distance and distance crew.

Besides triggering the eligibility of several redshirts next year, the UO men's team will add two of the nation's top prep runners in Foot Locker national champion Chad Hall, of Big Bear Lake, Calif., and Matt Centrowitz Jr., son of the former UO great, who set a Maryland state record in the 1,600 meters at 4 minutes, 4.09 seconds.

Two other newcomers are Lane Community College transfer Jordan McNamara, who ran 3:41.13 at Hayward Field Saturday night to qualify for the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, and Stanford graduate Joaquim Chapa, the son of former UO distance standout Rudy Chapa, who will have one season of eligibility.

However, they're also bringing in the nation's third-ranked prep hammer thrower in Jordan Stray of Centralia, Wash., and Wyoming hurdler Justin Cross, who won three individual events in leading his Powell High School team to the state title.

`Justin was recruited as much on gut instinct as his performance on the track,' Steele said. `He comes from a place with terrible weather conditions and very sup-par training. I just love the way he competes.'

On the women's side, the biggest addition might come from Jamesha Youngblood, of Hercules High School in Hercules, Calif., who won state titles in the long jump and 300 hurdles, and placed second in the triple jump.

Other key acquisitions include distance runners Alex Kosinski, of El Dorado Hills, Calif., the national prep record-holder in the 1,600; Betsy Bies, a two-time national Foot Locker finalist and 3,200 state champion from Yankton, S.D., and Claire Michel of Clackamas High School, who won the state cross country title as a junior.

The Ducks will add Chicago pole vaulter Melissa Gergel, the 2006 Junior Olympic champion with a PR of 13-2 1/4 .

`I think you see where our commitment is,' Lananna said. `We're going to have a strong middle distance and distance program.

"We'll have a really well-balanced women's team, and on the men's side, we'll have to pick our spots and see what else we can do at the NCAA level.'

Oregon hopes to raise its national visibility with a few of its best athletes, both past and present, being able to make their presence felt at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, June 27-July 6, at Hayward Field.

Those candidates include five Northwest athletes - Tommy Skipper in the pole vault, Galen Rupp in the distances, Rebekah Noble in the middle distances, Rachel Yurkovich in the javelin and Britney Henry in the hammer throw.

They were all among the more prominent UO athletes who competed in Sacramento last week.

The buzz they created by being at the NCAAs will be passed on to other Duck athletes, who will be in position to qualify for next year's national championships at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

`They will set the bar by letting everybody know how great it was to get to the NCAAs,' Lananna said. `You want everybody to mature fast, but they don't always mature at the time you want them to.'

Although the Ducks will continue to cast a wide net in the recruiting process, one of Lananna's strategies is to make the University of Oregon the destination of choice for the elite in-state athletes in each event.

`We want the very best kids in the state,' he said. `When we have a viable program that contends every year for the Pac-10 and NCAA titles, why would they go anywhere else? For every Oregon kid, we want to be at the top of their list.'