HAMMER TIME.

Byline: Curtis Anderson The Register-Guard

The Pac-10 conference is always loaded with quality throwers.

But no field event is more stacked than the women's hammer throw this year, with eight athletes ranked among the top 20 collegians heading into this weekend's track and field championships at Stanford University.

Two of those throwers are a cut above the rest. Collegiately, USC sophomore Eva Orban and Oregon senior Britney Henry are both ranked in the top five all-time.

Orban, a native of Hungary, has a personal best of 226 feet, 8 inches. She is the reigning Pac-10 and West Regional champion, and last year's NCAA runner-up.

Henry, who hails from Spokane, and arrived in Eugene after one-year stints at Southeastern Louisiana and LSU, has a PR of 223-8, a mark she set at Stanford two years ago.

They met earlier this spring when Orban edged Henry by a couple of feet at the Pepsi Team Invitational at Hayward Field. It was the fourth straight time Orban won a head-to-head battle with Henry, a string that dates back to last year's Pac-10, West Regional and NCAA meets.

Since the Pepsi meet, however, Henry has come on strong.

The UO record-holder moved ahead of Orban (219-9) on the current NCAA list with a season-best of 221-7 at the Oregon Twilight Meet last Saturday, a performance that earned her Pac-10 athlete of the week honors, and more importantly, defeated a stellar post-collegiate field.

Henry can't wait for the rematch.

`I threw against Eva earlier, and she got me by a little bit,' Henry said. `I think it will be another good competition. I expect it to go back and forth just like it did in Eugene. I love to compete and I love good competition, so I'm excited to go to Stanford and see all those girls again.'

The women's hammer throw is set for 10:10 a.m. Sunday.

Henry and Orban, third and fourth, respectively, on the NCAA performance list this season, will be challenged by ASU sophomore Sarah Stevens (214-7), California senior Carrie Johnson (211-4), ASU junior Jessica Pressley (204-5) and USC senior Julia Rozenfeld (201-8).

`It's a tough conference,' UO throws coach Lance Deal said. `But as I look at the list, Britney Henry is right up there on top, and I think she has prepared herself to go in and do what she needs to do to stay up there.

`Britney has worked really hard this year on all aspects of her throwing. She's much more solid, technically, mentally and emotionally, than she has ever been, bordering on rock-like. I think she has put herself in a great position.'

Speed is what sets Henry apart from most other hammer throwers.

She was a sprinter and hurdler at Lewis & Clark High School, and when she eventually found herself in the hammer ring - setting a Washington state record that was broken this year - she knew the ability to spin fast was her chief asset.

`You can't learn speed,' Henry said. `You're born with it and I've got the genes of being a speed person ... there were lots of other things I had to work on and fix, but speed is what gets me to throw the hammer far.'

Deal has never coached a quicker female in the hammer ring.

`Britney is definitely the fastest,' he said. `She's got the neuro-muscular gifts to move really fast ... that set the stage, and fortunately for all of us, she fell in love with the hammer.'

Henry comes into the Pac-10 meet in peak condition.

The same couldn't be said last season after she suffered an ankle sprain just days before the conference meet.

Henry went on to place fourth at Pac-10s, fourth at regionals, sixth at NCAAs, seventh at the U.S. championships and fourth at the Road to Eugene '08 meet at Hayward Field.

`It's not that I wasn't throwing well,' she said. `I just wasn't 100 percent.'

The fun-loving Henry, who Deal said is one of the most motivated athletes he has ever coached, is also more relaxed this season.

She has developed a series of mental strategies to deal with stress through weekly phone conversations with a sports psychologist.

`We laid out a foundation of what I need to think about during competition, and how I approach these big meets without freaking out,' Henry said. `If I get stressed, I know what to do ... I'm a lot more mature this year and I think I'm able to control situations a lot better this year.'

Henry, who is on schedule to graduate this spring with a major in sociology and a minor in business, plans to stay in Eugene and continue training with Deal to prepare for the 2008 Olympic Trials.

Even though she's coming to the end of her collegiate career, Henry, 22, understands that it's really just the beginning.

`The NCAAs and Pac-10s are awesome,' she said. `But when I look at the big picture, they're not nearly as exciting as the Olympics or World Championships.

`I'm a pretty young thrower, and I have a lot more training to do, and more strength I can add to my body. I'm not going into (the Pac-10 meet) saying I don't want to win, but I'm not expecting anything, I know I have to earn it, and I know it will be a fight, and it will be pretty cool if I do win anything like that.'