Macdonald kicking into higher gear.

Byline: BOB RODMAN The Register-Guard

There is no secret to Eri Macdonald's success. She can run fast, especially when it counts.

"I finish quick," said the Oregon junior from Honolulu who ranks seventh on the all-time UO women's track and field 800-meter list with the 2:06.37 time she recorded earlier this season.

The kick, however, did not come from her father, Duncan Macdonald, a former Stanford track star and 1976 Olympian in the 5,000.

"He coached me a lot," Eri Macdonald said. "He's probably why I got into this. But he never had a kick, which is why I've focused a lot on speed work," she said.

"I think she can go a lot faster than 2:06," said Tom Heinonen, in his 26th season as the Oregon women's coach. "She's got a fierce finish, but Eri has got to stay close enough to believe she can win."

And she has. In the Ducks' dual-meet victory over Washington on April 13, Macdonald paired a 65-second first lap with a 61-second final 400 meters to conquer Washington's Courtney Inman with that personal-record 2:06.37.

"Those splits are unheard of," Heinonen said. "While we have a lot of athletes on this year's team who have improved and are getting better, Eri is the best runner we've got.

"She is dealing better with the hard part of the race. If she thinks she can win, she can do almost anything."

The latest challenge for Macdonald is the Pac-10 Conference meet, which begins its two-day run Saturday in Pullman, Wash.

A year ago, the 5-foot-6 Macdonald attempted to compete in the league meet's 800 with what had been diagnosed as a lower leg stress fracture.

"She was cleared to run by everyone, the doctors, trainers, coaches, parents and herself," Heinonen said. "It worked out badly. She couldn't finish the race."

The bloodline with her father, who still ranks fourth on the all-time Stanford mile list after running 3:59.6 in 1970, was of little help to the 21-year-old when she attempted to race on one leg.

"I should have known when I was warming up that it wasn't going to work out," she said, "but I just hoped I would get in the race and the race would make it work."

It didn't. Her running career stalled for several months, capped by redshirting last fall's cross country season.

"Eri had to come from far back," Heinonen said. "But to her credit, she is stronger than ever now. She's learning more about the competitive 800s, and she is hanging in there better in the middle of a race when, in the past, there was a tendency for her to float too far back.

"Eri has helped our team be a lot better by being better herself," he said, "not only in her prime event but in her secondary events, too - the 400 and the 1,500. Macdonald's PR in the 400 is 56.74, just off the 55.44 Pac-10 qualifying time, and 4:35.79 in the 1,500, well under the 4:40.14 conference qualifying time. The feast and famine days are not gone, however.

In the Ducks' win over the Huskies, Macdonald showed the brilliance, strength and speed that she possesses. A week later, at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., however, she finished last in an 800.

"That was bad," she said, "really bad. But Tom has been preparing me well this season and I'm training better and feeling more confident."

Macdonald's 2:06.37, not far from the 2:05.00 NCAA automatic qualifying time but well inside the provisional qualifying time of 2:07.50, ranks her sixth among the conference's 800 runners - a group led by UCLA's Tiffany Burgess at 2:03.73.

"My goal (in the Pac-10 meet) is make it to the finals," said Macdonald, who also is qualified for the conference championships in the 1,500 and is scheduled to run a leg on Oregon's 4x400 relay.

"It will be a challenge to make it to the final," she said.

Macdonald prefers to limit her talking.

"It's not the pressure or anything," she said, "I just never have that much to say. I'm generally quiet."

And generally better.

"Eri has improved every year," said Heinonen, aware that Macdonald has progressed steadily from her 2:20.77 state high school championship time as a senior at Punahou High in 1999. She ran 2:08.62 as a freshman and followed that with her sophomore season's PR of 2:07.08 before ending up on the injured list.

"Eri is quiet, and sometimes it's hard to get an answer out of her," Heinonen said. "She gets really nervous before big races, and yet those races are the places to get the marks. You can't beat the competition unless you face it."

Macdonald admitted to the value of the so-called "big" races, like those in conference and national meets.

"I know that but I get a lot more nervous," she said. "It's good, but I don't always enjoy it."

Translation: She has a kick but seldom gets a kick out of it.

CAPTION(S):

Eri Macdonald ranks seventh all-time at Oregon in the 800 meters.