Pappas gains on American record.

Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

STANFORD, Calif. - They might have been Ducks, they are Ducks, they will be Ducks and they could be Ducks, and they made their marks Sunday as the national track and field championships ended here Sunday.

The highlight was the performance of Tom Pappas, who won the decathlon in the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships for the second straight year and recorded the second-best decathlon ever by an American with a meet-record 8,784 points to trail only American record-holder Dan O'Brien, whose best was 8,891 in 1992.

Pappas, 26, the reigning World Indoor champion who was ranked No. 2 in the world last year by Track & Field News, had personal bests in the long jump and 400 in the two-day event, and matched his PR in the pole vault. In moving up from sixth on the all-time U.S. list, he passed, in ascending order, Bruce Jenner, Steve Fritz, Chris Huffins and Dave Johnson, and he will lead the U.S. contingent in the IAAF World Championships in Paris in August.

"Definitely," Pappas said, when asked if it was meaningful to pass those names. "Probably the biggest one being Bruce Jenner. After the 2000 Olympic Trials (which Pappas won), I remember in the papers he was saying that he was disappointed in how poor the scores were. He was saying that with today's technology and all this, that 20 years later we're not scoring more points than he did.

"I kind of felt that he was basically saying that decathletes in the United States need to step it up, so I was happy to get that out of the way and pass him up."

Pappas, 26, who lives in Knoxville, Tenn., grew up in Oregon in little Azalea, attended Glendale High School, graduated from Lane Community College in 1996 and opted for a full scholarship at Tennessee rather than a partial ride at the University of Oregon - the collegiate choice of his brothers, Sol and Billy.

Another Oregon prep athlete who starred out of state collegiately, Bryan Berryhill, potentially earned a berth in the world championships Sunday.

Berryhill, a five-time state champion at Crater High School in Central Point who went to Colorado State in 1996, finished second in the 1,500 meters in a time of 3 minutes, 44.30 seconds.

To compete in his first world championships, Berryhill must reach the "A" standard of 3:34.90.

Sunday also featured a strong performance by an Oregon prep star who didn't get away.

Mike McGrath, the incoming UO recruit from Lincoln High School in Portland, placed second in the 800 meters in the concurrent USA Junior Championships, for athletes 19 and under, to earn a berth on the U.S. team for the Pan American Junior Championships in Barbados next month.

The Oregon state 4A champion, McGrath clocked his second-fastest 800 ever, 1:49.36, chasing Kent State freshman Michael Inge, who ran 1:47.89.

"It was pretty refreshing to come in here and have a good race," McGrath said. "I would like to have won it, but losing to a guy with that kind of time was not too bad for me."

McGrath will see a familiar face in Barbados. Galen Rupp, the Central Catholic High School junior who won the 3,000 in the state 4A meet, finished second in the 5,000 in a personal best of 14:28.00, trailing Colorado freshman Bill Nelson. Rupp is coached by former Oregon great Alberto Salazar, as is Beaverton High junior Stuart Eagon, who finished fourth in 14:44.91.

Rupp will be heavily recruited, beginning this summer. He said he's already received much mail from Oregon, with Stanford and Michigan among other apparent suitors, and hasn't begun to think that far ahead.

Also in the USA Junior Championships, UO freshman Eric Mitchum finished third in the 110-meter hurdles, one place out of a berth in the Pan Am meet. Mitchum ran 13.81 into a slight headwind and afterward described his mood with one word: "Mad."

"I wanted to win it," he said. "I wanted to be on the Pan Am team. I came up short today."

Another Oregon freshman, Travis Anderson, finished eighth in the 400, clocking 47.48.

In addition to McGrath, three other athletes who have signed letters of intent with Oregon competed Sunday. In the junior nationals, Kyle Alcorn, from Buchanan High School in Clovis, Calif., finished ninth in the steeplechase, clocking 9:38.57 in his debut in the event.

Alcorn, also recruited by Arizona State and Colorado, won the California state title in the 3,200 as a junior and was second this year.

Also in the junior nationals, UO recruit Brandon Tower, the state 4A champion in the shot put, threw 51-11 to finish last among 18 competitors

Finally, in the USA senior championships, JC transfer Leonidas Watson of St. Louis, who will enroll at Oregon in the fall, managed only 49 feet, 11 3/4 inches in the triple jump, finishing 15th.

But Watson, whose PRs are 53-0 in the triple jump and 25-8 1/4 in the long jump, is a diamond in the rough. He competed in track as a prep sophomore and junior as conditioning for basketball, and focused completely on basketball as a senior.

At Florissant Valley Community College, Watson was a guard on the basketball team but wasn't enjoying the experience and switched to track last year. He developed quickly - despite working 20 hours a week at a paint store - and was set to sign with Texas Tech until UO assistant coach Bill Lawson persuaded him to visit Eugene.

"That had me sold," Watson said. "It was beautiful."

CAPTION(S):

Tom Pappas (left), who recorded the second-best decathlon by an American, clears the last hurdle in front of Stephen Harris in the 110-meter hurdles.