Rupp not ready to join Ducks.

Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

Galen Rupp said Thursday that he'll be running at Hayward Field this spring but, almost certainly, not as a Duck.

"Something, I guess, may come up, but I don't think much is going to affect my decision to not go there in the spring," said Rupp, who added that he's still considering coming to Oregon for the cross country season in the fall.

"I don't think that I'll be going down there this spring, just because I think it might be too hurried, given all the other stuff that's been going on. ... I don't want to say that I'm definitely not going this spring, but I'd say the chances are that I wouldn't be down there."

The best prep distance runner in the nation, and the best in Oregon in decades, Rupp graduated last spring from Central Catholic High School in Portland.

Despite scholarship offers, the Track & Field News prep boys athlete of the year has delayed his college career and has continued to be coached by former Oregon distance star Alberto Salazar, who had well-publicized philosophical differences with Oregon coach Martin Smith.

Smith reached a resignation settlement with the university last Friday, effective immediately. His departure - and Oregon's decision to bring in UO grad Pat Tyson as the volunteer coach for the men's distance runners this spring - was perceived as an opportunity for Rupp to join the Oregon program and run for the Ducks, which has long been one of his goals.

Indeed, Rupp applied for admission for spring term and received his acceptance Wednesday.

Furthermore, Salazar said, compliance officials at Oregon - and a private compliance expert with whom Salazar is consulting - continue to review documentation of Rupp's travel and training expenses over the past nine months to ensure he hasn't received any extra benefits that would compromise his eligibility.

"We were very careful," Salazar said. "His eligibility, as far as I know, is intact."

Spring quarter begins Monday at Oregon, though the deadline for enrollment for an athlete to retain NCAA eligibility for the spring season would be April 8.

However, Salazar said, he and Rupp's parents are concerned about a possible backlash against the runner as a result of what amounted a messy divorce between Oregon and Smith.

"He's tired of the stress, and his parents are tired of the stress," Salazar said. "They're reading stuff (online) that he's a pawn in the whole thing, and where it's supposedly a UO runner saying they don't want him down there, they hope he doesn't come down. And he's an 18-year-old kid. ...

"I'm worried about sending him down there. Until people know the full story of what happened, that it wasn't Nike, Phil Knight and myself engineering this change, I would hate to have Galen be caught in the middle of that. I would hate to have people boo him on the track, even just a couple of people ... or subject him to people who don't know the whole story, and who want to believe that it was a sinister conspiracy."

Salazar said those concerns are keeping another athlete he coaches, middle-distance runner Mike McGrath, who left the Oregon program last spring, from returning to Oregon immediately.

"He wants to go back," Salazar said of McGrath, "but he had a miserable experience there the first time and he doesn't want to go back to where teammates or other coaches, because of his association with me, are going to hold something against him."

Rupp admitted that he's "a little bit" concerned about how he might be received by future teammates at Oregon.

"I think eventually a time would pass that everybody would be fine with it," Rupp said, expressing hope that he could "show them what kind of people we are, and I think eventually they would look past all that."

Rupp had high praise for Tyson, whom he's known for years through track camps.

"I didn't know Martin very well," Rupp said. "It's hard for me to say what really happened down there. I think that Pat Tyson will definitely do a good job in trying to turn the distance program around. He works really well with kids. He's just a really positive and fun guy."

Oregon plans a national search for Smith's successor, and there's no guarantee that Tyson would be part of the new regime next fall.

Rupp said he hopes to run at Hayward Field anyway this spring, with his schedule possibly including the Oregon Invitational, the Twilight Meet and the Prefontaine Classic.

"I think right now I'm going to continue to train the way I have been training all year and definitely keep my eligibility," he said. "We'll see how things go, with possibly in the fall enrolling there and starting school."

Last year, Rupp broke the 40-year-old national prep record held by Gerry Lindgren in the 5,000 meters, clocking 13 minutes, 37.91 seconds, in a meet in Belgium.

That performance would have been eighth on the all-time University of Oregon list, behind Bill McChesney Jr., Rudy Chapa, Salazar, Steve Prefontaine, Paul Geis, Jim Hill and Ken Martin.

Rupp also ran the mile in 4:01.8 last year and broke the national prep record at 3,000 meters, running 8:03.67.

Last weekend, he was the top U.S. finisher in the junior eight-kilometer IAAF Cross Country Championships in France. He placed 20th, the only non-African runner in the top 31.

CAPTION(S):

Galen Rupp, the Track & Field News prep boys athlete of the year at Central Catholic High School last year, says next fall might be a better time to enroll at Oregon and begin collegiate competition.