TrackTown, USA: First some news! We now have a 5th and 3rd grader. Leo and Lucile have moved up to the next grade and finished their last day of school. Leo's school brought-in a soft-serve ice cream truck to celebrate. Pastries were abundant at Lucy's school. So proud of them both.
I sat next to our old friend, Captain Smith, at the meet tonight. As you may recall, he was on the Oregon track team with DT back in the day, and went on to become a Navy Top Gun pilot. Guess what Captain Smith did yesterday?
Dave and I had a nice day (the races didn't start until 6p). We had lunch at Cafe Yumm!, one of our favorite restaurants in the area. They are famous for their bowls - filled with rice, beans, cheese, tomatoes, olives, sour cream, avocados, and topped with a cilantro pesto and smothered in their famous Yumm Sauce.
We walked around the new 5th Street Public Market area and the Gordon Hotel complex. 5th Street Public Market was open when we attended the U in the 70's, but the facility has changed so much and now offer so much (better) dining and shopping. Many more shops (NIKE, Cafe Yumm!, Euphoria Chocolates, boutiques, ice cream) line the pretty brick archway to the entrance of the hotel. This area was busy with all the athletes, parents, press, officials, and coaches in town, and though the skies seemed they would open at any second, the weather again held. We stopped to fill our fridge for our return trip south and then headed over to Historic Hayward for the men's finals.
The 1500m final was exciting. The fairly slow race was won by Washington's Joe Waskom (3:45.58), with two other Huskies finishing 5th and 7th.
The Ducks had big hopes for their fabulous sprinter, Micah Williams. Today was not to be for the Quad-God. Williams finished a disappointing 7th! The star of the men's meet, Florida sophomore, Joseph Fahnbulleh, won the 100m in 10 seconds flat - a personal best. Fahnbulleh was everywhere for his team. He also won the 200m, and was on the second-place 4x100 relay team.
Another stellar Duck is Italian triple jumper Emmanuel Ihemeje. Ihemeje finished 11th in the Tokyo Olympics and has been having a great season. Tonight, it was a tough competition between Ihemeje and TCU senior, Chengetay Mapaya. Mapaya won the event with a personal best and college record - 56'-7.5 inches. Ihemeje, a sophomore, finished second with a season-best 55'-10.5 inches.
The 2022 Men's Champion is Florida, with 54 points, followed by Texas and Tennessee. Oregon finished 25th place with only 11 points. Randomly, Princeton finished in 7th place with 27 points.
Tomorrow, we will watch the women's finals. Rain poured all night and rain is predicted all day tomorrow as well. Insert sad face here. Until my next update from Historic Hayward Field, I remain, your Ducky correspondent
RV PARK: Premier RV Resort - We have a fancy site with a fire pit, picnic table and grill. Will probably not use anything but the table. Who knows. We have a frequent-flyer punch card for this resort and had one free night, so can't really figure-out how much we are paying per night... about $65? A lot of live-ins in the front of the resort. Pool/hot tub, bath houses, laundry, dog walks and dog wash, car wash area. On I-5, exit 199, just north of Eugene. Close to many RV repair and services.