Macdonald wins 800 at Oregon

Advertiser Staff

Eri Macdonald's stress fracture is healed.

The Oregon junior from Kailua, rallied down the stretch to win the 800-meter run in a career-best 2 minutes, 6.37 seconds yesterday in a dual meet against Washington at Eugene, Ore.

Macdonald, a 1999 Punahou graduate, had been struggling to overcome a femur stress fracture since last May. She missed the cross country season last fall and her best 800 this spring had been 2:11.98 on March 16.

Her time yesterday meets the provisional qualifying standard for the NCAA championships, and qualifies easily for the Pac-10 championships, where she had to drop out of the 800 in mid-race last year because of the stress fracture. She ran her previous career best of 2:07.08 at Stanford last May.

She also ran the anchor leg on Oregon's winning 4x400 relay team yesterday, which beat Washington in 3:47.05.

Macdonald won 13 state championships, including four in the 800, while at Punahou. Her state meet record of 2:13.23, set in 1998, still stands.

Oregon's Alicia Snyder-Carlson, a junior from Kihei, Maui, finished third in the 400-meter hurdles in a career best 1:02.86. She is a 1999 St. Anthony graduate.