Half the distance, but double the joy.
Quarter-miler Phyllis Francis, a 2014 Oregon graduate, competed in her first ever 100-meter event Friday night at the Oregon Twilight Meet, clocking a time of 11.34 seconds. She had initially been trailing, but she turned on the jets in the last 10 meters to beat Mandy White, who also graduated from Oregon in 2011, to the finish line. Francis’ winning margin was 0.03 second.
Two and a half hours later, Francis returned to the track for the 200, up against White again. With more ground to work with, Francis had no trouble establishing herself as the leader coming off the Bowerman curve. Francis won easily in 22.77 seconds, shattering the 32-year-old meet record of 23.53 seconds. This is a season best for her as well as the 24th fastest time in the U.S. this year.
“I’m really happy with what I did today,” said Francis. “I’m about to go talk to coach and see what he says otherwise. Hopefully we’re on the same page.”
The 400 specialist, who turned in a 50.8 second performance in the event at Baylor two weeks ago, trains at College Station, Texas, under Coach Vince Anderson. She said her first 100 meters was a fun learning experience.
“You have to be really aggressive,” she said. “You have less than 11.5 seconds to correct everything, so that’s something I have to adjust to. Right now in training, I’m working on starting out a lot faster in the first 100 of my 400. I thought this would be good practice for that. Also, I wanted to do it for fun, so I thought, why not?”
Her current training program focuses on pieces of her normal event as well as her form, which she said would translate to faster times.
“I completed the goals that I’d set, to be more aggressive at the start,” she said. “That was fun for the first time, and hopefully I’ll be doing some more.”
The former Duck’s return to Hayward for the first time this season was a warm homecoming. Although the 74-degree Eugene weather was significantly cooler than the Texas weather she has been training in, it was the people she was running with that made it heartwarming.
“Running alongside Ashante (Horsley) and the other Ducks, I had that whole reunion thing,” she said. “It just felt like home. I love being here at Oregon track, home of track and field, so it was really exciting just to be here with the fans.”
Even two years after graduation, Francis still feels a strong connection to her alma mater.
“We always share advice, like lifestyle, practice, social, new slang, just normal people stuff. We kind of built a sisterhood within the track team, so we always keep in contact.
“They are progressing very well. I’m proud of them.”
Stopping in the middle of a thought, Francis continued in a more contemplative tone as the realization that time is taking its toll on everyone hits her.
“They’re growing up, oh my gosh, it’s just overwhelming and mind blowing to see them now, so I always cherish these moments when I get to run with them.”
With the U.S. Olympic trials on the horizon, Francis only knows excitement.
Asked if she was looking to break the 50-second barrier, she replied with an enthusiastic, “Yeah!”
“I just want to run a faster time than I did last year,” she said. “Last year was great. This year, I want to break 50, 49 hopefully. I’m looking forward to that.”
