Another big weekend for the Centrowitzes

By Jack Pfeifer

 

            PORTLAND, Ore. – Matthew and Lauren Centrowitz, brother and sister but attending colleges 600 miles apart, have been seeing a lot of each other lately.

            They got together last November at the NCAA cross country championships, where Lauren was running for Stanford and Matthew for Oregon; in March, at the NCAA indoor championships in College Station, Texas; and a week and a half ago at the Cardinal Invitational at Stanford, where both Matthew and Lauren ran stunning lifetime bests in the 1,500 meters.

            This weekend it’s Lauren who travels, coming north from California to visit her younger brother on his home track in Eugene, Ore., where they will both be running at the legendary Pacific-10 Conference Championships, in the same Hayward Field where their father, Matt Centrowitz, ran for the hometown Ducks more than 30 years ago.

            Matthew and Lauren grew up in Maryland, where they were high school stars before heading west for college, while Matt, currently the head coach at American University, ran for the great Power Memorial Academy teams in the early 70s, pounding the old flat Armory floor. Matt Centrowitz, who grew up in the Bronx, went to Manhattan College for one year before going to the Northwest, where he set an American record in the 5,000 meters and made two Olympic teams.

            His youngsters have been aiming at their father’s near-legendary status, and they may both have him in their sights this month. For one thing, Dad never won a Pac-10 track title, team or individual, and his youngsters have a chance at both of those this weekend.

            The Centrowitz family is not the only one with deep Eastern roots competing on this coast this Saturday and Sunday. UCLA and USC, two of the country’s most famous college track programs, are now well-stocked with Easterners, all of whom are expected to be competing in Eugene:

            * Dalilah Muhammad, freshman at USC, graduate of Cardozo (Queens), ran a lifetime-best 56.58 in the 400 hurdles in the recent dual meet against UCLA, losing to Nicole Leach, NCAA champion two years ago for the Bruins, by only .25. Muhammad also ran 13.84 in the 100 hurdles and highjumped 5-7.

            * Lindsay Rowe, sophomore at USC, also a graduate of Cardozo, ran PR 13.45 in the 100 hurdles against UCLA

            * Ryann Krais, freshman at UCLA, from Methacton, outside Philadelphia. After a somewhat disappointing early season, Krais finished 4^th in last week’s Pac-10 heptathlon and scored 5,606 points, the 2^nd-highest score ever by an American Junior. (Krais is 19.) Krais is expected to run the hurdles and possibly relay this weekend for the Bruins.

            * Nia Ali, junior at USC, attended West Catholic H.S. (Philadelphia) and was a teammate there of Nicole Leach and LSU’s LaTavia Thomas. Ali transferred to USC after spending one season at Tennessee. Last weekend she scored a PR 5,681 in the heptathlon, for 3^rd place. She has a hurdle best of 13.14.

            * Nicole Leach, UCLA senior, the 2007 NCAA champion in the 400 hurdles. She ran 54.32 that year and has run 56.33 so far this season.

            * Ashlea McLaughlin, UCLA sophomore from Uniondale (N.Y.), a 400 PR this spring of 54.61, a regular on the Bruins’ 4x4 team.

            * Twin brothers Casey and Scott DiCesare, redshirt sophomores at UCLA, from Irvington (N.Y.). Casey went 16-5 and Scott 15-7 in high school in the vault. This season they are a foot better than that.

            The Oregon team has two New Yorkers, distance runners Nicole Blood (Saratoga Springs) and Lindsey Scherf (Scarsdale). Both were members of the Ducks’ 2^nd-place cross country team at last fall’s NCAA meet. Blood is expected to run the 5k and Scherf the 10k at conference.

            The Oregon women are also expected to contend for the team championship. They haven’t won the Pac-10 championship since 1992.

            The Duck men’s team, winners of the NCAA indoor team championship in March, is favored to repeat as conference champions. They have won the meet 3 of the past 4 years.

            Because of his surprising victory in the 1,500 meters early this month at Stanford, Matthew Centrowitz is now being mentioned alongside his better-known teammates, Galen Rupp and Andrew Wheating, both of whom made last summer’s Olympic team and are favored both at Pac-10 and at the NCAA championships.

            Centrowitz, in the shadow of his teammates and his father prior to that race, ran a stunning 3:36.92 1,500, exceeding his own PR by more than 8 seconds (3:44.98) and suddenly making him the fastest American outdoors this season. Then last Saturday, he led off Oregon’s 4-by-1-mile relay team with a sub-4-minute carry, as they went on to break the collegiate record. Matthew, 19, is a redshirt freshman, so this will be his first official Pac-10 Conference race.

            His sister Lauren also ran a lifetime best at the Cardinal meet, 4:10.42, equaling the Stanford school record, and exceeding her own best by more than 5 seconds (4:16.13). It puts her squarely in the national picture as well.

            For Matthew, he’s still chasing his father’s marks. Matt Centrowitz has a lifetime 1,500 best of 3:36.70, for example, from 1976, and he still holds the New York State all-time outdoor mile record, 4:02.7. Matthew went after that mark in one of his final high school races, in 2007, and fell short, running 4:03.40.

            Stanford also has a large number of Easterners on its roster, although it’s not clear how many of them will be competing this weekend. The New Yorkers on the squad include Hakon DeVries (John Jay, Hopewell Jct), who ran 14:03 this month in the 5k; Idara Otu (Middle College, Brooklyn), 59.50 in the IH, and freshmen Sarah McCurdy (Bay Shore), Emma Miller-Bedell (Tappan Zee), Tori Pennings (Warwick Valley) and Kristin Reese (Carmel).