Suspected Oregon flu case ends UAA championship hopes

Great Northwest Athletic Conference commissioner Richard Hannan announced the cancellation and said the meet will not be rescheduled.

Western Oregon athletic director Jon Carey said in a GNAC news release that the Oregon University system and Oregon Department of Public Health recommended closing the campus through Monday. Western Oregon President John Minahan acted on that recommendation, Carey said.

Carey said there is a "high probability'' a single student on campus contracted the disease, which can be fatal, and authorities are awaiting confirmation of the diagnosis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A large number of students may have been exposed to the virus, Carey said.

UAA track coach Michael Friess, who was with his team at a hotel in nearby Salem, Ore., on Thursday night, said he learned of the cancellation about 7:20 p.m. Alaska time in a phone call from Western Oregon coach Mike Johnson.

"He asked me if I was sitting down, and I was, and he said, 'Keep sitting down,' " Friess said by phone.

Friess said his athletes were already gathered for a team meeting, so he immediately gave them the news.

Friess said he agreed with the decision to cancel the two-day meet, which was scheduled to conclude Saturday.

"I'd rather have a situation where people are way, way cautious than risk the health of anybody,'' Friess said. "The world won't spin off its axis.''

UAA athletic director Steve Cobb, reached by cell phone in Florida, where he is spending time with friends after attending the annual Western Collegiate Hockey Association meeting, said he understood the decision to cancel the meet.

"We're horribly disappointed -- we thought we could win the thing -- but we understand, and we'd probably do the same thing if we were in that position,'' Cobb said. "There are bigger issues at play.''

Friess said he would try to get the Seawolves into a meet Saturday at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore.

UAA's men last season finished runner-up to Western Oregon for the team title and felt they could win the first conference track title in school history. The meet featuring eight GNAC schools was important too, because athletes peak for late-season meets, where many aim to produce marks that will qualify them for the Division II national championships.

The cancellation means defending GNAC and Division II national champion long jumper David Registe will not be able to defend his conference title. Ditto for Elizabeth Chepkosgei in the 3,000 meters and Laura Carr in the 5,000 meters, and the UAA's men's 400-meter and 1,600-meter relay teams.

Registe, reached by cell phone in Salem, was philosophical about the cancellation.

"I'm all right,'' Registe said. "There are worse things in life.''

Thursday's cancellation added to an already odd season for UAA runners. At the Division II West Region cross-country running meet in LaJolla, Calif., in November, the men's 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) race was halted after six kilometers because a bike rider leading the runners took a wrong turn. The race was run later in the day in punishing heat, and UAA runner Paul Rottich suffered from dehydration after his 16 kilometers of work and required a trip to the emergency room.

"The year of some real strange stuff just keeps going on,'' Friess said.

Still, Friess understands better than most the decision to cancel or postpone an event.

As race director of the annual Crow Pass Crossing, a 24-mile wilderness run from near Girdwood to the Eagle River Nature Center, Friess a few years ago postponed the event because of smoke from wildfires.

"People get disappointed and they over-react,'' Friess said. "Good people are trying their best to keep people safe.

"I'm disappointed for our men's squad, because it's pretty darn good, but health and safety is a bigger issue.''

Thursday's cancellation raised another issue for Friess -- whether the outbreak of swine flu could conceivably impede air travel.

UAA's graduation ceremony is Sunday at Sullivan Arena, and Friess said track athlete Nathalia Echavarria is the commencement speaker and several other team members are graduating.

Find Doyle Woody's blog online at adn.com/hockeyblog or call him at 257-4335.