After moving to Portland in 2012, Treniere Moser contemplated retiring from competitive running, yet Moser’s victory today in the women’s 800 meters at the Oregon Twilight Meet showed that her decision to continue racing was a good one.
Moser, a four-time U.S. outdoor champion in the 1,500 meters, was satisfied with her professional career until her husband, Paul, who had been hired at Nike’s headquarters in 2013, ran into the head coach of Nike Oregon Project, Alberto Salazar, who wouldn’t let Moser hang up her spikes.
Now 34, Moser has her sights set on July 7, the date of the 1,500 meters at the Olympic Trials and the chance to make it to her first Olympics. Friday, she competed on that same track, winning the 800 in 2:05.36.
“I had a race last weekend that did not go well and I had a bit of an injury this winter, so I just needed to get the rust off,” she said. “Today was a great workout-slash-race double.”
Her “double” refers to her win in the 1500m just 45 minutes after.
Moser used a strong start to catapult her way to the front and held of ATS Track Club’s Junia Limage to win by three seconds. Her secret to holding off late kicks comes from Salazar.
“Alberto always tells us going the last 100, no one passes you.” she said. “ No one was passing me today.”
And no one did.
Also in the field was Oregon senior Ashley Maton. Celebrating her senior night and possibly her last collegiate race at Hayward, Maton ran 2:09.10, finishing fourth. Looking back on her four years, Maton shared her fondest memories.
“Every single race has been great,” she said. “I have had my ups and downs but the appreciation the fans have shown over the years really makes this all worth it.”
Maton now passes the torch to her younger brother Matthew, a freshman who made a name for himself when he became the sixth U.S. high schooler to run a sub-4 minute mile last year at this same race.
Big sis takes much of the credit for getting Mathew to join the Ducks, saying, “ I think he wanted to come here because I had success here and we are pretty similar.”
Maton looks to finish her collegiate career with the Pac-12 championships next weekend in Seattle and hopefully qualify for the NCAA championships in the 1500.
A familiar face to Hayward Field, Jordan Hasey, now running for Oregon project, finished in 6th place. With a school record 18 combined All-American awards in track and field/cross country, Hasey was welcomed with applause from the 5,583 in attendance. She obtained the Olympic standard in the 10,000 last weekend at the Payton Jordan Invitational.
