Ribbon cutting ceremony set for Eastern Oregon University fieldhouse

Oct. 19—LA GRANDE — The members of Eastern Oregon University's track and field program have 175 new reasons to smile this fall.

Eastern Oregon University's $9 million fieldhouse, which has among its features a 175-meter synthetic track, is set to open soon.

"It is phenomenal," said Connor Bracken, an EOU assistant track and field coach.

Students who have already been inside the fieldhouse include Katie Brown, a member of EOU's women's track and field team. Brown was a bit awestruck when she stepped into the structure.

"I felt like I had traveled somewhere," she said.

The 60,000-square-foot fieldhouse also features spacious field event facilities, a 35-foot climbing wall for the Eastern Outdoor Adventure Program and three classrooms for the school's Health and Human Performance department. The classrooms can also be converted into labs.

"It will be an amazing asset to the school and the community," said Tim Seydel, vice president for university advancement.

A ribbon cutting ceremony for the new structure will be conducted at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, as part of EOU's homecoming festivities. Tours of the building will be available but the building will not be open for use until later this fall after construction is wrapped up.

A campus drawThe fieldhouse's 35-foot climbing wall will be among the tour highlights and is one many students are anxious to tackle, according to Michael Hatch, the director of the school's Outdoor Adventure Program.

"They are stoked, about it," he said.

The climbing wall is about twice the height of Eastern's current one at Quinn Coliseum. Hatch said the nearest comparable climbing wall is in Meridian, Idaho.

The fieldhouse will be the new home of the Outdoor Adventure Program, which is now housed in the Hoke Union Building. Hatch said the new location will provide much more space.

"It will allow our program to expand," he said.

Eastern's track and field program may see the already impressive number of trophies its athletes have won also expand because of the fieldhouse.

"It will be a huge recruiting tool," head track and field coach Ben Welch said of the fieldhouse.

Athletes the fieldhouse has already helped Eastern land include Hermiston's D.W. Wilson, who came to La Grande in part because he knew the fieldhouse was set to be built.

"Boy, that was my recruiting draw," he said.

Wilson said the fieldhouse will provide an opportunity to do more running workouts during the winter months and not have to spend so much time working out on treadmills when the weather is bad.

"It does not feel like you are in a race when you are on a treadmill," he said.

One of a kindThe fieldhouse's track is complemented by a runway and sandpit for long jumpers and triple jumpers, and runways for high jumpers and pole vaulters. No other college or university in Oregon, Welch said, has an indoor facility for both runners and field event athletes.

"We have the only complete indoor track and field facility in the state," he said.

The coach also said that Eastern is the only non NCAA Division I university or college west of the Rocky Mountains to have a fieldhouse for running and field events.

Track and field athletes who will especially benefit from the fieldhouse, Welch said, include Eastern's long jumpers and triple jumpers. He explained that in the south gym EOU now uses for indoor track workouts there are no long runways or sandpits for jumpers.

Welch also said hurdlers will benefit in a big way during winter workouts since they will be able to simulate actual race conditions for the 60-meter hurdles, an event run at many indoor meets. At the Quinn Coliseum's south gym, hurdlers can run only far enough to clear two hurdles before hitting a wall covered with soft material to protect sprinters.

"Now, they will not have to crash into a padded wall," Welch said.

The EOU track coach has been working to help Eastern get a fieldhouse for at least two decades. He did so because he went to the University of Kansas, which like many schools in the Midwest has a fieldhouse. Welch, who competed in track for the Jayhawks, saw firsthand what similar facilities can do for a university, inspiring him to work to help Eastern land one.

Eastern's fieldhouse will be available for use by all of the school's athletic teams and to the public. The hours it will be open for community members will be announced later.

Dick Mason is a reporter with The Observer. Contact him at 541-624-6016 or dmason@lagrandeobserver.com.