Nike Oregon Project coach Alberto Salazar said that he and Dathan Ritzenhein chose to play it safe when the former U.S. 5,000-meter record-holder began experiencing pain in one of his toes.

So Ritzenhein withdrew from last weekend's 5k at the Mt. SAC Relays as a precautionary measure.

"We don't know if it was a little bit of tendinitis or a little stress reaction," Salazar said this week. "We couldn't tell on the MRI. Running at Mt. SAC would have been foolish. And we're not going to run at Payton Jordan."

The Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational is Sunday.

Salazar said the pain has gone away and Ritzenhein has continued to train.

"He's done some great workouts," Salazar said.

The workouts have not been on the track. Ritzenhein has been training on grass, on an anti-gravity treadmill, and an underwater treadmill.

Ritzenhein

at the Stanford Invitational in 28 minutes, 21.48 seconds.

Salazar said the current plan will be for Ritzenhein to next run at the USATF High Performance Meet at Occidental on May 18 in Los Angeles or, possibly, the Oregon Twilight on May 5 at Hayward Field in Eugene.

"We had a little scare," Salazar said. "But Dathan will be fine."

Switching gears, the Oregon Ducks took a big hit in this week's USTFCCCA computer rankings.

The UO women, top-ranked since before the indoor season, plummeted from first to fifth. Oregon men's team dropped from No. 13 to No. 22.

Here

this week, and here is the

.

It will be interesting to see how this fluctuates in the upcoming weeks. The Ducks might not have everybody plugged into his or her prime events until the Pac-12 Championships, May 12-13 at Hayward Field.

I think the UO women will run away with the Pac-12 title. The Oregon men should win the conference meet too, although the team scores figure to be closer.

And that might be the next time they impress the USTFCCCA computer.

OK, more links:

Ritzenhein

, and the rewards perseverance can bring.

Runner's World

, in which he talks about the difficulty of keeping his career going without a sponsorship deal.

OTC/Portland's

he is "crazy pumped" after his steeplechase debut.

OTC/Eugene's

in this Wall Street Journal story on the decathlon, one event the U.S. still owns.

Oregon coach Vin Lananna and Texas A&M coach Pat Henry are among those

at the Penn Relays news conference via the miracle of modern communications.

Ducks

as men's and women's conference champions; UO lineups take shape for the Penn Relays; the R-G's track notebook.

At long last,

and it won't be Lananna.

New

of a big hole; this story by the Chicago Tribune's Philip Hersh reports as fact without attribution that Lananna turned down the job. Lananna denies that he interviewed, or was offered the position.

Alan Abrahamson asks whether

will get out of Siegel's way and let him do what he needs to do.

Wish Siegel luck; he's going to need it.

: The sport needs a leader, and let's hope Siegel can fill the bill.

of RunBlogRun says the USATF needs a CEO that will stay for a while.

of Psyched Up/Spiked Up tells the critics of the USATF's decision to hire Siegel to sit down, shut up and give him a chance.

Long jumper

for the Penn Relays.

Amy Acuff and Derek Miles will continue to

at the Drake Relays.

Justin Gatlin says it's going to

to get to the podium in the 100 meters in London.

Conway Hill

London upsets.

USC and UCLA to

a very close dual meet this week.

Last week's top

and

on the college level, as compiled by Superfan Jesse Squire.

Squire's

of the week.

Oregon State runners

are among those honored by the school for academic achievement.

The Pilots

at Mt. SAC.

Concordia has

for track & field by the Cascade Collegiate Conference.

The Oregon Relays are

over the Centennial Invitational, long the premier prep track meet in Oregon.

Oregon recruit

and, or course, football in this OregonLive video.

The

from Track & Field News.

The

from LetsRun.com

The

roundup.

Ken Goe: 503-221-8040