As a youngster Claudia Francis had a feeling she would be seeing Oregon again.
The Benjamin Cardozo star fondly remembers running at the University of Oregon as a 10-year-old at the Junior Olympics. She recalled loving the track, the facilities and getting what she called the college experience by staying in the dorms.
“I started thinking that running as a kid it was a foreshadowing of what’s to come when I go to college, what school I am going to chose,” Francis told The Post.
The senior will be spending the next four years of her life at the site of that childhood memory. Francis verbally committed to the Pac-10 school Tuesday. She chose Oregon, which is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation, over Stanford, Tennessee and Villanova. Francis is the reigning indoor and outdoor 800 meter national champion and currently holds the nation’s fastest time in the country this season in the event with a mark of 2:10.00.
Denis Gostev
Cardozo's Claudia Francis will be running at Oregon next year.
“It’s a middle distance school,” said Francis, who wants to major in pre-med.
She will join her older sister Phyllis, currently a freshman with the Ducks. Claudia Francis said getting a chance to run with Phyllis, who went to high school at Catherine McAuley, is something she is looking forward to. They ran together for their Team Evolution club squad, but never on the same school team.
“It was basically something that kind of worked out,” Claudia Francis said. “We had never run together on a team. It was definitely something we were both interested in.”
She has had an affinity for Oregon for a number of years. Francis went on along on Phyllis’ official visit two years ago and remembered loving it. She took her own official in October. Francis is comfortable with the coaching staff and their focus on excelling on and off the track.
“I felt like that was the right environment to be in,” she said.
With the decision over with Francis, who returned to the Judges after leaving the team as a junior, she can concentrate on helping to lead the squad to PSAL indoor and outdoor titles, continuing the success of their national-level 4 x 400 relay and improving on an individual basis.
“Now I can focus on finishing high school and preparing for the college level and competing on the next level,” Francis said.
jstaszewski@nypost.com
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