University of Oregon
Pac-12 Championships
Oregon Out Front at Pac-12 Championships
05/17/15 | Track and Field
LOS ANGELES – The Oregon men's and women's track and field teams each hold leads after the first day of the Pac-12 Championships, Saturday, as the Ducks aim for the seventh-straight sweep of the conference meet.
Most of the day's opportunities to score points came from the field events, and Oregon took advantage in a big way, scoring 78 points in the women's race and 53 points in the men's tally.
Sam Crouser won his fourth-consecutive Pac-12 men's javelin title, the only person to ever win four in the event. Crouser achieved the feat in dramatic fashion after Derek Eager of UCLA moved into first on his final attempt. Crouser responded with an effort reminiscent of his 2014 NCAA Championship victory, unleashing a throw of 252-10 (77.06m) on his final attempt to win by nearly 20 feet. Crouser is the 15th person in conference history to win four titles in a single event. Freshman Jhet Janis added five more points in the event with a fourth-place finish (222-6/67.81m).
Brittany Mann was crowned the Pac-12 Champion in the women's shot put, breaking her own school record in the process. Mann made quick work of it, throwing 56-6.75 (17.24m) on her first attempt, eventually going on to win by a foot and give the Ducks 10 team points.
The Men of Oregon also received points in the field events from Greg Skipper (225-2/68.64m) who placed second in the hammer throw and the duo of Nate Moore (25-3.50/7.71m) and Trevor Ferguson (24-10.50/7.58m) which finished second and sixth in the long jump, respectively. Moore's mark was tied for the best but the tie was broken based on each competitor's second-best attempt.
Jasmine Todd led the way in the women's long jump, finishing second with an outdoor personal best of 20-8.50 (6.31m) finishing second. After scoring last weekend in the heptathlon, Ashlee Moore placed fourth in the long jump with a big personal best of 20-5.75 (6.24m). It was one of two events where Moore scored for the Ducks, snagging a point in the high jump finishing eighth.
Moore was one of three Ducks to score in the high jump, where Oregon racked up 15 points thanks to second- and third-place finishes from Lauren Crockett and Chancey Summers. Crockett and Summers tied UCLA's Zibby Boyer for the best clearance of the day at 5-11.50 (1.82m) resulting in a jump off between Boyer and Crockett for first place.
Liz Brenner and Felicia Odle combined for seven points in the women's javelin. Brenner threw 157-9 (48.09m) on her first attempt while Odle jumped into scoring position on her final attempt with a heave of 141-3 (43.06m)
While most of the action on the track consisted of preliminary sections, the Ducks scored in the two distance events which ran finals on Saturday. UO had two scorers in both the men's and women's steeplechase, led by Frida Berge (10:09.94) and Alli Cash (10:25.94) who each set personal bests while finishing second and fifth. Berge's time ranks fifth in school history while Cash moved up to seventh.
Tanguy Pepiot finished third in the men's steeplechase while Jackson Darland continues his string of personal bests, running 8:53.91 and finishing sixth.
In the last events of the day, the women scored 16 points in the 10,000 with Waverly Neer, Molly Grabill and Maggie Schmaedick placing second, fourth and sixth, respectively. Travis Neuman finished seventh in the men's 10,000 to add two more points heading into tomorrow's final day.
It was a busy day for Todd, who also advanced to the finals of the 100 and 200, running personal bests in each. Her time in the 100 of 11.12 moves her up to third on the Oregon all-time list while her time of 22.89 in the 200 ranks fifth in school history and is also the fifth-fastest time in the NCAA this season.
Arthur Delaney and Marcus Chambers represented the Ducks in the men's sprints with Delaney advancing to the finals in the 100 and 200, and Chambers running the second-fastest 400 time of the day (46.57).
Before Ferguson scored in the long jump, he qualified for the 110 hurdles finals with the second-fastest time of the day and a personal best of 14.04. His counterpart on the women's side, Sasha Wallace, also qualified second in the 100 hurdles with a season-best of 13.36.
Ben Thiel advanced in the men's 400 hurdles with a personal best of 52.18, qualifying in third.
The Ducks sent three athletes through to the finals in both the men's and women's 1,500. Annie Leblanc won her heat in 4:23.06 while Ashley Maton and Nikki Hiltz finished third and fourth in their heat to advance. All three of the men's qualifiers finished together as Johnny Gregorek, Daniel Winn and Blake Haney went 1-2-3 in the second heat of the men's race with virtually identical times at 3:51.
The Oregon women will also be well represented in the women's 800 after going 3-for-3 in qualifying. Annie Leblanc and Raevyn Rogers each won their preliminary heats while Skylar Evans advanced on time.
“We're fighting and scrapping and we'll continue to see how we piece it together tomorrow. It's a good conference meet and there's lots of good schools here, but we'll be in the fight tomorrow.
The second day of competition will begin Sunday at 9 a.m.
Players Mentioned
