University of Oregon
Pac-12 Championships
Oregon Sweeps the Pac-12 Championships
05/18/15 | Track and Field
The men's team finished with 152 points for conference record ninth-straight title, 31 ahead of second place USC while the women's team edged out the Trojans by three points, 185-182.
The meet had its fair share of drama as both the Men and Women of Troy, who entered the meet with No. 5 and No. 2 rankings by the USTFCCCA, surged to temporary leads late in the day after the running of the 200 meters, where USC scored big points.
The Ducks however, had too much firepower in too many different events and responded with the men scoring in the triple jump, discus, 5,000 and 4x400 to regain the lead while women had enough left with nine points in the 5,000 and eight more in the 4x400.
The men's team race was not decided until the second-to-last race on the track when the men's distance crew slammed the door with a dominating performance in the men's 5,000. The women, however, came down to the wire as Oregon needed a third-place finish in the 4x400 and did one better, finishing second.
“We, the staff, were emotional from the very beginning because we knew what it was,” Oregon head coach Robert Johnson said. “Unbelievable team effort by both the men and women.”
Jasmine Todd and Sasha Wallace were the top point-getters for the Oregon women, as Todd scored in a total of five events at the Championships, winning two individual titles on Sunday leading to Athlete of the Meet honors. Wallace notched three second-place finishes on the day. Both were part of the second-place women's 4x100 team and went 1-2 in the triple jump with Todd out front at 42-11.75 (13.10m), the third-best mark in school history, followed by a lifetime-best performance from Wallace at 42-3.25 (12.88m).
Todd won her second title of the day in the 100 where she crossed the finish line in 11.18 and finished the weekend with a fourth-place finish in the 200 (23.21).
Wallace also broke her own school record in the 100 hurdles with a time of 13.00, taking second in a photo finish behind USC's Dior Hall who ran 12.99. Wallace's time is tied for eighth in the NCAA this season.
Oregon got one more individual title during an outpouring of points in the women's 800 with Raevyn Rogers winning, Annie Leblanc second and Skylar Evans in seventh. Rogers won with a personal best of 2:01.67, four seconds faster than she had previously run this season. The mark is fourth in school history and third in the college ranks this season.
Leblanc, who also scored fifth-place points in the 1,500 with a personal best (4:15.67), finished as one of five Oregon women to score in three or more events joining Todd, Wallace, Ashlee Moore and Ashante Horsley.
The Men of Oregon received a pair of individual titles from Marcus Chambers and Ben Thiel who were also part of the champion 4x400 team and the 4x100 runner-up finish. Chambers blew away the field in the men's 400 with a lifetime best by nearly a second. The sophomore finished in 45.21, the fifth-fastest time in the NCAA this season and the fourth-best in Oregon history.
“I've been waiting to PR. Bound to happen soon,” Chambers said. “My training this year has been going really well, getting faster and faster after every race.”
Thiel followed that up with a lifetime best of 50.32 in the 400 hurdles almost two second faster than the personal record he set less than 24 hours earlier in the prelims of the event. Thiel now ranks fourth in the Oregon record book.
Horsley had a similarly-impressive performance in the women's quarter mile. Horsley set a huge lifetime best while crossing the finish line third in 52.43, fifth on the Oregon all-time list. The sophomore was a part of the 4x400 team with Rogers, Christian Brennan and Leblanc which sealed the win for Oregon, finishing second in 3:34.73.
Edward Cheserek gave the Ducks their final individual title in the 5,000, an event where the Ducks scored 25 points with Eric Jenkins finishing on Cheserek's heels in second and Will Geoghegan and Jake Leingang taking fifth and sixth, respectively.
Jillian Weir and Brittany Mann both scored in the women's hammer throw to start the day, with Weir taking second place and Mann finishing sixth. Weir threw 210-00 (64.01m) on her second attempt while Mann threw 187-7 (57.17m) on her first attempt.
Both the men's and women's 4x100 teams earned second-place finishes while etching their names in the Oregon top 10. Tony Brooks-James, Arthur Delaney, Thiel and Chambers ran the third-fastest time in school history (39.64) with the women's team of Wallace, Todd, Horsley and Marybeth Sant running the sixth-fastest time in UO history (43.65).
The 4x400 team of Thiel, Delaney, Russell Hornsby and Chambers put the icing on the cake with a victory to end the meet, finishing in 3:05.84.
Delaney scored in a team high four events on Sunday with fourth-place finishes in the 100 and 200.
Even though the Ducks had the quality at the top to win nine events, it was the accumulation of points and depth that allowed Oregon to win. The men's team scored in 17 of the 21 events with 23 different student-athletes contributing. The women's team scored in 18 events with 20 student-athletes contributing.
Among those performances were Blake Haney and Daniel Winn who finished fourth and sixth, respectively in a tactical men's 1,500.
Nate Moore, Ferguson and Josh Melu placed 5-6-7 in the men's triple jump while Ryan Hunter-Simms scored four points with a personal best in the discus (180-2/54.91m).
The women's 5,000 group set up the 4x400 with nine points from Maggie Schmaedick (fifth), Waverly Neer (sixth) and Molly Grabill (seventh).
Next up for the Ducks will be the NCAA West Preliminary Round in Austin, Texas, May 28-30 before the NCAA Championships in Eugene, June 10-13.
Players Mentioned
