Birnbaum, Smith Add Second B1G Honors

EUGENE, Ore. – For a second time this outdoor season, Simeon Birnbaum and Ben Smith are Big Ten Men's Track Athlete and Freshman of the Week, respectively, as announced by the conference office Wednesday morning. The Ducks were recognized for their efforts from this past week's Oregon Team Invitational at Hayward Field.

The two Ducks were previously honored April 8 after the Stanford and Triton Invitational meets.

Birnbaum ran into NCAA history with his 3:31.69 this past weekend to shatter the collegiate record at 1500 meters. With that performance, he took more than a second off the previous standard of 3:33.02 set by Villanova's Liam Murphy in March 2025. Birnbaum's time also currently ranks No. 3 in the world.

3:31.69 1500m. Simeon Birnbaum. #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/Dek97Ep07K
— oregontf (@OregonTF) April 19, 2026

Earlier this week, he was also named the Co-USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week.

Smith unleashed a lifetime best and Big Ten-leading measure of 20.39m/66-10.75 to win the shot put. With that toss, he moved to No. 2 in the NCAA this season and is now the No. 4 outdoor performer in program history. Smith also won the discus (57.94m/190-1) on day one of the Team Invitational.

The Men of Oregon are up to fourth in this week's USTFCCCA national rankings release.

Oregon in the NCAA Top 10 (* - from this weekend)
MEN
1500 Meters – 1. Simeon Birnbaum – 3:31.69*
5,000 Meters – 5. Simeon Birnbaum – 13:19.73
10,000 Meters – 8. Evan Burke – 27:57.04; 9. Evan Bishop – 27:57.98
110m Hurdles – T7. Kai Graves-Blanks – 13.42*
4x100 Relay – 10. Graves-Blanks, Ize-Iyamu, Valley, Barbarin – 38.94*
Shot Put – 2. Ben Smith – 20.39m/66-10.75*
Javelin – 5. Daniel Thrana – 78.32m/256-11*

WOMEN
1500 Meters – 9. Silan Ayyildiz – 4:07.13*
100m Hurdles – T10. Aaliyah McCormick – 12.99
Pole Vault – 10. Emily Fitzsimmons – 4.48m/14-8.25*
Triple Jump – 9. Cassandra Atkins – 13.39m/43-11.25

The Ducks will send a handful of their distance crew to Philadelphia for this weekend's Penn Relays. The UO schedule begins Friday with the men's distance medley relay at 11:40 a.m. PT on FloTrack. Oregon is also slated to compete in the 4x800, 4x1500 and 4xMile relays Saturday.

Ticket packages for the Ducks' outdoor home schedule are currently on sale. The rest of the home slate includes the Oregon Twilight (May 8) and the NCAA Championships in June.

For more news and information about Oregon cross country and track and field, follow @OregonTF on Facebook, Instagram and X.