Notes: Ducks Set For Loaded Week in California

Wednesday, April 12

Torrance, Calif.

All Day

University of Oregon

Mt. SAC Relays

Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com

04/12/17 | Track and Field

Notes

THE MEN AND WOMEN OF OREGON WILL PURSUE QUALIFYING MARKS THIS WEEK WHEN THE DUCKS SPLIT UP IN CALIFORNIA FOR THE MT. SAC RELAYS, BRYAN CLAY INVITATIONAL AND BEACH INVITATIONAL.

By: Nate Krueger

EUGENE, Ore. - The Men and Women of Oregon have a loaded week ahead of them in California as the Ducks will be split between three meets: the Mt. SAC Relays, the Beach Invitational and the Bryan Clay Invitational. The Ducks will be focused on securing qualifying times in individual events this week after a great opener two weeks ago at the Florida Relays and Stanford Invitational.

How to Follow: The Mt. SAC Relays will be streamed live on FloTrack with a premium subscription, as will the Bryan Clay Invitational. Specific times for the streams can be found on flotrack.org. Links to live results for all three meets will be available on the track and field schedule on goducks.com. Updates from all three meets will be provided on Twitter via @OregonTF and @Run4Ducks.

Weekly Interviews: Robert Johnson, Head Coach

Ariana Washington, Redshirt Sophomore

Cole Walsh, Redshirt Senior

Entries - Mt. SAC Relays: The largest contingent of Ducks will be competing at the highly-regarded Mt. SAC Relays, with Mitch Modin and Joe Delgado kicking off the action for the Ducks on Wednesday in the decathlon.

Many eyes will be on the Oregon sprinters at Mt. SAC, as Hannah Cunliffe, Ariana Washington and Deajah Stevens are set to run their outdoor openers in the 100 and 200 meters for the Women of Oregon. Elexis Guster, Hannah Waller, Makenzie Dunmore, Ashante Horsley and Alaysha Johnson will join Oregon's dynamic trio in the 200 while also opening up in the 400 meters, and Johnson and NCAA indoor 60 hurdle champion Sasha Wallace will run the 100 hurdles.

In the men's sprints, Marcus Chambers and Kyree King will each run the 200 meters, with King also going in the 100 and Chambers in the 400 meters. Freshman standout Braxton Canady will run the 110 hurdles along with Jonathan Harvey. Both the Men and Women of Oregon will run 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams. Freshman phenom Katie Rainsberger will also run the 1,500 meters for the Women of Oregon.

In the jumps, NCAA indoor qualifier Damarcus Simpson will compete in the long jump, as well as the 100 meters, and redshirt junior Cole Walsh will look to continue moving up in the pole vault. For the women, Chaquinn Cook will aim for a qualifying mark in the triple jump, and freshman Rhesa Foster will compete in the long jump.

Senior Ryan Hunter-Simms leads the throwers of the Men of Oregon into Mt. SAC, and he is entered in the shot put and the discus along with two other Ducks. Cullen Prena will throw the discus as well as the hammer, which will also feature Max Lydum. Madeline Middlebrooks will throw the hammer for the women along with Maddie Rabing. Kiana Phelps, Rabing and Ronna Stone will all throw the shot put, and Phelps and Stone will also go in the discus.

Entries - Bryan Clay Invitational: Seventeen-time NCAA champion Edward Cheserek will lead a group of six Ducks in the 1,500 meters at the Bryan Clay Invite, with Matthew Maton, Blake Haney, Tim Gorman and Sam Prakel also running that race. Travis Neuman and Bryan Fernandez will run the 5,000. FOr the women, Emma Abrahamson, Lilli Burdon, Jessica Hull and Kelly O'Neill all look to improve their 1,500 times, while Maggie Schmaedick will run the 5,000.

Entries - Beach Invitational: The Beach Invitational will primarily feature a group of double-dippers for the Ducks. Sebastian Barajas, Lydum and Prena will all compete in the same events they're entered in at Mt. SAC, while Cody Danielson and John Nizich will go in the javelin. Abrahamson, Burdon, Hull, O'Neill and Rainsberger will all run the 800 meters in Long Beach, and Phelps, Rabing and Stone will also compete in the throws.

Ducks Enjoy Record-Breaking Start to Outdoor Season: A highly productive weekend at the Florida Relays in Gainesville, Fla., was highlighted by a pair of collegiate records for the Women of Oregon. The quartet of Makenzie Dunmore, Hannah Cunliffe, Deajah Stevens and Ariana Washington smashed the collegiate record in the 4x100 relay, flying to a win in 42.34. The same four Ducks came back out a few hours later and moved their names to the top of the all-time collegiate list in the 4x200 with a time of 1:28.78. Both marks took the top spot in the Oregon record books as well. The two collegiate records marked the third and fourth for the Women of Oregon so far in 2016-17 (60m, DMR), and first two of the outdoor season. The Men of Oregon had an impressive showing of their own in the 4x100, as Damarcus Simpson, Kyree King, Julius Shellmire and Marcus Chambers secured the second-fastest time in school history with a third-place time of 39.39.

Alaysha Johnson enjoyed a tremendous start to the season, winning the 100-meter hurdles in an Oregon record and personal-record (PR) 12.69 seconds. Sasha Wallace, the indoor national champion in the 60 hurdles, finished sixth in 12.94. Chaquinn Cook claimed the victory in the college long jump with a PR mark of 6.15m/20'2", getting her first outdoor season as a Duck off to a strong start. Senior Cole Walsh opened his final outdoor season with a win in the pole vault, clearing 5.42m/17'9".

The Ducks also received a strong start from their distance runners at the Stanford Invitational. Seventeen-time national champion Edward Cheserek opened outdoors with a win in the 10,000 meters in 28:46.48, which is currently 10th in the nation and 12 seconds better than his 10K qualifying time from last season (28:58.57). Lilli Burdon (4:17.07), Emma Abrahamson (4:18.62) and Jessica Hull (4:19.50) all hit PRs in the college 1,500, and senior Samantha Nadel, the fourth-place finisher in the 3,000 at the Indoor Championships, crushed her PR in the 5,000 meters to win her section in 15:49.26. Tanner Anderson (29:26.15) and Travis Neuman (29:33.95), also posted times in the 10K that should be fast enough for regional qualifiers.

NCAA Champs! Women Win 7th Indoor Title in Record Fashion: The Women of Oregon won their seventh NCAA Indoor Championship in the last eight years, breaking the all-time meet scoring record while doing so, and four Ducks claimed individual national titles. Overall, the Ducks earned their ninth national championship in track and field, and 13th total including cross country. Coupled with the women's national title in cross country in the fall, the women are now positioned to take a run at the triple crown (cross country, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field), which no women's team has ever accomplished.

The Ducks scored 84 points to shatter the 29-year-old scoring record of 71, set by Texas in 1988. Hannah Cunliffe (60 meters), Sasha Wallace (60-meter hurdles), Raevyn Rogers (800 meters) and Ariana Washington (200 meters) each hauled in individual titles to lead the Ducks to the historic win. The Ducks dominated the short sprints, with Cunliffe, Washington and Deajah Stevens going 1-3-5 in the 60 meters and Washington and Cunliffe securing the first 1-2 finish in the 200 meters since 2010.

King Ches Takes His Throne: In winning the 3,000 and the 5,000 meters at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Edward Cheserek ran his career national title total to 17 and became the winningest athlete in NCAA track and field/cross country history. Cheserek passed Suleiman Nyambui (1979-82) for that honor, and is also now has the most national titles of any male athlete in the history of NCAA Division I athletics. The King trails only Jenna Thompson (Stanford, swimming), who won 19 total national titles, for the most national championships in NCAA DI history. Cheserek made even more history in College Station, Texas, adding a second-place finish in the mile to his two titles to set the meet record for points scored with 28. He also became the all-time NCAA Indoor leader in career points scored with 91. Adding to his incredible career and final season, Cheserek broke the indoor collegiate mile record at the Boston University Last Chance Meet on February 26 in a blazing 3:52.01.

Rankings: The Women of Oregon remain the top-ranked team in the latest USTFCCCA outdoor rankings. The Men of Oregon stay at No. 2 behind Florida entering their second weekend of outdoor action.

Bowerman Watch: The Women of Oregon have a record five athletes on the latest Bowerman Award watch list, with Hannah Cunliffe, Raevyn Rogers, Deajah Stevens, Sasha Wallace and Ariana Washington earning recognition for the top award in the sport. On the men's side, Edward Cheserek remains on the watch list for the 25th time in his career, giving him the most appearances in history.

Up Next: After a loaded week of competition in California, the Ducks will take a week back in Eugene before heading to the Penn relays (April 27-29) and the OSU High Performance meet (April 28-29).

Tickets Available for Pac-12 and NCAA Championships at Hayward Field: Tickets are on sale now for the 2017 Pac-12 Championships and NCAA Outdoor Championships, both to be hosted at Hayward Field. The Pac-12 Championships will be held May 13-14, with competition beginning on Saturday the 13th and wrapping with the crowning of the men's and women's Pac-12 champions on Sunday the 14th. Reserved tickets will sell for $40, and general admission tickets are available for $30. The NCAA Championships will be held at Historic Hayward Field for the fifth year in a row, and will run from Wednesday, June 7 to Saturday, June 8. Reserved tickets are available for $116 and general admission tickets for $80. Tickets for the Pac-12 Championships are for all sessions only, while tickets for the NCAA Championships are for all sessions in addition to the Championship pack, which includes the two final days of competition. Fans can purchase tickets online on goducks.com, by phone by calling 1-800-WEBFOOT or in person at Matthew Knight Arena or Autzen Stadium. Single day tickets will go on sale for the Pac-12 and NCAA Championships at a later date. Additional fees may apply for all events.