Sprinters Take Center Stage On Day One

Wednesday, June 7

Eugene, Ore.

All Day

University of Oregon

NCAA Championships

Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com

06/07/17 | Track and Field

Wednesday Results Decathlon Scores Live Results Link Oregon Only Results

Kyree King set school records in the 100 and 200 and helped the 4x100 team set another UO record Wednesday to kick off the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

By: Rob Moseley

EUGENE, Ore. — On a day "King Ches" was notably absent from the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, a new bit of royalty made Hayward Field his court on Wednesday afternoon.

Senior transfer Kyree King advanced to three finals and had a part in three school records in the process, as sprinters took the lead for Oregon on the first day of the national meet, which 17-time champion Edward Cheserek is missing due to a back injury. King set school records in the 100 meters (10.00) and 200 meters (20.27), and also helped the UO 4x100 relay team advance in a school-record 38.76.

Marcus Chambers anchored the relay and also made Friday's final in the 400, and Blake Haney advanced to the 1,500 final. The Ducks also put their first points on the board Wednesday, with pole vaulter Cole Walsh clearing 17-10.5 to finish tied for fifth, good for 3.5 points in the team race.

"That was definitely the goal," Walsh said. "We lost Ed, so we're trying to scrounge for as many points as we can anywhere else."

Wednesday's opening session of the meet featured primarily men's preliminaries, along with the start of the decathlon and a handful of men's finals including the 10,000 and five field events. Freshman Tanner Anderson took 13th in the 10k in 29:21.67, while throwers Cody Danielson (javelin) and Cullen Prena (hammer throw) didn't reach their finals.

The Oregon women's quest for track and field's calendar year "Triple Crown" begins Thursday. But in the opening session Wednesday, King occupied the throne for the Ducks.

He began his day with a leg on the 4x100, in which Chambers held off the hard-charging anchor from Texas A&M to give Oregon a first-place finish in its heat. King capped his day by getting off to a huge start in the 200 and finishing second in his heat. In between, he took second in his 100 heat, running a school-record 10.00 while one lane over Tennessee's Christian Coleman was running a collegiate-record 9.82.

"He's a great starter; he blasted out of the blocks, threw me for a loop, but I held it together," said King, the Pac-12 champion at 100 and 200. "The field is so fast. I figured preliminaries were going to be like finals."

King's teammates Chambers and Haney could relate. Haney had to run a personal-best 3:40.40 just to finish third in his heat, but it appeared to be a controlled effort.

Haney tucked in behind the heat leaders from the outset and cruised through the final two laps, easily holding on to third as the pace quickened down the stretch.

"It was good; I was comfortable," said Haney, third in the 1,500 in 2015. "Fast pace. I know I'm in good shape, so it was good to test it, and get qualified."

Like Haney, Chambers' third-place time in his heat would have been good to enough to win the other sections of the 400. Chambers ran a personal best of 44.92, breaking the elusive 45-second barrier.

"I felt good; I'm always in the fast heat, so I'm used to that," he said. "I knew I couldn't cruise. We really had to run this race. But I'm always ready."

That's the attitude the Ducks will need to make noise at a national meet in which the absence of Cheserek has made the host team an afterthought in some eyes.

"We're trying to step up," Chambers said. "We knew he was out, and everyone knew — not just sprinters — that they had to step up. And that's what we're doing."