For Oregon Ducks, sweep within reach at Pac-12 track & field championships

EUGENE — The Oregon Geese moved inside attain of a sweep of the lads’s and ladies’s group titles within the Pac-12 monitor & discipline championships Saturday at Hayward Area.

The Geese rose to the event throughout the board, placing on a present on a sunny afternoon and night earlier than an appreciative crowd of 4,498.

Oregon’s Alysah Hickey and Dominique Ruotolo went 1-2 within the ladies’s lengthy leap. Ditto for Pierce LaCoste and Emmanuel Ihemeje within the males’s lengthy leap.

Max Vollmer, Jett Kinder and Nathan Poff completed 1-2-6 within the decathlon. Jaida Ross set the UO college document within the ladies’s shot with a throw of 57 ft, 7 inches, breaking the mark of 57-4¾ that Brittany Mann had held since 2016.

The Geese maintain first place in each the lads’s and ladies’s standings heading into the ultimate day of competitors on Sunday. The UO males have 67 factors, the UO ladies 60. After the best way issues went on Saturday, there are extra ready within the wings.

Kemba Nelson led 4 Oregon ladies into Sunday’s 100-meter remaining by profitable her warmth with a time of 11.20, third quickest total. Alexandra Webster made a late surge within the 100 hurdles to publish the day’s quickest time of 13.04, tied for third total on the UO profession checklist.

The UO males have been sharp too. Micah Williams scooted to a 100 time of 10.08, better of all qualifiers. He shall be joined in Sunday’s remaining by teammates Xavier Nairne and Ryan Mulholland.

Three Oregon runners — Elliott Cook dinner, Matthew Erickson and Tomas Palfrey — made it out of qualifying and into the 800 remaining.

Oregon State bought in on the enjoyable, selecting up robust performances and a 2-4 end from Kaylee Mitchell and Grace Fetherstonhaugh within the steeplechase.

Hickey and Ruotolo helped set a tone for the Geese within the ladies’s lengthy leap. Hickey claimed the lead with a mark of 21-0½ along with her first try and by no means surrendered it to efficiently repeat as Pac-12 champ. She had the proper mindset.

“I at all times are available assured,” Hickey mentioned. “Plenty of this recreation is psychological. I do know I’m doing what I’ve to do in observe. So, I simply have to return to the monitor and get myself mentally prepared.”

The facility of optimistic pondering labored properly for Ruotolo, too. She is the reigning convention triple leap champion, however was nineteenth on this yr’s convention checklist within the lengthy leap.

UO coach Robert Johnson gave Ruotolo a pep speak earlier than the occasion.

As she remembered the dialog, he mentioned: “Run quick, puff up and see what occurs.”

It turned out to be good technique, as Ruotolo completed with a greatest leap of 20-5¾. The meet is scored on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 foundation, so the Geese emerged with 18 group factors.

It went the identical means within the males’s lengthy leap. LaCoste arrived with the convention’s No. 4 seed mark. He set a private document together with his third try and bettered that by flying the profitable distance of 25-4½ together with his fifth.

Ihemeje competed within the triple leap for Italy in final summer season’s Olympics. That’s his specialty. He stuffed in Saturday to assist out within the lengthy leap and leaped 25-0¾ to say second earlier than passing on the ultimate three of his six allotted makes an attempt.

LaCoste paid no consideration to the convention greatest checklist. He was leaping to win.

“I used to be by no means fourth place in my thoughts,” he mentioned.

Vollmer had couple of scary moments within the decathlon, beginning with a nasty proper hamstring cramp earlier than the 110 hurdles, Saturday’s first occasion of the two-day, 10-event competitors.

“I wasn’t ever positive if I pulled it, as a result of it was an actual loopy cramp,” he mentioned. “At that time it was, ‘OK, I’ve to complete for the group. …’ The whole lot was 50 % of what it was purported to be.”

He nonetheless managed 7,961 factors, however the decathlon pole vault was a close to factor. Vollmer missed his first two makes an attempt at his opening peak of 14-9½. If he had missed his third try at that peak, he would haven’t have scored within the vault.

Vollmer pulled it collectively, babied the gimpy hamstring down the runway and over the bar.

Listed here are the outcomes from the Pac-12 monitor & discipline championships.

— Ken Goe for The Oregonian/OregonLive

KenGoe1020@gmail.com | Twitter: @KenGoe