Oregon Ducks emphatically win men’s, women’s titles at Pac-12 track & field championships

EUGENE — The Oregon Geese gained going away Sunday, sweeping the lads’s and ladies’s group titles on the Pac-12 monitor & discipline championships.

The Geese have been too good, too deep, too targeted and went unchallenged within the group competitors earlier than a crowd of 5,182 on a heat, dry afternoon at Hayward Subject.

The lads have gained each convention group title since 2007. The ladies joined the social gathering this yr for the primary time since 2017, and so they did it emphatically.

Oregon completed atop the ladies’s group standings with 167 factors regardless of opting out of the meet-concluding 4×400 relay. Colorado was a distant second with 102.5.

Within the males’s competitors, an anticipated problem from USC by no means materialized. The Geese completed first with 161 factors. Washington was second at 105. USC got here in third with 101.

“I used to be hyping up all my women yesterday as a result of we have been wanting nice,” mentioned UO triple jumper Lexi Ellis, who gained with a finest mark of 42 ft, 11 1/2 inches. “I saved telling all people, ‘Tomorrow’s the day, tomorrow’s the day.’”

It was, and the Geese delivered.

“It feels superior,” Ellis mentioned.

All over the place you regarded, there have been athletes in Oregon’s yellow and inexperienced scoring factors and driving up the UO group totals.

“This championship wasn’t going to be gained by the youngsters who have been 1-2-3,” UO coach Robert Johnson mentioned. “It was going to be gained by these sixth, seventh and eighth locations.”

Perhaps, however the high athletes delivered simply the identical.

Micah Williams claimed each the lads’s 100 and 200 meters, successful the 100 in a scorching time of 9.93 seconds and holding off a fierce problem from Stanford’s Udodi Onwuzurike in the previous few steps to win the 200 in 20.05 as the gang roared.

Williams’ successful time within the 100 broke the meet file of 9.97 co-owned by Andre De Grasse of USC (2015) and Oregon’s Cravon Gillespie (2019). UO sprinters Xavier Nairne and Ryan Mulholland positioned fourth and seventh, respectively.

Kemba Nelson ran a scorching leg of Oregon’s successful girls’s 4×100 relay, then got here again to comb the 100 and 200. She gained the 100 in 11.05 and led a parade of three extra Geese throughout the end line. Jadyn Mays was fourth, Jasmine Montgomery sixth and Jasmin Reed eighth.

Three-time NCAA champion Emmanuel Ihemeje performed to the gang whereas bounding to a successful mark of 54-10 within the triple bounce.

“The extra I get turned on from the followers, the extra I can categorical myself as EJ, as I understand how to do,” mentioned Ihemeje, who competed within the Tokyo Olympics for Italy. “I actually shout out to the Duck Nation, all the time exhibiting like to me and the group.”

He was the presumed favourite, which in idea brings some stress together with it.

“I eat stress for breakfast,” Ihemeje mentioned.

Nothing appeared to rattle UO sophomore Elliott Cook dinner within the 800. Regardless of having run a tough 1,500 an hour earlier than — he completed fourth — and rating fourth within the season’s finest listing within the 800, he ran the 800 to win.

“Taking it out from the gun, being first after 200 meters, it means that you can dictate the race extra,” Cook dinner mentioned. “You don’t have to fret about what different individuals are doing.”

It was a successful technique for Cook dinner, though he was on drained legs whereas preventing off a bid from Arizona State’s Dayton Carlson on the house straight. The 2 runners went forwards and backwards earlier than Cook dinner edged in entrance, crossing in 1:48.81. Carlson was second in 1:48.98.

“Having that crowd present up like at the moment makes a ton of distinction,” Cook dinner mentioned. “You possibly can hear it, even within the prelim yesterday. You’re coming down the house straight if you happen to’re in first otherwise you’re passing any individual, you may hear that roar. It’s one thing else.”

The Geese gave the followers lots to cheer about, on the monitor, within the discipline, women and men.

“I’m simply joyful we may come dwelling and characterize,” mentioned Williams, whose 20.05 within the 200 is a private file and No. 2 on the UO profession listing. “We acquired a win on each side, women and men. That’s the largest factor for me.”

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

— Ken Goe for The Oregonian/OregonLive

KenGoe1020@gmail.com | Twitter: @KenGoe