Pac-12 bb
Oregon’s baseball team took two-out-of-three Pac-12 games from Washington at Seattle. The Huskies won the opener, 7-6, but the Ducks took the next two on Saturday, 13-6 and Sunday 5-3. Oregon (16-11, 34-16) hosts Washington State beginning Thursday, 6:05p, PK Park, Eugene, Pac-12 Washington. Oregon State swept thee from visiting UCLA at Goss Stadium, Corvallis. OSU won Friday, 11-0; Saturday, 12-11; and, Sunday, 15-1 (7). The Beavers (17-9, 39-12) play at Arizona on Thursday, May 16, 6 p.m., Pac-12 Oregon.
UO Women Win Pac-12 Track Championship
UO release – The Ducks scored 150 points with contributions in 17 of 21 events. BOULDER, Colo. – For a third-consecutive season and with the help of four titles Sunday, the Women of Oregon are the Pac-12 champions. Jadyn Mays swept the 100 and 200 meters and Jaida Ross completed her throws double with a victory in the discus. Overall, the UO women have now won 14 Pac-12 titles. The Ducks scored 150 points with wide-spread contribution in 17 of 21 events and finished ahead of USC with136 points. On the men’s side, Elliott Cook won the 800- and 1500-meter titles while PJ Ize-Iyamu took the top spot in the 100 meters. Oregon swept the 100 titles for a third-consecutive year, and fourth time overall. The UO men finished fourth in the team standings with 83 points. For a second-consecutive season, Mays was the Pac-12 Women’s Athlete of the Meet as the high scorer. She accounted for 22 of the Ducks’ points by way of her wins in the 100 and 200 and runner-up showing with the 4×100-meter relay. She is the first UO woman to be win the award twice, and just the third Pac-12 woman overall. In winning the 100 with a new lifetime best of 11.01, Mays broke the meet record of 11.03 set by past UO great English Gardner in 2011. She was back on the track to post a season-best time of 22.46 in the 200 meters. Mays becomes the seventh UO woman to accomplish the 100-200 conference sweep. The Women of Oregon used a season-best time of 43.00 to collect eight points in the first track final of the day. Mays teamed with Lily Jones, Shana Grebo and Ella Clayton in the effort which now stands 10th on the program’s all-time list. Ross, winner of the shot put on Saturday, recorded a lifetime best on her way to victory in the discus. In the second round, she got the implement out to a 59.74m/196-0 measure which added four feet to her previous best and made her the No. 2 performer in school history. Shelby Moran, the two-time hammer champion, added a personal best of her own—57.28m/187-11—for fourth place and five points. Cook became a three-time Pac-12 champion Sunday, and is the first man in program history to pull the 800-1500 double. In the 1500 meters—his first race of the day—Cook used a surge down the stretch to emerge from the pack and cross the finish line first. Roughly one hour later, he once again held off the field over the final 100 meters and stopped the clock in 1:48.18 for another Pac-12 title. The Powell, Ohio, native won his first conference title in 2022, a victory in the 800 meters at Hayward Field. Sunday’s final was the highest-scoring event of the weekend for the UO men with Cook leading a 1-3-7-8 finish, good for 19 points. Matthew Erickson (1:48.84) took bronze followed by Tomas Palfrey and Rheinhardt Harrison in seventh and eighth, respectively. Harrison, in his Pac-12 debut, was seventh in the 1500-meter final. On the heels of Mays’ victory in the 100 meters, Ize-Iyamu took the line as the fastest overall qualifier from Saturday’s prelims. The UO sophomore backed it up with a charge over the closing meters for a winning time of 10.10, a new lifetime best. Ize-Iyamu becomes the fourth UO man to win the event at the conference meet, joining Kyree King (2017), Cravon Gillespie (2018, ’19) and Micah Williams (2022, ’23). The Pasadena, Calif., native also moved to No. 4 on the program’s all-time list, and now just trails those same three names. To close out the meet, Clayton and Grebo were back on the track alongside Katriina Wright and Shaniya Hall for a winning performance in the 4×400 relay. The quartet combined for a time of 3:27.34, another meet record and an effort that ties the fourth-fastest relay team in UO history. It was the women’s fifth Pac-12 title in the event and first since 2011. Entering the final event of the meet, the Ducks led USC by 10 points—140-130—and just needed to get one point to secure the team title outright. Oregon responded by taking more than five seconds off its previous season best of 3:32.96 from the Desert Heat Classic (April 27). Katie Clute—runner-up in Saturday’s steeplechase—and Dalia Frias secured an important five points in the 5,000 meters to create the eventual 10-point cushion heading into the 4×400 relay. The margin had been larger after USC’s Jasmine Jones was initially disqualified after winning the 400 hurdles. Jones was later reinstated to keep the Women of Troy within striking distance. Silan Ayyildiz led a 2-5-6 UO showing in the women’s 1500 meters. Ayyildiz (4:17.15) combined with Mia Barnett and Klaudia Kazimierska, respectively, to collect 15 points in the first individual race of the day. Kazimierska came back to grab a point in the 800 final. Notable:Jack Normand scored in two individual events Sunday beginning with a sixth-place finish in the triple jump. He then made his way over to CU’s indoor facility for the high jump where he was fifth, just ahead of freshman teammate Osawese Agbonkonkon. Due to rain earlier in the day, the high jump and women’s pole vault were moved indoor. Emily Fitzsimmons, 10th in that pole vault competition, just missed out on a scoring spot but did post a clearance of 4.08m/13-4.5 to crack the program’s outdoor top-10 list. She is tied with Kortney Ross as the No. 8 performer at Oregon.
OSU Women’s Track
OSU release – BOULDER, Colo. – Kate Sorensen and Jade Whitfield worked to place themselves among the top five in the Pac after the final day of the 2024 Pac-12 Championships. Oregon State received nine points from the 400m hurdles and discus. The Beavs finished in 11th place with 23 points but were in the hunt to move up, finishing only 10 points behind eighth place. “Last Pac-12s with the traditional schools in the books. A lot to celebrate with this program and some great highlights today,” head coach Louie Quintana said. “A school record in the 4×100 and near school record in 4×400 to close it out. Kate was incredible with her 56.88 school record in the 400m hurdles. She’s got a very exciting next month ahead of her. Jade closed out our scoring in the discus. he’s had a brilliant career for the Beavs. I’m sad that this chapter is over with the Pac-12, but we’re ready to start some new memories in 2025.” Four of the Oregon State’s points came from Jade Whitfield in the discus. The junior finished with a throw of 55.97m/183-7, placing her fifth in the Pac. Whitfield missed her second-place distance from last year by just under two meters but a loaded field would have made it difficult to move up. Katie Gelston competed with a throw of 48.10m/157-9, putting her in 15th. Caitlyn Marx finished in 20th with a distance of 39.80m/130-7. The next four of the Beavs’ points came from Kate Sorensen. Sorensen finished the 400m hurdles with a time of 56.88, improving the school record that she already held. The senior was already qualified for U.S. Olympic Trials and NCAA West Prelims coming into the weekend. The 4x100m relay team shaved over a second and a half off their previous best to claim the title as school record holders. Delaney Bahn, Jada Hurley, Abby Buckley and Sorensen raced for a time of 45.44, finishing 10th overall. Three of the four also contributed to the previous school best, set at the OSU PNW Meet. Sage Brooks led OSU in the 5,000 meters, finishing 20th with a time of 17:37.55. Erika Cunniam moved up five spots from her pre-meet conference ranking, finishing in 17:45.42 in 22nd. Improving 15 places from her pre-meet ranking, Delaney Griffin finished in 29th with a time of 18:01.56.