Coming off first and second place finishes at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Oregon track and field officially kicked off the outdoor season at the Trojan Invitational in Los Angeles — which began Friday and concluded Saturday afternoon.
Commanding all of the attention were the Duck throwers — who highlighted a small brigade that made the trip down to compete in the meet. Defending national champion Sam Crouser and teammates Haley Crouser, Ryan Hunter-Simms and Jillian Weir all had impressive showings.
The brother-sister combination of Sam and Haley were able to sweep the men and women’s javelin. Sam finished throwing 259-0, while Haley’s mark of 158-10 was more than eight feet further than the second-best throw.
Hunter-Simms was the lone Duck in the men’s discus field, finishing third with a toss of 171-10. He went on to set a personal best in the shot put by throwing 59-9.75, placing second.
Weir made her 2015 debut in the hammer after winning the Pac-12 Championship in the event last season. She led a Ducks trio, which included Madeline Middlebrooks and Brittany Mann, with a toss of 196-4. Weir’s mark placed her second in the competition. Middlebrooks finished eighth with a personal best of 162-3 while Mann’s best mark was 129-3.
Joining in the success of the throwers were several other Duck athletes.
Raevyn Rogers led a group of teammates in the women’s 400, finishing second (54.02). Christian Brennan placed third (54.61) and Ashante Horsley was close behind, crossing fourth (54.65).
Two-sport athlete Tony James had a busy day as he was asked to run two different 100-meter stretches. The first resulted in a second-place finish in the men’s 100 (10.59) and the second was as the anchor of the 4×100 meter relay that also finished second (40.30). The other members of the relay were Marcus Chambers, Nate Moore and Arthur Delaney.
Chambers also competed in the men’s 200, finishing third and setting a personal record of 20.96. That time moved him to 10th in Oregon history in the event.
Junior Annie Leblanc won the women’s 1500 with a time of 4:20.94. She crossed the line with a comfortable six-second gap between herself and the field.
Click here for a complete list of results.
The next meet on the schedule for Oregon is the Stanford Invitational, in Stanford, California. The two-day competition will begin April 3.
Follow Christopher Keizur on Twitter @chriskeizur