The Oregon men’s track and field team won its first-ever indoor national title and the 16th national title in school history, besting Florida 54-36 to win the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium in College Station, Tex.
Oregon had never before finished higher than sixth (2005, 2006) and had never accumulated more than 29 points (2005) at the NCAA indoors. Senior Galen Rupp, junior Ashton Eaton and the distance medley relay team combined to win four events, for a total of 40 points, as the Ducks, ranked No. 1 through most of the season and entering the meet, claimed the school’s 15th national championship in either track and field or cross country.
“It’s pure jubilation,” Rupp said. “It’s been awesome. It was the goal from day one, but no one said it. We stayed relaxed through the whole thing.”
Oregon encountered a close call in the preliminaries for the mile. Matthew Centrowitz and A.J. Acosta finished 11th and 13th, respectively; Centrowitz was the last person to qualify for Saturday’s finals. He ended up finishing sixth in 4:02.69 for three team points.
Rupp kick-started the Ducks’ point scoring Friday with a win in the 5,000m in 13:41.45, besting Liberty sophomore Sam Chelanga. He was joined in scoring by freshman Luke Puskedra in sixth place (13:50.82).
“He’s proven himself time in, time out,” Rupp said in praise of Puskedra. “You kind of wait for him to have a bad race (at some point due to inexperience), but he hasn’t had one.”
Just one hour after Rupp’s win in the 5,000m, the senior from Portland asked Oregon associate athletic director Vin Lananna if he could participate in the distance medley relay. With Rupp having to race the 3,000m on Saturday, he was met with initial resistance.
“I felt pretty good – a little tired from running and kicking hard (in the 5,000m),” Rupp recalled. “I was just happy that Vin let me run it. I told him we’d get the job done.”
“I was dead set against it until (Rupp) did such a great sales job,” Lananna said in a media release. “He said ‘just give me the baton in second (place).’”
As Rupp prepared to embark on the 1,600m leg of the distance medley relay, the baton cycled through Acosta (1,200m), Chad Barlow (400m) and Andrew Wheating (800m) before arriving just as Arkansas’ Dorian Ulrey took off. Rupp caught up to Ulrey with 300m remaining and sprinted past him to win the distance medley relay for the Ducks in 9:29.59.
The win swung momentum toward the Oregon men in what Rupp called “the highlight of the meet for me.”
“Everyone was a little bit down from the mile, (but) the DMR was a big rallying point. The team was so excited after that,” he said.
Eaton carried a 23-point lead through three events from Friday’s heptathlon action into Saturday, but if he was under any pressure from his competitors, it wasn’t evident. The junior from Bend set personal bests in the 60m hurdles (7.90) and the pole vault (16 feet, 8.75 inches) to increase his lead over Florida State sophomore Gonzalo Barriolhet, his closest competitor. The heptathlon came down to the final event, the 1,000m dash, but Eaton finished fifth in the event (2:47.68) to bring his total score to 5,988 points. Eaton’s second-highest indoor heptathlon score ever bested Barriolhet by 109 points.
“Coming out of day one I was feeling kind of average,” Eaton said in a media release. “I just had to start today firing off. I just cleared my mind and that helped me get through it.”
In the 800m final, Andrew Wheating added eight points to the team score, finishing second in 1:48.54 to Jacob Hernandez of Texas (1:48.04). Hernandez beat Wheating by .01 in last year’s 800m final in the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
“He’s down about it, but that’s just the type of competitor he is,” Rupp said. “He’s got to remember what kind of athlete he is.”
Rupp added that Wheating was experiencing a minor injury in one of his feet, which – on the back end of a highly competitive performance in the distance medley relay – made the race tougher on him.
“It wasn’t ideal for him,” Rupp said.
With the title already secured, Rupp won the 3,000m in 7:48.94 for added security to the men’s team title. Rupp became the most decorated athlete in school history with his third and final first-place finish at the NCAA indoors; he earned his 12th All-American award and his ninth in track and field, both records.
Rounding out the men’s top five were Florida State (32 points), LSU (29) and Arizona State (25).
Women have best finish ever
While the Oregon men reveled in their first-ever indoor title, the Duck women were not without cause for celebration. They finished ninth overall with 21 points, the best finish in school history. Tennessee won the women’s national title and Texas A&M placed second.
Oregon’s chances of a possible top-five finish took a hit early Friday, when senior Lindsey Scherf was forced to scratch out of the 5,000m, in which she was seeded third. Fellow senior Mattie Bridgmon finished 16th in the race.
Redshirt freshman Brianne Theisen was the biggest point-scorer for the Duck women, breaking her own school record with 4,321 points and a third-place finish in the pentathlon. Theisen set personal bests in the 60m hurdles (8.64) and 800m (2:17.37).
“If you would have told me before the meet that I would have finished third, I would have taken it,” Theisen said in a press release. “But I’m the kind of person who doesn’t really settle. I really wanted to win.”
Teammate Kalindra McFadden finished ninth in the pentathlon, failing to score a point but earning her first All-America honor as a Duck.
Jamesha Youngblood entered the long jump seeded 14th and finished a surprising fifth (21 feet, 1.25 inches on her second attempt), with a chance at a win. Youngblood scratched on her sixth and final attempt. Nevertheless, her best mark is a personal and school record.
Yet another women’s school record capped Friday’s events for the Ducks, as the distance medley relay team of Nicole Blood, Amber Purvis, Zoe Buckman and Alex Kosinski clocked in at 11:02.81 for sixth place and three points. Following her performance in the distance medley relay, Blood added to the team’s point total Saturday with a sixth-place finish in the 3,000m in 9:15.84.
Junior Keshia Baker earned her first All-America honor in the 400m (53.39, tied for sixth – two points), while sophomore Melissa Gergel earned her third honor in the pole vault (13 feet, 7.25 inches, tied for sixth).
“Our women took a fantastic step forward these past two days,” Lananna said in a media release.
The athletes won’t pat themselves on the back for too long, as the outdoor track and field season is virtually upon them. The Ducks’ first meet, the Oregon Preview, begins at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday at Hayward Field. The excitement from one national championship will indubitably carry over.
“It’s really gonna build on the outdoor season,” Rupp said. “Everybody is already looking forward to it, (saying) ‘What can we do for outdoors?’”
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