The indoor track and field season is known for being short. Athletes don’t get many opportunities to earn top 16 qualifying mark. The men, ranked No. 9 in the nation, will send eight men, and the No. 8 women will enter five. Both squads will send two distance medley relay teams to Birmingham, Alabama, for the 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships.
Texas Tech and Arkansas are favored to win the men’s and women’s titles, respectively. Both earned an NCAA-leading 15 entries each.
Jessica Hull had an extremely successful season, and it’s not over yet. Hull ran the second-fastest mile and 3,000 meter times the nation, and set school record in both of them. Her mile of 4 minutes, 31.03 seconds broke her previous best, also the school record. Last week, Hull was voted the West Region Track Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field Cross-Country Coaches Association. She is entered to 3,000 meters, which she also ran the second-fastest time of the year, 8:53.91.
Susan Ejore and Hannah Waller will race in their second indoor championship. Waller will run the 400 meters, with the 10th fastest qualifying time at 52.54 seconds. Ejore, coming off a season-best 4:35.83 at the MPSF Championships, will race the mile.
Rhesa Foster will compete in the long jump in her first appearance at the championships. Her qualifying jump of 20 feet, 10 ½ inches is good for fourth in program history. Chaquin Cook, the school record holder in the triple jump, added more than a foot to her previous best this season and will compete in her best event.
The men’s side will feature a good number of distance runners. Distance coach Ben Thomas was named the West Region Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year by the USTFCCCA. The trio of Charlie Hunter, Reed Brown and Blake Haney will race the mile. Hunter has the fifth-best time in the nation at 3:57.74, good for eighth on the Duck’s all-time list.
Cooper Teare and James West will both run the 3,000 meters. Teare ran 7:50.66 at the Husky Classic, the No. 7 on Oregon’s all-time list. This will be the sophomore’s first indoor championship.
In the sprinting department, Crayvon Gillespie’s first indoor championships will be no walk in the park. Gillespie’s time of 6.62 seconds in the 60 meters was the last qualifying spot. Teammate Braxton Canady will race in the 60-meter hurdles. Both will have to content with Florida’s Grant Holloway, who is the No. 1 qualifier for both events. Holloway has been beating fields in dominating fashion all season, and both Ducks will have their work cut out for them .
Freshman sensation Eric Edwards Jr ran the No. 7 time in the nation in the 60-meter hurdles in early February. But he will not compete as he broke his collarbone soon after.
Tristan James will take the long jump, and is coming off the best jump of his season. He won the MPSF Championships by leaping 25 feet, 9 ¼ inches, going from No. 17 to No. 9 in the nation.
The DMR teams include West, Jacob Miller, Brown and Teare on the men’s side. The women will run Taylor Chiotti, Makenzie Dunmore, Ejore and Hull.
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