In order to redeem themselves after both the women’s and men’s teams placed second in the NCAA Track and Field Championships last year, Oregon recently added nine more sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers to their already deep 2017 track and field roster.
Four transfer students were added to the men’s roster, including U.S. Olympic trials finalist Damarcus Simpson and All-American Kyree King. Two redshirt junior transfers from other Oregon schools, hurdler Joshua Rambert, and sprinter Julius Shellmire, round out the new recruits.
Last summer, Simpson placed eighth in the long jump at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, recording a personal record of 26 feet, 7 3/4 inches in the process. Before that, he was a two-time NCAA Division II national champion in 2015 and 2016 and a four-time Rocky Mountain Conference champion at Chadron State in Nebraska. While attending Lafayette High School, located in Lafayette, Georgia, he was a Georgia state champion.
While attending Western Kentucky, Kyree King was a member of their 4×100 meter relay team that finished fifth at the NCAA Championships last year. He was also an All-American in the 200 meters and the 2016 Conference USA champion in the 100 meters. The versatile sprinter is coming to Oregon as a senior after Western Kentucky dropped their men’s track and field program last year.
Joshua Rambert is one of two Lane Community College transfers who Oregon recently added to the team. Rambert formerly competed in sprinting events, before switching to the 400-meter hurdles last year. He won the NWAC Southern Region Championship in the event and was runner-up at the conference championship with a personal-best time of 54.03 seconds.
Julius Shellmire, a redshirt junior from Southern Oregon University, qualified for the 2016 NAIA Indoor Championships in the 60 and 200 meter events. He was part of the 4×100 meter team that captured the 2016 Cascade Conference championship. As a senior at Grant High School in Portland, he was the Oregon 6A state champion in the 200 meter, and the Oregon 6A state runner-up in the 100 meters.
In addition to the transfer students, Oregon added two freshman hurdlers to the men’s team. Jonathan Harvey from De La Salle High School in Tracy, California and Braxton Canady from Paxton High School in Jacksonville, Florida.
Canady was the 2016 Florida 3A state champion in the 300 meter hurdles and the runner-up in the 110 meter hurdles. In 2015, he was the Florida 2A state runner-up in both hurdles events.
Harvey took eighth place at the 2016 CIF state championships in the 110 hurdles. Though he also advanced to the California state meet in 300 hurdles, he failed to place in 2016.
The women’s team added three talented transfer students, including senior sprinter Elexis Guster, sophomore jumper ChaQuinn Cook and sophomore sprinter Rubie Cordey.
After spending her first three years of college at Iowa University, Guster decided to compete at Oregon for her senior year. She is a six-time NCAA all-American and three-time Big Ten champion. She qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in both the 200 meter and the 400 meter events last summer. She won the Big 10 400 meter title for the outdoor season in 2014 and 2015 and indoors in 2016.
Cook spent her freshman year at Portland State, where she was the 2016 Big Sky triple jump champion during both the indoor and outdoor season — becoming just the second Viking to do so. She went on to place third at the USATF Junior Outdoor Championships, recording a personal-best of 42 feet, 3/4 inch.
Cordey was last year’s NWAC 400 meter champion and 200 meter runner-up while competing for Lane Community College.
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