Oregon’s Bree Fuqua knew she had the ability to close out the Pepsi Team Invitational with first place finishes in the discus and shotput events.
But she didn’t know how fierce a competitor Missouri’s Melanie Uher would be, and Fuqua couldn’t prevent Uher from slinging a disc 165 feet and one inch on her final throw attempt to edge Fuqua by five inches for the win.
“I wasn’t actually sure what the competition would be like,” said Fuqua, who admitted she wasn’t expecting many challengers. “But I’m glad we had some.”
A narrow difference in distances rewarded the Missouri women’s team with two points more than Oregon in the event. Even that small scoring gap was greater than the Tigers’ final margin of victory against the Ducks for the Invitational team crown — half a point — in the 18-event meet at Hayward Field on Saturday.
With 171 points, the Ducks lost by a hair to Missouri (171.5) but still finished ahead of Washington (164.5) and Indiana (107). Oregon missed its chance to claim a third straight victory at the Pepsi Invitational, even though the Ducks claimed seven individual victories — more than any other opponent.
Oregon throws coach Lance Deal said at the conclusion of the meet that he was unsure of the final results but was aware that the point distribution was scattered and positions were continually being shuffled.
“Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t,” he said, adding that he knew his athletes did about all they could by winning three of the four throwing events.
Fuqua nearly threw a personal best in the discus (164-8) in her second-place finish.
“I was kind of upset about the discus,” Fuqua said. “I had one throw left after (Uher) threw farther than me, and I didn’t really respond that well, but it gave me a little more motivation for the shotput.”
The senior achieved more success in the
shotput, rewriting the school record for the
second time in less than three weeks with a
53-11 1/4 heave that secured her first in the event.
Redshirt junior Brittany Hinchcliffe started the Ducks off strong by setting a new school record in her second attempt at the hammer throw, the first women’s event to take place Saturday afternoon. She then bested that mark in her next
attempt with a 199-2 hurl, good for first at a distance almost 24 feet farther than teammate Katie Kersh’s top throw, who finished second.
“I’m really happy with today’s mark,” said Hinchcliffe. “I was struggling a little bit in the beginning of the season, but today all that hard training paid off.
“I really wanted the school record today — I wanted it two weeks ago.”
Oregon’s All-American duo of Roslyn Lundeen and Elisa Crumley competed together in the javelin for the first time since late 2003. Lundeen threw her spear 156-5 to win the event, and Crumley followed with a 144-9 toss to beat Washington’s Tiffany Zahn by two inches for second.
Senior Sarah Malone received a two-week
suspension last Friday for violating team policy and did not compete in the javelin over the weekend.
“We still went one-two in the javelin,” said coach Deal, who did not elaborate on Malone’s disciplinary action. “Luckily (her absence) didn’t have an impact, but we’re looking forward to having her back.”
On the track, Oregon’s 4×100 meter relay team took third in the race with a time of 46.95 seconds. With an
altered lineup, the quartet redeemed
itself by winning the race with a two-second margin at 3:43.10.
“We messed up our hand-off because I didn’t have time to get my mark right,” said Oregon’s Lauryn Jordan, who rushed over from the triple jump to run the first leg of the 4×100.
Jordan proved to be a workhorse for the Ducks as she competed in five events. The junior heptathlete took first in the long jump (19-0 1/2) and the triple jump (40-11 3/4). She cleared a height of 5-7 to take second place in the high jump.
Freshman Kasey Harwood (1:01.08) and senior Kayla Mellott (1:01.66) crossed the finish line almost simultaneously in the 400 hurdles to claim top prize for the Ducks.
Senior sprinter Sofie Abildtrup finished second in the 200 for Oregon with a time of 24.46, while Laura Harmon’s 9:42.77 trip for the 3,000 was good for third place. No other Ducks finished in the top three spots for any running event.

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