Nicole Teter started it, Gail Devers, Marla Runyan and Stacy Dragila continued it and Marion Jones capped it off.
It was a day of records and upsets on Sunday at the 28th Prefontaine Classic Grand Prix, held at Hayward Field. And each one of the eight winners in the women’s events seemed to have a specific thought in mind.
“It’s always fun to come back to Hayward and set a record, especially with the crowds cheering you on,” Dragila said from beneath the Hayward Field scoreboard, flanked by scores of fans.
Save for Teter, the three Americans set some form of a record Sunday, with Dragila upping her Hayward Field record to 15 feet, 05 and 3/4 inches , and Jones running the fastest 100 in the world this year with a time of 10.90.
Devers even set a little record of her own. Wanting to come in and run the fastest time ever by an American in the 100 hurdles, the former UCLA star did just that. Only it didn’t count.
Devers, who already holds the record with a time of 12.33, earned a time of 12.29. However, because the wind reading was marked at 2.7 meters per second — 0.7 more than the limit — the record will not stand.
That didn’t discourage the 11,227 in attendance from roaring with applause when it was announced that Devers had run the fastest time in American history under any condition.
“That was great,” Devers said of her first hurdles race of the year. “I had no idea of what the time was.”
Wisdom gave way to youth after Devers left the Hayward track and American star Jones lit up the Oregon track, leaving the crowd in awe.
Despite two false starts in the event — one of which was credited to the Los Angeles native — Jones won her seventh career event in as many tries at the Prefontaine, running the fastest 100 in the event’s history.
“It felt good,” she said. “The false start flustered me a bit; 10.90 with a bad start — I’ll take that here.”
Ending the day as the ultimate record holder, Dragila, who owns the world and Prefontaine records in the pole vault, showed the audience what persistence really was.
After missing her first two attempts at a height of 15-05 3/4, Dragila seemingly stepped it up and cleared the record height. Then it was all about breaking her own record, this time going for the best in the world.
Dragila couldn’t quite get over 15-9 3/4, hitting the bar in all three attempts, but nevertheless was happy with her day under the golden Oregon sun.
“I felt like I was running good,” she said. “Maybe the world record wasn’t there, but being confident on different poles was good for me.”

In what may have seemed like the undercard to a title boxing match, the women’s 400 and 1,500 flew under the radar of the Eugene crowd.
Michelle Collins, the odds-on favorite to win the 400, did so by three-tenths of a second with a time of 50.87, but the real story from the event was high schooler Sanya Richards.
The Jamaican native, who now lives in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and competes for St. Thomas Aquinas High, competed on Sunday for the first time as an American citizen. And she didn’t disappoint.
Richards’ score of 51.16 became the fifth-fastest score ever for a high school female.
Teter’s win, on the other hand, proved to be the biggest upset of the day.
The Redwood City, Calif., native was supposed to give way to fellow American Regina Jacobs, but that didn’t happen, as the former Arkansas runner proved to be too much, winning the event with a time of 4:12.93 — two seconds ahead of Jacobs.
“The race went out perfect for me,” Teter said. “I think I may have caught (Jacobs) by surprise by passing her on the corner.”
Runyan, a resident of Eugene, took first in the 3,000, barely edging out Ireland’s Sonia O’Sullivan. Runyan’s time of 8:39.33 was only 0.03 behind O’Sullivan’s Hayward Field and Prefontaine Classic record, set in 1996.
Runyan has captured back-to-back titles in the event at the Pre Classic.
Furthering her dominance in the discus, Aretha Hill held off opponent Beatric Faumuina, winning the event with a throw of 208-03, six feet shorter than the Prefontaine Classic record, but enough to win by a single foot.
When all was said and done, Devers, Dragila and Jones left their marks in the Prefontaine record book, and captivated the crowd with their feats.
“It doesn’t get much better than this,” Jones said.