As junior Sofie Abildtrup took the baton for the final leg of the 4×400 relay in the last women’s track event of the day, she was confident she would overcome the leader, Minnesota’s Mollie Hupp.
Before a crowd of 3,514 people, who rose to their feet and cheered raucously as she ran down the back stretch, Abildtrup took the lead and won the event to cap off an eventful day for the Oregon women.
The Ducks posted 184 1/2 points to defeat Washington (169), Minnesota (160) and Colorado (100) in the 15th annual Pepsi Team Invitational at Hayward Field on Saturday. The meet was Oregon’s first scoring meet of the season.
Abildtrup finished the race for her team in three minutes, 46.92 seconds, which topped Minnesota by less than one second at 3:47.81. The Denmark native said the fans played a huge factor as she rounded the final turn.
“It was great to compete,” Abildtrup said. “I felt like the crowd just gave me an extra kick. Going over there with the home crowd in the back, I just knew I had the extra strength to go.” The women’s triumph in the 4×400 relay was one of seven event wins that also included Abildtrup’s victories in the 200-meters and 400-meters. Her time of 23.94 seconds in the 200 meters set a new personal best and placed her seventh all-time in school history.
With a shortened roster because of reduced recruiting during the past couple years, several Ducks participated in multiple events. However, that fact did not deter many of the women from their goals.
Junior Rachael Kriz enjoyed success in the high jump and javelin, despite having to compete in both events at the same time. The Toledo, Ore., native won the high jump at 5 feet 8 inches. The mark set a new personal record and was a Pacific-10 Conference- and regional-qualifying mark.

Kriz also credited the crowd for their support and jumps coach Rock Light for helping her improve in the high jump during the week.
“High jump was just incredible,” Kriz said. “That was the best feeling to do that in front of a Hayward crowd. It was sheer and utter excitement. I knew I cleared it from them before I even knew I cleared it, so that just got the celebration going.”
Kriz finished in third place at the javelin. Her first attempt ended up being her best at 139-6.
Her sister, Megan Kriz, won the first event of the day for Oregon with a throw 10 feet beyond her personal best at the hammer with a mark of 181-9.
In other field event wins, Sarah Malone dominated the javelin section with a throw of 167-10 to claim first place. The mark was more than 17 feet better than that of the second-place finisher, Washington’s Tiffany Zahn, who finished at 150 feet.
Nevertheless, Malone said she was not happy with her performance after breaking her own school record at 179-7 last weekend in the Texas Relays. The Newberg native said she had trouble sleeping before the meet and had to deal with other off-the-field issues.
“I’m OK with (my marks),” Malone said. “I’m not satisfied with it obviously. It was a hard day trying to get my head into it. (But) I’m glad I got the points for the team.”
Senior Abby Andrus, who was a part of the 4×400 relay team, competed in three other events and earned second-place honors in the 100-meter hurdles and long jump. Her jump of 18 feet 11 1/4 inches set a new personal best, half an inch over her previous best from two years ago.
“The goal of the team was to win and so we were just trying to place as well as we could,” said Andrus, who also took third in the high jump at 5-5. “I was overall very satisfied.”