The second day of the 2024 NCAA Track and Field National Championships is complete. The women of Oregon debuted in their respective semifinal races, whilst Rafael Raap completed his decathlon.
4x100m relay | Thursday, 5:32 P.M.
The 4x100m relay was the first track event of the day and an opportunity to advance to the final. The quartet of Lily Jones, Jadyn Mays, Shana Grebo and Ella Clayton recorded a time of 43.02 seconds, which was good enough to earn them a non-automatic qualifying spot in the finals.
What to watch next:
Jones, Mays, Grebo and Clayton will compete in Saturday’s final at 2:32 p.m.
1500m run | Thursday, 5:46 P.M.
Klaudia Kazimierska qualified for the final with a personal best time of 4:06.92, finishing third in her heat. Her previous record was set earlier this year, at the Bryan Clay Invitational, with a 4:08.43. Mia Barnett also represented the Ducks, but finished 11th with a time of 4:12.08, which was her season best.
What to watch next:
Kazimierska will run in the final on Saturday at 2:41 p.m.
3000m steeplechase | Thursday, 6:02 P.M.
Oregon freshman Katie Clute finished 12th in the preliminary rounds of the NCAA Championships prior to the meet at Hayward. She set a personal best of 9:56.99 in her semifinal heat, but was the first athlete out of the qualifying slots based on time, and will not compete in the final.
What to watch next:
The 3000-meter steeplechase final is scheduled for 2:54 p.m. on Saturday. There will not be an Oregon athlete competing.
100m dash | Thursday, 6:46 P.M.
Mays made her first individual appearance in the 100m dash. The senior won the event in Boulder, at the Pac-12 Championships where she finished first and second in back-to-back races in the preliminaries. Mays got ahead of the field and secured a first-place time of 11.04 seconds to advance to the final.
What to watch next:
Mays will participate in the 100-meter final, set to begin at 3:22 p.m. on Saturday.
400m hurdles | Thursday, 7:30 P.M.
In addition to being part of the two relays on Thursday, Grebo competed in the 400-meter hurdles. She finished second in her heat with a personal-best time of 55.94 seconds.
What to watch next:
Grebo qualified for the 400-meter hurdles final at 3:57 p.m. on Saturday.
200m dash | Thursday, 7:44 P.M.
Mays also competed in the 200-meter dash, where she once again finished first in her heat. She clinched a personal best time of 22.27 seconds which would qualify for the final.
What to watch next:
Mays will compete in the 200-meter final at 4:07 p.m. on Saturday.
4x400m relay | Thursday, 8:48 P.M.
Oregon sent out the all-junior squad of Grebo, Clayton, Katriina Wright and Shaniya Hall in the 4×400-meter semifinal. The group won the event at the Pac-12 Championships but ran a fifth-place finish at the NCAA preliminaries to qualify.
The Ducks got off to a good start but ended up finishing fourth with a time of 3:28.77. They didn’t get an automatic qualifier but were on the bubble to advance to Saturday’s final. Ultimately, the Ducks advanced to the final with the three-best non-automatic qualifying finish.
What to watch next:
Saturday’s 4×400-meter final at 4:51 p.m. is the last scheduled start time of the championships.
Hammer throw | Thursday, 3:00 P.M.
Shelby Moran participated in her fourth NCAA Championships. She finished ninth overall in Austin last season. Moran recorded a program record of 70.02 meters on her way to qualification.
Moran’s third attempt in the second flight on Thursday was measured at 69.33 meters — the second overall. She advanced to the final where she finished in fourth with her 69.33-meter throw being her best.
What to watch next:
Moran’s NCAA season ends with her fourth-place finish. She started Oregon’s quest for a women’s NCAA title with five points.
Shot put | Thursday, 7:40 P.M.
Oregon’s Jaida Ross has secured a spot on the shot put podium this season in every competition. She won both the Pac-12 Championships and finished first in the NCAA preliminaries, where she broke the collegiate record with a 20.01-meter throw.
Ross had the best throw out of the whole field in each of the first three attempts. She was one of the finalists and once again had the furthest throw in the last three attempts. Ross’ last throw was her best throw of the competition — although she was already the champion by the time she stepped up to take her last attempt.
What to watch next:
Ross is the shot put champion, but her season isn’t over yet. She’ll compete in the discus on Saturday at 2:05 p.m.
Decathlon | Thursday
Decathlete Raap completed his decathlon on Thursday, finishing sixth overall. A strong second day, including a lifetime best in the pole vault, boosted him out of the bottom half of the standings. His finish is an improvement from last year’s Championships, where he finished 14th.
Raap competed in five events, as follows:
110m hurdles (11:30 A.M.)
With a season-best time of 15.16, Raap finished second in his heat, good for 18th overall. He moved up one place, from 18th to 17th in the overall standings.
Discus (12:20 P.M.)
Raap’s discus throw was impressive — third best overall at 48.06m on his final attempt vaulted him upwards in the overall standings. That throw, 3.56m off his personal best, gave him a spot just outside the top ten.
Pole vault (1:30 P.M.)
Raap delivered perhaps his most impressive decathlon performance through this point in the pole vault. He cleared the bar in each of his first three attempts — at 4.51, 4.61 and 4.71 meters — to jump to the top of the pole vault standings. He failed to clear his first attempt at 4.81 meters but got it his second time around for a new personal best.
It took Raap three attempts to get over the bar at 4.91 meters. Once he did, he recorded another lifetime best. His fifth-place position in the pole vault brought his point total up to 6416, which put him in ninth place overall.
Javelin (4:00 P.M.)
The first fair throw by Raap was measured at 56.96 meters — the best throw up to that point. He improved on that attempt again on his third throw. His measurement of 58.74 meters was a season-best.
Then, granted a bonus throw after his first throw was invalidated, he managed to set a personal record, improving his distance to 60.17 and extending his lead atop the javelin leaderboard in the first flight.
1500m run (7:56 P.M.)
Raap’s final time in the 1500 meters was 4:39.06 — good for 11th in the race. He’d not only end the decathlon with a spot on the podium, but his sixth-place finish was an improvement from where he ended yesterday by 12 spots.
What to watch next:
Raap’s Championships is complete. Leo Neugebauer of Texas, the 2023 champion, defended his title in style. The Longhorns’ competitor set records with his performance. Neugebauer eventually broke his own collegiate record for decathlon with 8961 points on his way to the top of the podium.
What he’s saying:
On improving on day two from 18th to 6th place:
“Definitely, day one was not what I wanted it to be. Coming out here on the second day, I motivated myself to start fresh and believe in myself and make sure that I put 100% out there, regardless of what happened yesterday. And I was able to do that every single time in every event, I just got more fired up, and more fired up.”
On competing with decathlete champion Leo Neugebauer:
“It’s awesome. I love Leo — he’s fantastic. Not only a good person, but he works really hard for it. What he’s able to do is not just because of raw talent; he actually really works hard for it, and I’m really proud of him.”
“We actually were just talking about how appreciative of each other and [about] honesty — just being honest with each other. Even competing against each other, we’re still able to root for each other.”
On what it’s like to compete in the National Championships at home:
“It’s amazing, I mean — Hayward Field…it doesn’t get any better than that, and I felt that magic today. Especially in the [javelin], I had a moment where I got the crowd going and I put down a good mark…it felt so amazing.”
The finals will commence on Friday for the men, followed by the womens’ finalists on Saturday. Follow along with the Emerald’s coverage of the 2024 NCAA Track and Field Championships on X, @ODESports.
