Oregon junior Sofie Abildtrup said she hoped to achieve a new personal record in the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints Saturday at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif.
Abildtrup traveled to the meet full of confidence after a strong performance last weekend where she triumphed in three events: the 200, 400 and 4×400. However, while one goal was fulfilled, the other was not.
The native of Fredericksberg, Denmark, finished in second place in the fourth section of the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.01 seconds. The mark was only .03 seconds behind the section’s leader, Michigan’s Sierra Hauser-Price at 11.98, but still short of her goal.
In the overall standings, Abildtrup’s time was only good enough for 18th place among the 44 competitors in the field who recorded a legal time.
Abildtrup missed her personal record of 11.84, which she achieved nearly five years ago, by almost two-tenths of a second. Even meeting her personal best would have earned her only 10th in the event this weekend.
Kaori Sakagami led a contingent of three athletes from Japan who placed among the top five. Sakagami clocked in at 11.65, which was .03 seconds better than the second-place finisher, Daniella Vega of York University.
Abildtrup, the Pac-10 Conference track athlete of the week, later competed in the 200-meter dash, which was the event she focused on during the previous week.
Before the race, Abildtrup said she believed she would break her personal record from just one week ago. Abildtrup, who is ranked seventh all-time in Oregon history in the 200, recorded a time of 23.94 at the Pepsi Team Invitational at Hayward Field last Saturday.
“It was a good race last weekend because of the wind and everything,” Abildtrup said. “But still, I had just done the 400 prior to that and I didn’t get a really good start, so I think I can do better in the 200.”
And that she did when she satisfied the second of her two goals.
Abildtrup placed second in her section as she improved on her personal best by .01 seconds with a time of 23.93. Her mark gave her an eighth-place finish overall out of the 33 competitors.
Fellow Pac-10 foe Antoinette Carter of California won the section as she bettered Abildtrup by .08 seconds at 23.85 to give her a seventh-place finish overall.
The only other competitor for the Ducks at the meet was Clarice Hayward-Lee in the triple jump. The junior from Bellevue, Wash., said that her ultimate goal this year is to jump consistently more than 40 feet.
Hayward-Lee failed to reach that goal as she earned a mark of 38 feet 11 1/2 inches. The jump gave her a fourth-place finish overall in the event.
Her mark was fewer than two feet shorter than her new personal best of 40-4 3/4, set at the Pepsi Invite last weekend.
Hayward-Lee credits Oregon assistant coach Rock Light on working with the women jumpers to motivate them to improve on their jumps and to expect great results every meet out.
“I really like my coach this year,” Hayward-Lee said. “He’s a very talented coach and he’s very supportive and he makes me feel like I can jump very far.”
The Ducks will return to Eugene for their next meet, the Oregon Invitational, starting Friday at Hayward Field.