Oregon track and field wrapped up its regular season at the Terrier DMR Challenge at Boston University last weekend. The Ducks set another NCAA and Oregon record, this time in the distance medley relay event. Simeon Birnbaum, Fuad Omer, Elliott Cook and Tomas Palfrey ran a combined time of 9:14.88. That time propelled them to place second all-time in the NCAA, and first all-time at Oregon. 

With the regular season over, the Ducks now focus their attention on the Big Ten Indoor Track Championships that will begin at the end of this month. The event will be held at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Heading into the conference championships, both men’s and women’s teams are ranked in the top 10 in the nation. The men sit at No. 3 and the women at No. 6. Both have had dominant seasons and have set records for Oregon and for the NCAA. With a plethora of elite athletes, here is who is poised to make a run to the championships: 

In the women’s mile, the Ducks have been dominant this year. Wilma Nielsen, Silan Ayyildiz, Juliet Cherubet and Diana Cherotich all have the opportunity to make it to the championships. 

Ayyildiz, Cherubet and Nielsen have been blowing their competition out of the water in the women’s mile. Each of them occupy a spot in the top five with Nielsen leading the flock with a time of 4:21.04. Ayyildiz and Cherubet have a 4:25.11 and a 4:27.46, respectively. 

The men’s mile is led by Cook with his time of 3:52.32 that he ran at the BU David Hemery Valentine Invitational. The No. 5 spot is held by Palfrey, who ran a 3:53.86 at the Razorback Invitational. Both look poised to be in the championships.

The men’s and women’s 3000-meters is where the Ducks have the most athletes looking to go to the postseason. Men’s runners Palfrey, Benjamin Balazs, Birnbaum, Connor Burns and Cook are the top five fastest in the Big Ten, all within 3 seconds of Palfrey’s time of 7:39.03. 

The women’s event has Ayyildiz, Cherubet and Cherotich in the top five with Dalia Frias at No. 6. Ayyildiz is the best in the group with a time of 8:42.66; Cherubet is behind her by about 10 seconds, and Cherotich ran an 8:55.42. Frias was very close to Cherotich’s time with a 8:55.78.

Men’s 5000-meter runners Abdel Laadjel, Michael Mireles and Aiden Smith are No. 2, 3 and 4. Laadjel is the quickest of the group with a time of 13:24.17. He is almost 18 seconds faster than his teammates, and is just under 2 seconds slower than the leader from Washington, Evan Jenkins.

It is most likely that one Oregon member from the women’s team will make the 5000m event, and that is leader Cherotich, who ran a 15:13.38.

The 60-meter hurdles can see two Ducks competing. In the men’s event, it will most likely be Kai Graves-Blanks, who is the third best performer in the Big Ten for the event. The women will send Aaliyah McCormick, who is the best performer in the women’ s event in the Big Ten.

Oregon holds second in the Big Ten in both men’s and women’s distance medley relays.

In field events, the Ducks are not as solid. Women’s pole vaulter Emily Fitzsimmons is tied at No. 5 with Washington’s Sara Borton, both at 4.40 meters.

Liisa-Maria Lusti is No. 4 in women’s long jump with a distance of 6.43 meters. 

Tre Betts for men’s triple jump is ranked No. 5 with a distance of 15.75 meters. 

Oregon only has men ranked in shot put. Kobe Lawrence and Ben Smith are No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, in the Big Ten. Lawrence threw a distance of 20.16 meters, and Smith threw a distance of 19.82m.

The women’s pentathlon sees Oregon’s Lusti ranked second. She accumulated 4290 points at the Razorback Invitational. Oregon has Peyton Bair leading the Big Ten in the men’s heptathlon with 6371 points, and Aiden Carter in the No. 4 spot with 5790 points.

The Big Ten Indoor Championships start Thursday, Feb. 26 and will run through Saturday, Feb. 28. The schedule can be found on the Big Ten website.