In the last indoor event before the NCAA Indoor Championships in Boston, Oregon’s indoor track and field team traveled to Seattle for the Ken Shannon Last Chance Invite. 

In the Pac-12-heavy weekend, the Ducks took home four wins on Friday, and four more on Saturday.

Friday’s wins came from Annika Williams in the women’s pentathlon, Jadyn Mays in the women’s 60-meter dash, Aaliyah McCormick in the women’s 60-meter hurdles and Silan Ayyildiz in the 3,000-meter run. 

Williams scored a personal-best and meet-record of 4,149 points, finishing 22 points ahead of Stanford’s Alyssa Jones and 28 points ahead of teammate Taylor Chocek, who scored a personal-best of 4,121. 

Oregon claimed three of the top five spots in the pentathlon, with Gianna Bullock taking fifth place with her score of 3,978. 

Williams placed fourth in the hurdles, third in the high jump, second in the shot put, second in long jump and 11th in the 800-meter run. The variation in skill amongst all competitors made it possible for Williams to win the pentathlon without placing first in a single event. 

Her score was within the top-16 nationally and will be considered for qualification for the NCAA Indoor Championships in Boston on March 8-9. 

Mays moved up to third place nationally for the 60-meter dash with her season-best score of 7.11. She finished 0.17 seconds ahead of her teammate, Lily Jones. This score practically guaranteed her place at the NCAA Indoor Championships. 

McCormick grabbed her third win of the season in the 60-meter hurdles with her score of 8.05, 0.08 seconds ahead of Washington State’s Micaela De Mello. Her performance secured her place in the top-10 nationally and at the Indoor Championships. 

Ayyildiz finished the 3000-meter run with a time of 8:54.19 — which was one of only two scores below nine minutes — about two seconds faster than Washington State’s Zenah Cheptoo. Ayyildiz scored less than half a second behind the meet-record set last year (8:53.95) by Utah’s Simone Plourde. 

Oregon’s Dalia Frias placed third in the event with a 9:01.82, as both Frias and Ayyildiz scored personal-bests in their first indoor season as Ducks. 

Saturday’s four wins came from the women’s 4×400 relay, Rafael Raap’s victory in the men’s heptathlon, Ryann Porter in the women’s triple jump and Jaida Ross in the women’s shot put. 

In the women’s 4×400, Oregon narrowly edged Stanford by just over a second. The Ducks’ squad for this relay included Shana Grebo, Ella Clayton, Katriina Wright and Shaniya Hall. 

Their time of 3:30.25 beats their previous season-best of 3:31.34, which is a positive outcome with the NCAA Indoor Championships on the horizon. 

Raap led wire-to-wire in the men’s heptathlon and finished with a score of 5,757 points. He placed first in the 60-meter dash, first in the long jump, first in shot put, tied for third in high jump, fifth for the pole vault, sixth in the 60-meter hurdles and 11th in the 100-meter run.

Raap beat Washington State’s Lee Walburn by 67 points and Washington’s Jami Schlueter by 89. Oregon’s Arthur Katahdin finished the competition in 10th with 5,152 points. 

Porter achieved her personal-best indoor score in the women’s triple jump on her first and last of six measures at 13.01m and won the competition as the only one to achieve a measure above 13 meters. 

Porter was the only Duck competing in the event and finished comfortably ahead of Cal’s Busola Akinduro, who was the only other athlete to go over 12.50 meters with her distance of 12.72m. 

The Ducks’ fourth win came in the women’s shot put, where Ross crushed the competition. She scored 18.39m on Saturday, 0.16m better than her meet-record score in the same competition last year. 

Ross was slightly more than 1.50m ahead of Washington’s Kaia Tupu-South, who had a score of 16.86m. She will certainly be included in the qualifiers for the NCAA Indoor Championships, as she is head-and-shoulders above her competition on the West Coast. 

The Ducks claimed a lot of momentum heading into the Indoor Championships, as they proved that they are among the best in the west and that they will be challenging for all the titles, come March 8th and 9th.