Less than four months ago, Dior Mathis was still in high school.
The freshman cornerback decided to enroll early at Oregon and underwent spring football practice for head coach Chip Kelly. On Saturday night, at the Oregon Twilight at Hayward Field, Mathis staked his claim as the fastest Duck on the football team.
The Detroit native won the Oregon football 60-meter dash competition at the Twilight, an exhibition race pitting five football players against one another in a short sprint. Mathis finished the race in 6.87 seconds, with tight end Brandon Williams following him in 7.12. Wide receivers Will Murphy (third, 7.14) and D.J. Davis (fourth, 7.17) and running back Remene Alston (fifth, 7.42) rounded up the group of competitors.
“It was great being able to run at the famous Hayward Field,” Williams said. “(Strength and conditioning) Coach (Jim Radcliffe) asked us who wanted to run, and it was my first time running track, but I love to compete so I wanted to compete in the race.”
Mathis, who participated in February’s Nike Indoor Nationals (he finished sixth) and clocked a 10.4 100-meter dash at Cass Tech High School, hopes to compete for the track team in the future.
“I’m so excited that I got to get back on the track,” Mathis said. “This is the first time I’ve ran in a couple months, so (my time) is all I can expect, but I’ve ran faster than that.”
Football players from all positions stole the show at the Twilight. Running back LaMichael James, in his quest to make the Oregon track team in time for the Pacific-10 Conference Championships, won the 100-meter dash in a wind-aided 10.62 seconds. Running back Kenjon Barner, also seeking to make an impact in two sports for the Ducks, came in second in 10.76.
“I was very nervous,” Barner said. “That’s the first time I’ve run on a track. I would like to think that I could help the team out.”
The football players’ exploits served as enjoyable run-up for the announced crowd of 6,118 to the night’s main attractions. The meet’s last event, the Twilight Mile, saw Oregon’s Matthew Centrowitz (first, 3:59.33), Oregon Track Club’s Russell Brown (second, 3:59.38) and Oregon’s Mac Fleet (third, 3:59.88) break the four-minute barrier. Centrowitz — who seized the win with a kick over the last 150 meters — and Fleet became the 29th and 30th Ducks in school history to run sub-4-minute miles outdoors.
“It’s good to run a quote-unquote real 4-minute mile,” Centrowitz said. “I kind of feel like crap today, but I got the mission done.”
Oregon also dominated the women’s 1,500-meter race, as Ducks took three of the top four positions. Senior Zoe Buckman won the race in 4:16.66, and freshman Anne Kesselring took third in 4:17.71. Senior Nicole Blood crossed the finish line in 4:18.45 for fourth place.
The Twilight meet saw many runners achieve personal-best marks in advance of Pac-10s. Among them: Alexandria Davidson in the women’s 400 meters (55.54, wind-aided), Becca Friday in the women’s 800 meters (2:07.55), Jordan Roskelley in the pole vault (13 feet, 4 1/4 inches), Lyndsay Pearson and Rebecca Rhodes in the women’s 100-meter hurdles (13.71 and 13.87, respectively, both wind-aided), Jordan Stray in the men’s hammer throw (217 feet, 8 inches) and Brian Schaudt in the triple jump (49 feet, 7 1/4 inches).
Ducks get head start at Pac-10s
Ashton Eaton successfully defended his Pacific-10 Conference decathlon title, and Marshall Ackley slipped into third place after the final event (the 1,500m) to give the Oregon men 16 points in advance of the main Pac-10 competitions.
Eaton (8,154 points) held off Washington sophomore Jeremy Taiwo (7,521) to secure the title. Ackley (7,331) was behind Cal’s Michael Morrison (7,218) after nine events but scored 755 points to Morrison’s 622 in the 1,500m.
Eaton won seven of the 10 events and posted a score of 1,002 points with a 13.79-second 110m hurdles race. Ackley finished fourth or better in eight of the 10 events.
Brianne Theisen successfully defended her Pac-10 heptathlon title with 5,917 points, ahead of Ryann Krais of UCLA (5,426 points) and Keia Pinnick of Arizona State (5,219). The Humboldt, Saskatchewan native won all four first-day events (100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200 meters) along with the javelin throw, setting a personal-best high jump clearance of 5 feet, 11 1/2 inches.
Senior Erin Funkhouser crept up the standings from eighth place to fifth place with a strong second day, giving the Duck women 14 points heading into next week. Her 5,061-point performance is a lifetime best, and she set personal bests in each of the first-day events.
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