The Oregon men’s and women’s track and field teams performed to expectations on Wednesday. Unfortunately for them, so did their main competitors.
A crowd of 9,891 fans, vocal from start to finish, electrified Hayward Field and the primary competitors. Alas, the weather did not completely hold up, with many events drenched in rain.
Three women’s events and two men’s events were scored, with the Iowa State women (18 points) and Texas A&M men (14 points) holding the early leads. Those will change over time, but the rigors of competition will hold steady.
The Duck women didn’t formally get on the board until late, as Nicole Blood finished her 10,000-meter race in 33:22.62 for third place. The Cyclones’ Lisa Koll (32:49.35) and Betsy Saina (33:13.13) finished ahead of Blood, as competitors endured driving rain and biting wind in their half-hour of running.
“The goal was to have a hard last two miles because I thought it would go a little bit slower,” Blood said. “It really picked up on its own. The strategy turned into, just hang on and finish strong.”
Oregon’s Brianne Theisen started the women’s heptathlon strongly, running 13.39 in the 100-meter hurdles for a school record and 1,066 points. At day’s end, however, it was Alabama’s Chealsea Taylor with a four-point edge through four events, 3,619 to Theisen’s 3,615. Maryland’s Kiani Profit (3,383 points) finished the day in third place.
“I was a little bit disappointed, especially with the high jump and shot put,” Theisen said. “I think I was a little bit rattled going into the shot put.”
The women’s 4×100-meter relay qualified without incident out of the second heat of competition, finishing behind Clemson (43.82) in 44.08 for an automatic advancement to the finals. Keshia Baker, who ran the third leg of the relay, also qualified for the 400 meters final with a runner-up finish (53.29) to Hampton’s Francena McCorory (52.04) in the event’s third heat.
Sheets of rain could not slow down Oregon freshman Anne Kesselring, who qualified automatically for the women’s 800 meters final after finishing in second place (2:05.16) in the event’s second heat, behind Tennessee’s Phoebe Wright (2:02.98). Fellow Duck Becca Friday, also in the second heat, failed to advance (2:09.13).
The stormy conditions for the men’s 800m provided the perfect thematic backdrop for events yet to come. In the first heat, with Oregon’s Travis Thompson and UC Irvine’s Charles Jock pushing the pace, Virginia freshman Robby Andrews unleashed a fierce kick with 150 meters remaining to win in 1:45.54, a personal best and the nation’s fastest time this year. Thompson (1:48.42) finished sixth in the heat and did not qualify for the final.
Andrews will be a hard target for Oregon senior Andrew Wheating, who won a slower third heat with a kick of his own in 1:48.80. The defending national champion was defeated twice by Andrews this season.
In the second heat, Duck freshman Elijah Greer ran a personal-best 1:46.99 in a third-place finish, but the time would prove insufficient to move on.
In the men’s 400-meter hurdles, Washington State’s Jeshua Anderson, South Carolina’s Johnny Dutch and Stanford’s Amaechi Morton all won their qualifying heats to set up another energized match-up for Friday’s final.

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