Oregon track and field finished off its first day of competition at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, on Friday. Of the 14 Ducks who are set to compete at the championships this weekend, 10 competed on Friday, three qualified for Saturday’s finals, and one relay team defended its NCAA title.
For the second straight year, the women’s distance medley relay title went to the Ducks. The team, comprised of Amanda Gehrich, Susan Ejore, Makenzie Dunmore and anchored by Jessica Hull, defended its title in a time of 10 minutes, 53.43 seconds, the seventh fastest time in meet history and a new facility record for the Birmingham CrossPlex. The victory shifted the Ducks up into second place in the women’s team rankings as well.
In the men’s DMR, Oregon’s James West, Reed Brown, Jacob Miller and Cooper Teare finished ninth overall in a time of 9:41.27 seconds.
The event with the most Ducks competing was the men’s mile, which had three Ducks competing on Friday. Australian sophomore Charlie Hunter ran the fifth fastest time in the preliminary rounds with a time of 4:7.54 seconds, qualifying for his first NCAA final in his first official season as a Duck. Behind Hunter was senior Blake Haney and sophomore Reed Brown, who took thirteenth and fourteenth.
In the men’s 60-meter dash, senior Cravon Gillespie tied his personal best finish of 6.61 seconds to place seventh in the competition to qualify.
With a jump of 20 feet, 8.5 inches, junior Rhesa Foster placed fifth in the long jump competition, just six inches from the first-place jump. Foster’s fifth-place finish came off her final attempt, which brought her from ninth place to fifth place.
The Ducks still yet to compete individually include senior Jessica Hull, who holds the second fastest 3000-meter time in the NCAA, senior Chaquinn Cook, who comes into the NCAA triple jump finals in third, and Cooper Teare and James West, who will both run the 3000-meters on Saturday.
Saturday’s final competition will begin at 2 p.m. PT. 
Follow Bryce Dole on Twitter @DoleBryce.