Call them the Ducks, or call them the women of Oregon. They may now be called back-to-back national champions, a first for an Oregon women’s sport.
Fueled by NCAA record-setting pentathlete Brianne Theisen and a breakout meet by Jordan Hasay, the Oregon women successfully defended their 2010 national title at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on Friday and Saturday.
The national title is the fifth for the women’s track and cross country programs and the 18th in school history.
Theisen kicked off NCAA Indoors, held at Gilliam Indoor Stadium in College Station, Texas, by breaking her NCAA pentathlon record, scoring 4,540 points. The Humboldt, Saskatchewan, native set personal bests in the 60-meter hurdles (8.35 seconds) and 800 meters (2:11.82) and set a pentathlon personal best in the high jump (6 feet, 0.25 inches). Her mark was 10 points off the Canadian national record, set by Jill Ross-Griffen in 1982.
“It was very up and down — good parts and terrible,” Theisen said. “The second two events (shot put and long jump) were not so good. For the past couple weeks, I’ve had a little back pain — those two events aggravated it.”
Theisen’s previous NCAA record of 4,507 points, set Jan. 28 at the Washington Invitational, was disputed because of Dempsey Indoor Facility’s oversized track. Her national title-winning mark on Friday will have no such issues.
“I was really conscious of the score, comparing it to what I’d done in Washington,” Theisen said. “I was struggling mentally, and struggling physically in the shot put and long jump.”
If Hasay was ever mentally rattled — especially after teammate Alex Kosinski withdrew from the meet Wednesday after suffering a back injury — she never once showed it.
Hasay anchored the women’s distance medley relay to a second-place finish, in a school-record 10:52.90. Anne Kesselring (1,200 meters), Chizoba Okodogbe (400 meters) and Becca Friday (800m) passed the baton to Hasay with the lead, but Villanova’s Sheila Reid outkicked her to win in 10:52.52.
Those eight team points would give way to a big Saturday. Hasay started it by shattering LeAnn Warren’s 29-year-old Oregon record for the mile, capturing her first individual indoor national title in 4:33.01. (Warren ran 4:33.26.) Senior Zoe Buckman hit a personal best in 4:33.76 (third-fastest in school history), with Kesselring finishing fourth (4:34.96, fourth-fastest in school history).
All of a sudden, the Ducks had 21 points, in impressive fashion.
“That was so exciting,” junior Amber Purvis said. “In that race you never know (what will happen) — I’m so proud of them.”
Purvis scored a combined six points for the Ducks, finishing fifth in the 60-meter dash final (7.22 seconds) and seventh at 200 meters (23.17). Her 60m qualifying time (7.20) was a new Oregon record.
“I’m pretty content about these times,” she said. “The way I run the 60 is the way I run the 100 (meter dash). This year I’ll be pretty fast.”
Melissa Gergel picked up a fourth-place finish in the women’s pole vault (14 feet, 3.5 inches), and Jamesha Youngblood placed third in the long jump (20 feet, 11.75 inches). Those marks combined to give the Ducks the team title entering the 3,000 meters.
Hasay, a native of Arroyo Grande, Calif., then turned in arguably her most impressive performance of the weekend. She outkicked Villanova’s Reid down the stretch to win in 9:13.71.
“That’s when the team was most excited,” Theisen said.
A patchwork mile relay (Okodogbe, Theisen, Purvis and freshman Laura Roesler) closed out the meet with an eighth-place finish, in 3:34.98, to confirm what was already known.
Oregon finished with 67 team points. Texas came in second with 38, followed by LSU (37), Arkansas (35) and host Texas A&M (32).
Klech shines as men disappoint
Oregon senior David Klech handled the second multievent competition of his life with grace and aplomb, setting four personal bests in a sixth-place finish for the Ducks. The San Ramon, Calif., native’s 5,831 points is the second-best score in school history, behind current world record-holder Ashton Eaton, who was in attendance Saturday in College Station.
“Getting sixth is a big accomplishment for me,” Klech said. “(The transition has) been really good. Coach (Jamie) Cook has been amazing. There’s a lot of events that I’ve never done before, and I know he gets frustrated.”
Though Klech made a major breakthrough, his teammates suffered setback after setback.
A sick Elijah Greer failed to qualify for the men’s 800m final. Mac Fleet struggled to a last-place finish in his mile heat, and Luke Puskedra finished 14th in the 5,000 meters.
In the distance medley relay, Matthew Centrowitz received the baton in the lead for his anchor leg before another competitor stepped on his shoe. Centrowitz lost the shoe, stopped to put it on, and lost enough ground to finish 10th in the event.
“Anything that could have went bad did,” Theisen said. “I feel bad for them.”
Centrowitz did salvage his NCAA experience with a fourth-place finish (8:04.88) and five team points in the 3,000m. The Ducks’ eight points put them in a tie for 26th in the team standings.
Florida won its second straight indoor men’s title, scoring 52 points to hold off Texas A&M (40) and Brigham Young (34).
[email protected]