A sunny and picturesque Eugene welcomed track and field action back home with open arms for Friday’s Oregon Open, which marked Oregon’s first home meet of the spring term.

Texas A&M University, Kansas State University, Wichita State University and Oklahoma State University sent their men’s and women’s teams to compete, while Utah and Oregon State sent just their women’s teams. The Open allowed any remaining slots to be filled by capable competitors, most of whom were from other universities or community colleges.

Oregon’s field athletes won in two events, the men’s javelin and the women’s triple jump. 

Men’s javelin kicked off the field events shortly before 1:00 p.m. Nine participants, including Ducks Asher Krauel, Zach Young and Pat Vialva, took part in three preliminary and three final throws. Vialva’s second attempt flew 69.16 meters, the day’s best throw by almost three meters.

“That rep was a lot of hard work and a lot of new technique that we’ve been trying to install come to fruition,” Vialva said afterwards. “It’s only our third meet of the year, so it’s a lot more difficult to get (competition) reps in. It was nice to feel that rep come together.”

In the final round, Krauel recorded a season-best throw of 62.52 meters, which was good enough for third place. Young also recorded a season-best with his final attempt, a 59.77-meter toss which secured him fifth place.

In the women’s triple jump, senior Ryann Porter and freshman Cassandra Atkins represented the Ducks alongside redshirt Maleigha Canaday-Elliott.

Canaday-Elliott’s personal best of 12.67 meters was good enough for fourth, just ahead of Atkins, whose 12.52 was good enough for fifth place. However, nobody could touch Porter. Her first attempt resulted in a foul, but her second attempt was an eye-popping 13.24-meter leap which the senior never even attempted to improve upon.

“We were thinking about one to three jumps; getting a good one in there and then shutting it down,” Porter said afterwards. “There’s a couple competitors in that field, so I was a little bit (worried) but I figured it would be good. It was a great jump for me, a great start.”

Oregon athletes appeared in most other events, but didn’t pick up any more individual wins. No Ducks competed in the men’s high jump, the men’s shot put, the men’s discus, the women’s high jump or the women’s discus.

Women’s pole vault saw four Ducks among the fifteen athletes competing. Juniors Isabella Nilsen and Emily Fitzsimmons both achieved season bests of 4.18 meters, which put them into the top four alongside Texas A&M’s Heather Abadie and University of Central Missouri alum Madison Wulfekotter.

All four competitors achieved 4.18 meters, with Abadie the only one to reach 4.23 meters. Wulfekotter, who achieved 4.18 meters in her first attempt, finished second. Nilsen achieved the same mark on her second attempt, which earned her a third-place finish, while Fitzsimmons achieved it on her third attempt and finished fourth.

Junior Hannah Ganashamoorthy was Oregon’s only participant in the women’s long jump. Unfortunately, she fouled in four of her six attempts. Ganashamoorthy’s best completed jump of 5.37 meters was only good enough for sixth place. The top four finishers all achieved personal bests, with the University of Northern Colorado’s Kiana Van Haaren traveling a winning 6.24 meters.

The seven competitors in men’s long jump included Oregon redshirts Cheikh M’Baye and Owen Phillips, as well as UO Running Club members Frederick Ford and A’Lante Owens-Player. 

M’Baye set a personal best with his first jump, which traveled 7.20 meters and earned him a third-place finish behind Wichita State freshmen Travon Williams (7.22 meters) and Darius Graham (7.21 meters). Phillips finished fourth (6.81 meters), ahead of Ford in fifth (6.63 meters) and Owens-Player in seventh (6.50 meters).

Women’s javelin fielded 15 competitors, including two Ducks in junior Josephine Krohn and senior Kohana Nakato. Krohn’s personal best of 46.38 meters was good enough for seventh place while Nakato’s 47.03-meter throw earned her sixth place. Oregon State’s Isabelle Esler won with a personal best of 53.35 meters.

Freshman Joey Bonacci and senior Kyle Gibbs were two of 11 competitors in the men’s pole vault. Bonacci successfully achieved 4.76 meters on his second attempt but failed to secure a would-be personal best of 4.86 meters. 

Gibbs didn’t enter the competition until the bar had been raised to 5.16 meters. After succeeding at that height, Gibbs passed on attempting 5.26 meters, putting him into the top three with A&M juniors Jack Man III and Aleksandr Solovev.

Solovev, the Russian 2024 indoor national champion who won three of the six indoor meets he competed in last year, succeeded in his first attempt to jump 5.36 meters while Gibbs failed on all three attempts. Because Man III successfully tried 5.26 meters, he took second place without attempting to go any higher, giving Solovev the win and pushing Gibbs down to third.

Owens-Player also competed in the men’s triple jump, which was the last Friday field event to include UO participants. His sixth jump (14.27 meters) was his best, but was only good enough for fourth place out of five participants.

Though nearly all Oregon Open events concluded on Friday, the meet itself won’t technically end until Saturday. Men’s hammer throw is scheduled for 1:45 p.m., with women’s hammer throw to take place afterwards at 3:00 p.m. 

The Oregon Invitational’s field events will then begin at 4:00 p.m. Saturday with women’s discus. Track events will start with the women’s 1500-meter following the 4:55 p.m. national anthem. The meet’s final event, the men’s 4×400-meter relay, is scheduled to start at 7:45 p.m.