The Oregon women’s track and field team showed its competition once again that it had a stronghold on throwing events.
The Ducks collaborated for first- place finishes in three of the four hurling competitions at the Golden Bear Invitational in Berkeley, Calif., on Saturday.
In the javelin, Oregon’s throwers had three of the top four marks, which all exceeded Regional qualifying requirements.
Redshirt senior Sarah Malone ended up just 2 1/2 feet shy of her school record with a 177-1 heave, 18 feet farther than teammate Roslyn Lundeen, who finished second with a 158-9 spearing. Elisa Crumley finished fourth with a toss of 143-3.
“I got my best (mark) on my first throw and had a pretty good series overall,” said Malone, whose last competition was the Oregon Preview on March 19. “I wasn’t worried coming in with my previous season-best since I treated the Preview more like a practice — so this was more like my first meet of the season.
“Technically I’m doing things better and am looking forward to getting out there again at home really soon.”
Senior Bree Fuqua anchored the shot put for Oregon with a crater at 51-9, two feet better than second-place finisher Missy Faubus (49-3 3/4) of California. Fuqua last won the discus event at the Oregon Preview and finished second at last week’s Pepsi Team Invitational.
Unattached thrower Emily Stout and Faubus edged out Fuqua in the discus. Fuqua, whose personal record is 165-7 in the event, hit the 153-3 mark.
Oregon hammer throwers
Brittany Hinchcliffe and Katie Kersh sandwiched California’s Giulia Urlando in the top three spots of the event. Hinchcliffe, who set the school record last weekend, recorded a 195-10 throw, almost 15 feet more than Urlando. Kersh finished third with a 171-4 sling.
Runners Kasey Harwood and Kayla Mellott crossed the finish line first and second for Oregon in the 400-meter hurdles for the second straight meet. Harwood, a freshman, finished the race in 60.73 seconds; Mellott completed it in 61.57.
Harwood shaved off enough time from her previous mark to qualify for Regionals, and she jumped two spots to eighth on Oregon’s all-time list for that event. The Polson, Mont., native missed a Regional qualifying mark in her outdoor season debut last week, which was the first time she competed in the 400 hurdles.
Senior sprinter Sofie Abildtrup took third in the 200 with a time of 24.32. California’s Shannan Hawes finished only .02 seconds ahead to capture second place behind Houston’s Kiesha Howard (23.89).
Transfer junior Lauryn Jordan saw limited success for Oregon. She finished fourth in the long jump with an outdoor season best of 19-3 1/2. The Stockton, Calif., native did not fare so well in the triple jump. She finished in sixth place with a 39-4 lunge.
Oregon’s top finisher in any of the three jumping events was senior Rachael Kriz-Wallace, who cleared
5-5 to finish third in the high jump.
The Ducks’ 4×100 relay team finished third (46.83) behind California (45.07) and Portland State (46.29).
Freshman Julie Schmidt-Scherer (56.65) finished fourth in the 400 for Oregon, while senior Michelle Donovan (56.98) finished right
behind her teammate for fifth.

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