Jadyn Mays, Jaida Ross and the Oregon women’s track and field team win Pac-12 titles
Jadyn Mays, Jaida Ross and the rest of the Oregon women’s track and field team will leave the Pac-12 as champions.
Led by a sprint sweep for Mays, a win in the discus by Ross for her second title of the weekend, and a meet-record time by the 4x400-relay team, the Ducks scored 85 points on Sunday en route to a third straight conference team title.
Oregon wrapped up the three-day Pac-12 Track & Field Championship meet at Potts Field in Boulder, Colorado, with 150 points for their 14th overall women’s team title.
It will also be their last as the Ducks are headed to the Big Ten next season.
Mays was the standout performer on the final day, winning the 100 in a personal-record 11.01 seconds.
The senior and returning champion shrugged her shoulders as she soared across the finish line, breaking the meet record of 11.03 set by former Duck English Gardner in 2011.
She came back 40 minutes later to win the 200 in 22.46 as she became the seventh Oregon sprinter to sweep the Pac-12 titles.
Lily Jones also scored four points for the Ducks in the 100 with a fifth-place finish in 11.38.
Ross is the collegiate record holder in the shot put and she won that event on Saturday for her first career conference title.
Sunday the senior won the discus with a PR throw of 196 feet — No. 2 all-time at Oregon.
Shelby Moran also finished fourth with a PR throw of 187-11 — No. 4 all-time at Oregon.
The Ducks went into the 4x400 meet finale with 140 points to 130 for Southern California. They didn’t need to win the relay to win the team title, but they couldn’t get a DQ and have the Trojans win, or the title would’ve been shared.
No problem, as the team of Shana Grebo, Ella Clayton, Katriina Wright and Shaniya Hall ran 3:27.34 to break the meet record of 3:29.23 set by USC in 2019.
The Trojans finished third in the 4x400 and second in the team standings with 136 points. Oregon State was 11th with 23 points.
Oregon also had a pair of second-place finishes Sunday, as Silan Ayyildiz was the runner-up in the 1,500 in 4:17.15 and the 4x100 team — winners of three straight conference titles — finished behind USC 42.87-43.0.
Oregon was missing a couple key athletes this weekend as Maddy Elmore, No. 3 in the NCAA in the 5,000 and No. 12 in the 1,500, and Aaliyah McCormick, the Pac-12 leader in the 100 hurdles, didn’t compete. Both are dealing with undisclosed injuries, an Oregon spokesperson said.
The Ducks’ depth helped make up for their absences.
Mia Barnett (4:20.76) and Klaudia Kazimierska (4:21.36) scored seven points in the 1,500 with a fifth- and sixth-place finish, respectively.
Kazimierska grabbed one more point with a eighth-place finish in the 800 in 2:10.19.
Wright (52.57) and Clayton (52.96) added four points in the 400 as they finished sixth and eighth, respectively.
Grebo, the returning champion in the 400 hurdles, finished sixth in 57.11 to get three points.
Katie Clute, who was second in the 3,000 steeplechase on Saturday, placed sixth in the 5,000 in 16:45.40 and Dalia Frias was seventh in 16:48.79, for five points.
Follow Chris Hansen on X @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon Ducks win final women's Pac-12 Track & Field Championship meet
