Oregon Ducks senior sprinter Jadyn Mays a 'poster-child for development' during her career
Oregon is at the Pac-12 Track & Field Championship meet this week and its loaded women’s team is projected to win a third straight conference title.
The Ducks, who are third in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association’s rating index, will have with them a 28-women squad that includes a collegiate record holder, multiple school record holders, and the top Pac-12 performer this season in eight different events.
That includes senior sprinter Jadyn Mays, who heads to Boulder, Colorado, and the Friday-Sunday meet at Potts Field as the most prolific scorer at conference championship meets on the Oregon roster.
Mays has tallied 35½ points in her career — 28 in individual events at the previous three conference championship meets, and 7½ from her role on three-straight winning 4x100-meter relay teams.
Last season was her best meet yet as she won the 100 title, ran a personal-record to place second in the 200, and helped the Ducks win the 4x100.
This week, Mays has set her sights on sweeping all three events.
“It’s definitely on my mind,” Mays said with a laugh earlier this week before the team departed for Boulder.
“My confidence is very high,” she continued. “This is always one of the funnest meets we have in the year, coming out with our team and taking 28 of our best women and men and going up against some of these great teams in the conference.”
Until her win in the 100 last season, Mays had recorded back-to-back fourth-place finishes in 2022 and 2021. Last season was the first time she raced in both the 100 and 200 finals at the conference championship meet.
She is the Pac-12 leader in both sprints having run 11.17 seconds in the 100 this season and 22.85 in the 200. Her PRs in both are 11.16 and 22.42, respectively.
The Ducks also have the No. 1 4x100 team in the conference — and fifth nationally — with a time of 43.16 recorded by Lily Jones, Mays, Shana Grebo and Alexa Rossum on April 24 at the Desert Classic meet in Tucson, Arizona.
“I take a lot of pride in the 4x100 at these meets, especially since I’ve been here we haven’t lost one,” Mays said. “Definitely a lot of pressure on this last one.”
A student of the game
Talent isn’t the only component of Mays’ success.
She has been a model student of her craft, said Oregon associate head coach Curtis Taylor, who admitted to being skeptical of Mays’ abilities when she was being recruited out of Glendale, Arizona, despite her resume as an 11-time state champion for North Canyon High School and being named the 2019-20 Gatorade state girls’ track and field athlete of the year.
“I thought her family was special, I thought she was special, but I wasn’t totally convinced she was going to make an impact at this level,” Taylor said. “Jadyn just listened to everything and wasn’t afraid to take a leap of faith and she turned out great. But I didn’t know she was going to turn out the way that she did. She’s the poster-child for development.”
Mays begins her final championship season as a Duck ranked No. 4 all-time at the school in the 200 and No. 8 in the 100.
Her fastest 4x100 time came in 2022 when she joined Kemba Nelson, Jasmin Reed and Jasmine Montgomery to run 42.59 — No. 3 all-time at Oregon.
Mays has also had great success indoors. Her PR of 7.07 in the 60 is tied with Hannah Cunliffe for second all-time at Oregon and her PR of 22.49 in the 200 stands alone as second all-time.
At the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championship meet in March, Mays placed third in both the 60 and 200. She was fifth in both in 2023 and third in the 60 in 2022.
“One day we were just talking and I said, ‘What do you think has made you so successful here?’” Taylor said. “And she said, ‘I basically do everything you ask me to do.’ That sums Jadyn up. She listens to what you have to say. (Sprints are) a highly technical event and it’s hard to make corrections. It takes time, it takes patience, it takes focus, and a whole lot of times in college if you’re in a technically detailed program, you have to take a step backwards before you can take a step forwards.”
Jadyn Mays wants to go out ‘with a bang’
This week doesn’t just mark the final Pac-12 meet of Mays’ career, it’s also the final Pac-12 championship meet ever before the conference comes to end.
Mays wasn’t shy about admitting she wants to take advantage of this moment to put a stamp on her career in the conference.
“I’m super excited,” she said. “You want to go out there and write your name in the history books, as the last Pac-12 champion ever, whatever it might be, overall, individually, whatever it is. Training has been going great and I had a really great meet there last year so I’m excited to try and follow it up and be better this year.”
Mays also wants to see the team go out as champions and is eager to do her part to make that happen.
“I want to try and get as many points as I can for my team," Mays said. "If I can go out there and get the double and then we get a win in the 4x100, it will help tremendously in the team point total.”
Taylor had no doubts Mays will do what it takes to get the Ducks one last team trophy.
“She’s always going to score and she’s a true competitor,” he said. “I can’t say enough good things about her and we’ve been lucky to have her on our team and I’ve been lucky to coach her.”
Follow Chris Hansen on X @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon Ducks sprinter looks for Pac-12 track & field champs double
