The final day of the 2024 NCAA Track and Field National Championships is complete. Oregon went into the day with 11 opportunities to score points, and the Ducks ultimately finished fourth overall.
Heptathlon | Saturday
The Oregon duo of Annika Williams and Taylor Chocek entered Saturday’s heptathlon in fourth and 10th place, respectively.
Long Jump
Neither Duck touched their personal best in the long jump. Williams’ second jump was her furthest —5.98m kept her in the top half of the heptathlon standings. Chocek hit 5.59m twice, on her final two jumps, but remained in the bottom half.
Javelin
Williams’ second throw was her best in the javelin. A distance of 35.53 meters was 14th in the javelin standings and brought her down to fifth in the heptathlon.
One of Chocek’s best performances was in the javelin. She recorded the sixth-best throw at 41.63 meters but was still 14th in the heptathlon standings.
800m run
Chocek finished her 800m run in 2:26.94, good for 5674 points and 15th place overall. Williams managed a 2:28.09, which booked her a podium place — eighth —and a personal-best 5832 points. She did so after not making the initial cut for the Championship and being added to the field on Tuesday.
What Williams is saying:
On her first season in Eugene and the atmosphere:
“The crowd out here is crazy. I'm just seeing random people saying, ‘I love you. Let's go Annika. Let's Go Ducks.’ I just love the atmosphere here and everything. The trainer's, everybody's here for me. So the support is there. I love it.”
If the Championship being at Eugene helped her:
“It was different and it helped me a lot because this is the track I practice on on every day. The way I'm thinking mentally, ‘Okay, this high jump is just like practice, run the same approach I run it in practice. These hurdles, this start, it's just like practice. This is practice.’ It's just a competition level. Just a higher level.”
On her plans for improving between now and next season:
“I'm pretty good [javelin] thrower. I know it didn’t show today, but I have a PB of 48. I'm pretty sure if I work on that more, I'll be more consistent. And my hurdles — the 800, too. I'm pretty sure if I improve on those events and get more consistent — and in long jump too. Pretty much everything. Every event I need to get better at it because I know I can improve on all of it. Once I improve on all of them, it's gonna be huge PB’s.”
High Jump | 2:00 P.M.
Cheyla Scott bowed out in the final rounds of the high jump after clearing 1.82m but still claimed a podium place and points for Oregon.
Discus | Saturday, 2:05 P.M.
Jaida Ross concluded her NCAA Championship journey with a 14th-place finish in the discus. Ross was crowned the NCAA Champion in the shot put on Thursday but failed to clinch a spot on the podium in the discus. Her third throw at 54.99 meters was her best in the discus.
4x100m relay | Saturday, 2:32 P.M.
Lily Jones, Jadyn Mays, Shana Grebo and Ella Clayton recorded the eighth fastest time of the 4x100 with a final time of 43.11 seconds. They’d pick up a point for Oregon.
1500m run | Saturday, 2:41 P.M.
The grin on Klaudia Kazimierska’s face when she crossed the finish line was noticeable from the top row inside Hayward. She finished third in the 1500 meters with a time of 4:08.22 to help the Ducks tie for second in the team standings.
100m dash | Saturday, 3:22 P.M.
Mays competed in her second event of the day 50 minutes after her first. She finished fourth in a tightly contested race. Her 10.95 time was 0.05 off of third and 0.13 behind first.
She picked up crucial points for the Ducks nonetheless to put them in sole possession of second.
400m hurdles | Saturday, 3:57 P.M.
Grebo finished sixth in her first individual race of the day, clocking in at 55.30 —another personal-best. The winner, Jasmine Jones of USC, set a new meet record and took the collegiate lead with a 53.15 lap.
200m dash | Saturday, 4:07 P.M.
Mays grabbed another top-four finish, snagging third overall in the 200m dash with a personal-best 22.19. Mays, who set her previous best on Thursday, won yet more points for the Ducks.
What Mays is saying:
How she assessed her performance across all events:
“I gave everything I had in each event. Going out there, competing with some of the best athletes in the world, I knew I was gonna have to go out there and really try to give everything I had going against those ladies. I'm really just proud of my effort that I gave out there. Being able to do it on the home track, it was really special.”
On what it meant to make her first finals:
“This is my first year making a final individually. I haven't done that before, so a national final competing in three events was like, ‘Okay, yeah, we're running we're rolling.’ It’s like back to back to back. On the home track, I really wanted to be able to make some finals and individual events. I've been at Nationals all four years in the 4x100, so I've had the experience of being on a national level but I really wanted to make individual finals.”
If she’ll be wearing an Oregon uniform for the United States Olympic Trials:
“I’ll have an Oregon uniform again here. That'll be fun. I get to put the uniform on one more time. Not technically [as a Duck] but I will always be a Duck.”
5000m | Saturday, 4:25 P.M.
Silan Ayyildiz was in eighth with two laps to run, but dropped off the podium across the final 800 meters, finishing in 16th with a 15:47.85 final.
4x400m relay | Saturday, 4:51 P.M.
Grebo, Clayton, Katriina Wright and Shaniya Hall concluded the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with the 4x400 meters. Their seventh place finish meant the Ducks would end with 40.5 points — half a point behind Texas who jumped them for the third and final spot on the podium.
What Oregon head coach Jerry Schumacher said on the competition:
On the 4x400:
“LSU Texas and us were all kind of fighting for those last team spots. We knew we had to be about three places within Texas. We knew LSU would be a factor as well, but then some little mishap somewhere in that first or second leg. They were in the back, so I was when I was watching I knew it was down to how close can we stay to Texas. The team did a great job. We finished seventh, picked up those two points, enough to keep us in the top four. They did a great job.”
On the atmosphere at Hayward:
“I can't say enough about how our fans turned out and cheered for the Ducks this weekend…There was a lot of entries today out there and there was a lot of applause and a lot of fans out there and I was really happy with that. They’re just the best fan base in the world. I can't say enough about them, thanking them for their support out there.”
How the fourth place finish fuels them for next season:
“We're always looking to build and improve and that's the ultimate goal. We scored in 10 of 13 events today. And we may have not had the big heavy hitters out there today, but we picked up a lot of points in a lot of different events. In the future, we're going to keep trying to do that as well as see if we can get a few more Jaida [Ross’] out there.”
The 2024 NCAA Track and Field National Championships are now complete. Continue following the Emerald’s coverage of the Oregon Ducks on X, @ODESports.
