The Oregon men’s track and field team secured 15 entries in 10 events for the upcoming NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships after strong performances at the NCAA West First Round meet at John McDonnell Field in Fayetteville, Arkansas, according to a May 29 announcement.
Among the qualifiers, Simeon Birnbaum advanced in both the 1500 meters and 5,000 meters. Ben Smith qualified in discus with a lifetime-best toss of 58.99 meters and will also compete in shot put. Kai Graves-Blanks earned his spot in the 110-meter hurdles as well as being part of the qualifying 4×100-meter relay team alongside PJ Ize-Iyamu, Grant Valley, and Jaelon Barbarin.
Birnbaum was noted as the top overall qualifier in the 1500 meters with a time of 3:37.00. Elliott Cook and Tomas Palfrey also advanced automatically by finishing second and third, respectively, in their heat. Luke Tewalt qualified for his first NCAA Outdoor appearance as a Duck by finishing fifth over the distance in his heat for the 5,000 meters.
Smith’s performance ranked him No. 10 all-time at Oregon in discus; he becomes only the fourth man to be ranked among Oregon’s top ten performers in both shot put and discus events. Tre Betts posted a season-best mark of 16.04 meters to qualify for triple jump finals, making him the No. 8 outdoor performer historically at Oregon.
Other qualifiers include Evan Burke (10,000 meters), Benjamin Balazs (3,000m steeplechase), Kobe Lawrence (shot put), Daniel Thrana (javelin), and Pat Vialva (javelin), with several athletes making repeat appearances or debuts at this championship level.
The next round will see action from the UO women’s team on day four of competition.
