The Oregon track and field team achieved several notable performances on Friday, including a new school record in the men’s 3,000 meters. The team’s athletes competed at multiple events across the country, with distance runners in Boston and sprinters and jumpers in Albuquerque.
Tomas Palfrey set a new school record in his first indoor 3,000 meters at the BU Valentine Invitational, finishing in 7:39.03. He was closely followed by Benjamin Balazs, who ran 7:39.31. Both times surpassed the previous school record of 7:39.65 set by Simeon Birnbaum last December. Connor Burns also finished strongly with a time of 7:40.80, making him the fifth-fastest performer at Oregon for this event.
The Ducks now have five men ranked among the top 15 nationally in the 3,000 meters, which includes performances from earlier this season by Birnbaum and Elliott Cook.
Elliott Cook also posted a lifetime best of 3:52.32 in the mile, moving into the NCAA’s top five for the season and ninth on the all-time collegiate list. “Cook becomes the fourth UO man in the NCAA top 10, joining Cooper Teare (No. 3, 3:50.39), Cole Hocker (No. 5, 3:50.55) and Edward Cheserek (No. 6, 3:52.01).” Cook placed sixth overall and was second among college competitors in his race.
At Harvard’s Crimson Open, Silan Ayyildiz, Lakely Doht-Barron, Samantha McDonnell and Wilma Nielsen completed their first distance medley relay of the season with a time of 10:49.73—seventh-best in school history.
Matthew Erickson ran a season-best time of 1:46.88 in the invitational section of the men’s 800 meters at BU and moved into the national top-16 based on current results. James Harding finished just behind him with a time of 1:47.08; Harding had previously recorded a faster mark at another meet.
In Albuquerque at the Don Kirby Invitational, freshman Grant Valley became only the fifth Oregon man to run an indoor sub-21-second 200 meters since records began for that event at Oregon; he clocked a personal best of 20.86 seconds to finish second overall.
On the women’s side at Don Kirby, Amirah Shaheed set a personal best with her fourth-place finish in the open section of the 200 meters (23.64 seconds).
In field events, newcomer Titouan Bizet reached a distance of 7.65 meters (25-1¼) on his second attempt in long jump—placing him tenth all-time at Oregon for that event.
Other notable results included Liisa-Maria Lusti finishing third and Loren Webster fifth in women’s long jump; Webster improved her season’s best to remain eighth all-time at Oregon.
The team will continue its split weekend schedule Saturday with women’s distance races in Boston as well as men’s shot put competition at Texas Tech’s Jarvis Scott Invitational and more action for sprinters and jumpers back in Albuquerque.
