The University of Oregon track and field team finished a busy weekend with six event wins and nine top-10 program performances, including three new school records. Wilma Nielsen set a new school record in the indoor mile, Kobe Lawrence achieved the top mark in shot put, and Diana Cherotich improved her own school record in the 3,000 meters.
Nielsen ran a personal best of 4:21.04 in the women’s invitational mile at the BU Valentine Invitational, placing third overall and second among collegiate athletes. She was one of three runners to surpass the previous NCAA record held by her teammate Silan Ayyildiz. BYU’s Riley Chamberlain set a new collegiate record in that race with a time of 4:20.61.
Juliet Cherubet also moved up Oregon’s all-time list by running 4:27.46 in the mile, making her the third-fastest woman in program history for that event.
Diana Cherotich lowered her own school record in the 5,000 meters with a time of 15:13.30, improving on her previous best from December and moving into the national top 15 rankings.
Silan Ayyildiz won the invitational section of the women’s 3,000 meters with a time of 8:42.66.
At Texas Tech’s Scott Jarvis Invitational, Kobe Lawrence threw for a personal best of 20.16 meters on his final attempt to win the shot put competition and became only the third college athlete this season to surpass 20 meters indoors. Ben Smith finished second behind Lawrence with a throw of 19.08 meters.
Aaliyah McCormick secured her third consecutive hurdles title at Albuquerque’s Don Kirby Invitational by finishing first in the women’s 60-meter hurdles with an adjusted time of 7.97 seconds due to altitude.
In sprint events at Don Kirby Invite, Peyton Bair and PJ Ize-Iyamu posted lifetime bests in the men’s invitational 60 meters finals—6.61 seconds for Bair and 6.62 for Ize-Iyamu—placing them fourth and sixth respectively on Oregon’s all-time list after altitude adjustments.
Sophomore Cassandra Atkins recorded an indoor personal best triple jump of 13.12 meters to move up to fifth on Oregon’s top-10 list for that event; Maleigha Canaday-Elliott joined the list at seventh place with a jump of 12.87 meters.
Emily Fitzsimmons maintained her position as Oregon’s No.2 performer in indoor pole vault by clearing a height of 4.40 meters; she attempted but did not clear what would have been a new school record at 4.50 meters.
Oregon athletes Grant Valley and Brazil Neal each won their respective open sections of the men’s and women’s 60-meter dash events at Don Kirby Invitational, both achieving new personal bests—Valley finished first with a time of 6.71 seconds while Neal led her field with a time of 7.37 seconds.
The Ducks will continue their season next week at both Arkansas Qualifier (February 20) in Fayetteville and DMR Challenge (February 22) in Boston before starting postseason competition at Big Ten Indoor Championships from February 26–28 in Indianapolis.
