Oregon junior Simeon Birnbaum set a new collegiate record in the men’s 1500 meters on April 18 during the second day of the Oregon Team Invitational at Hayward Field. The event saw the Ducks secure 12 wins and seven top-10 program marks, including a school record in women’s pole vault by Emily Fitzsimmons.
Birnbaum finished with a time of 3:31.69, surpassing the previous collegiate record of 3:33.02 set by Villanova’s Liam Murphy in March last year. He was paced early on by teammate Tomas Palfrey and closed out his race with a strong final lap to establish this new standard before an enthusiastic home crowd. His performance now ranks third fastest in the world for this year and is only behind Cole Hocker’s Olympic final time on Oregon’s all-time list.
Emily Fitzsimmons also made history for Oregon, clearing 4.48 meters in her second attempt to break Becky Holliday’s long-standing school pole vault record from 2003 by one centimeter. Fitzsimmons now ranks ninth nationally for this season based on results entering Saturday’s competition.
Other highlights included double victories from sprinters Kai Graves-Blanks, PJ Ize-Iyamu, and Amirah Shaheed, as well as standout performances from Daniel Thrana in javelin and Ben Smith in shot put. Thrana threw over 75 meters three times during his debut meet for Oregon, recording a best mark that places him third all-time among Duck throwers.
The team standings saw the University of Oregon women finish first with 303 points while the men took third place with a total of seven schools participating over the weekend.
