Ducks Weekend Sports Wrap

Oregon athletes continued to compete far and wide this weekend. Here’s a brief review of some of the Ducks teams that saw action.

Track and Field

The Ducks were back in Seattle over the weekend and continued to build on what has been a record-setting indoor track and field season. Here are the highlights of Oregon performances at the two-day Ken Shannon Last Chance Invite.

In Friday action, two Oregon set personal bests in the Men’s Pole Vault. Hunter Angove and J Kai Yamafuji each cleared 16 feet, 6 inches. In the Men’s Triple Jump, UO standout Jonah Tactay also set a personal best of 50 feet, 8.25 inches, a leap which also ranks 9th on the all-time Oregon list.

In the Women’s 60-meter hurdles Aaliyah McCormick won the race and equaled her personal best of 8.01 seconds. Melissa Berry ran 16:20.94 in the Women’s 5000 Meters which was her personal best as well. The Women’s Pentathlon saw Taylor Chocek and Colleen Uzoekwe set several personal bests in the individual events.

On Saturday, the Ducks continued performing at a high level. Camden Wheeler set a personal best in the Men’s 400 Meters, running 48.54 seconds and Benjamin Reynolds ran a 4:09.70 personal best time in the Mile race. Jadyn Mays ran a season-best 7.13 seconds in the Women’s 60 Meters final, placing second with Lily Jones just behind her in third with a personal best time of 7.30.

In the Women’s 400 Meters, Ella Clayton ran a personal best - and #4 all-time at Oregon time of 52.63 seconds. Maddy Elmore ran a personal best 4:35.25 in the Women’s Mile. In the Women’s Shot Put, Jaida Ross led a 1, 2, 4 finish for Oregon with a put of 59 feet, 9.75 inches. Ross’s was the #2 all-time distance at Oregon.

Alysah Hickey won the Women’s Long Jump with a distance of 20 feet, 11.75 inches and Elliott Cook finished second in the Men’s 800 Meters in 1:47.01.

The Ducks next compete in the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 17 and 18.

Women’s Tennis

The Duck Women traveled to play UC Santa Barbara Sunday afternoon and came away with a 4 - 3 victory. UCSB had some trouble fielding a full squad, and in fact had to forfeit one doubles match and one singles match. Oregon won the doubles point 2-1 in the overall match as Ares Teixido Garcia and Jo-Yee Chan won 6 - 3 which, combined with the UCSB forfeit in the third match put Oregon ahead 1 - 0 going into the singles matches where the Ducks picked up another point via forfeit.

Oregon went up 3 - 0 - and just one point away from winning the match - when Chan returned to the court and dispatched her UCSB opponent 6 - 3, 6 - 0. Uxia Martinez Moral then cruised to a 6 - 2, 6 - 2 straight sets win, giving the Ducks an insurmountable 4 - 0 lead. The remaining singles matches were cut short since they could not impact the overall outcome. Oregon is now 7 - 3 overall on the season and will begin Pac-12 Conference play next weekend at the Arizona schools.

Men’s Tennis

Although the women got their match played, the Men’s contest against UC Santa Barbara was postponed due to the incredibly wet weather in California over the past week and a road match against Cal Poly was cancelled. The UCSB match will be rescheduled later in the season.

The Ducks were also scheduled to host Gonzaga on Sunday and that match - at least from Oregon’s perspective - went off [almost] without a hitch. Gonzaga managed to pick up the doubles point, winning 2 of the 3 matches. Joshua Charlton and Quinn Vandecasteele did win their doubles match 7 - 5.

The singles matches opened with Oregon trailing 1 - 0 but Vandecasteele returned to the court to tie the match with a 7 - 6 (6-2), 6 - 2 win. Charlton joined him again in the winner’s circle, prevailing in this match 6 - 2, 6 - 4. Now leading 2 - 1, the Ducks extended their lead to 3 - 1 as Ray Lo scored a 6 - 4, 6 - 3 win. the Bulldogs pulled one back and closed to 3 - 2 with a 3-set victory in the #3 slot, but the Ducks then closed out the match as Jesper Klov-Nilsson scored a hard-fought 6 - 4, 6 - 7 (7-3), 6 - 0 win.

Oregon improved to 7 - 3 with the Sunday victory and are next scheduled to compete at the ASU Invite in Tempe, Arizona the weekend of March 10 - 12.

Women’s Lacrosse

The Ducks hosted Kennesaw State on Sunday and bookended good performances in the first and fourth quarters to score a 15 - 8 victory. Oregon won those two quarters 7 - 2 and while they also won the second and third quarters, those were each 4 - 3 and much more competitive.

In the first quarter, Oregon opened hot with Morgan McCarthy opening the scoring just 90 seconds into the game. Gabby Cleveland then scored two widely-spaced goals and the Ducks had a 3 - 0 lead which the Owls would cut to one late in the quarter.

In the second quarter, Oregon again reeled off three straight to go on top 6 - 1. McCarthy struck again for her 10th goal of the young season. The Owls didn’t go away, however, scoring 3 of their own in just 2 and a half minutes to make a game of it at 6 - 4. But Mara Zajac would score for Oregon with only 21 seconds left in the first half and it was 7 - 4 Oregon at the halftime buzzer.

The teams traded goals in the third, with McCarthy netting her 11th, with Anna Simmons, Katey Collins and Taylor Haley also scoring in the period. Kennesaw State also had a productive period, scoring 3 times to keep the game within reach at 11 - 7 going into the final stanza.

Oregon dominated the fourth quarter, controlling play for long periods of time until the outcome was decided. The Ducks again score 3 goals in a row to put the game out of reach at 14 - 7 on Haley’s goal with just 1:55 remaining.

For the game the Ducks spread their scoring around: McCarthy and Taylor each scored 3 times while Cleveland, Zajac, Simmons and Madysyn Sweeney each scored twice. Cassidy Eckert had a solid afternoon in goal.

Oregon improved to 2 - 1, and goes on the road to the East Coast next weekend for games against Navy and George Mason.