The three disciplines — cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field.
No current student athlete who is a part of the Oregon women’s track and field team was alive when the women of Eugene brought home a national cross country title in 1987. In 2012, that changed when the women laid claim to the distance running throne in November.
In March, Oregon continued its run of dominance at the Indoor Track and Field Championships, securing a fourth-consecutive championship.
Next up is the biggest of them all: the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, hosted in Eugene Wednesday, June 5 through Saturday, June 8.
Completing legs one and two of the triple crown is something the women’s program has never done. Now, Robert Johnson, first-year head coach for both the men and women and former associate coach for the women’s side, has the opportunity to accomplish something that is rarely accomplished.
“That is all we hear these days ‘triple crown, triple crown,’” sprinter Chizoba Okodogbe said. “That is what we want and what we will go for.”
The women of Texas were the only program ever to complete the triple crown, back in 1986. Currently ranked as the third-best team in the nation behind Kansas and Texas A&M, the Ducks are one of five or six teams that have a legitimate shot at the team title in the championships this week.
Of the 23 events that will take place on the women’s side, an Oregon athlete or relay team holds the best mark of the year in three of the events, something only two other programs can boast. The Oregon women submit participants in nine track events and three field events. It will take stellar performances in all events for the Ducks to claim the outdoor championship.
“Everyone has to take responsibility for their own event and then it will all come together,” long-distance runner Jordan Hasay said.
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The Ducks are weak across the nine field events (including the heptathlon), with no Ducks in the top 10 this year for any of those competitions. Where Oregon does thrive is the sprints, the middle distance and the relays.
In the sprints, it starts with English Gardner. In April, Gardner ran the fastest 100 meters this year in 11 seconds flat. That time was sixth-best in NCAA history and an Oregon record. She was disqualified for a false start in the same event at the Pac-12 Championships but recovered in the west qualifiers in Austin, Texas, to earn a bid to the championships with an 11.42 time. The NCAA Championships could be the stage in which she dips below the 11-second mark.
Jenna Prandini ran an 11.74 to qualify for the championships. Her best time of the year was an 11.31.
Gardner will return to run in the 200 meters as well, as she qualified with a time of 23.34 after her previous time of 22.62 at the Pac-12 Championships. She is the first University of Oregon woman to be a national qualifier in the 100 and 200 meters.
Phyllis Francis qualified for the 400-meter dash with a time of 52.07. She had the best time of 2013 at the Pac-12 meet, recording a 51.57. She had an impressive 200-meter time earlier this season but will not participate in that event at the championships. Joining Francis in the 400 will be Okodogbe.
The 800 meters is the beginning of the middle distance races, and Laura Roesler has the second-best mark in 2013 at 2:01:75.
Anne Kesselring and Becca Friday will both compete in the 1,500 meters, the third event in which the Ducks will have two racers.
Megan Patrignelli earned a spot in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, sneaking in at the 22 spot out of 24 qualifiers.
Oregon’s most accomplished runner in school history, Hasay, will race in the 5,000 meters, as she qualified with a time just over 16 minutes. She also had 2013’s second-best 10,000-meter time, but she did not make the cut in Texas.
The women’s relay squads look to be formidable. The women’s 4×100 team, composed of Francis, Gardner, Prandini and Okodogbe, met the criteria for the championships at 44.31 seconds, the seventh-best qualifying time.
The Ducks again came in seventh in Austin in the 4×400, notching a time of 3:32.36. The quartet of Roesler, Francis, Okodogbe and Annie Leblanc holds the best time of the year at 3:26.73, set in late April.
“I am pretty confident,” Okodogbe said. “I think we can break records. I think the record is 3:23:00; I think we can get that.”
As it stands, the record is 3:23:75 for an NCAA 4×400 performance. The Ducks would have to shave nearly nine seconds off their time to achieve the feat.
Lauren Crockett will be the lone Oregon leaper in the high jump, while Jillian Weir and Liz Brenner are the only two throwers for Oregon. Weir will partake in the hammer throw and Brenner will heave the javelin.
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Oregon will lose seven seniors to graduation, three of which will be consequential in the NCAA Championships: Hasay, Friday and Kesselring. Their last meet as collegiate athletes will be on the grandest of stages in the friendliest of confines.
“Having the championships here and me being a senior is something I have been thinking about all year, and I want to contribute to that and bring home the outdoor title and the triple crown,” Hasay said.
Kesselring reflected on what it meant to be a part of the team, saying, “It is really important for us to recognize we have been together for four years. The message for us is that no matter what happens, there is someone here to catch you. This team really cares and you are loved in this place.”
Coach Johnson will also give his final instruction to the trio that has helped spur so much success for the program.
“I am sure there will be some emotion tied to it. They are an awesome group that has been together for a while,” he said. “To see them grow right before your eyes, before the Hayward faithful is awesome. To have them finish here — you could not have scripted it any better.”