Over the weekend the Oregon track and field team traveled to San Diego, Calif. to participate in the Aztec Invitational hosted by San Diego State University.
The meet was a three day event that spanned from Thursday to Saturday with open, invitational and high school sections. Most of the open events were held on Friday while the invitational events took place on Saturday.
With Oregon sending multiple athletes down to compete in a variety of events, the Ducks ended the weekend with multiple highlights.
The headliner for the Ducks was the women’s 4×100 meter relay team that was comprised of Marybeth Sant, Phyllis Francis, Jenna Prandini and Jasmine Todd. The team won the event with a time of 43.74, the fastest time in the world this year.
Another Duck relay team was able to win as the women’s 4×400 team of Claudia Francis, Laura Roesler, Samantha Murphy and Annie Leblanc won in 3:39.68.
Several Duck freshmen made their marks at the meet. Maggie Schmaedick ran a personal record finish in the women’s 1,500, with a time of 4:49.85, finishing second behind unattached runner Kristen Gillespie in the invite section.
Freshmen hurdlers Sasha Wallace and Devon Allen both looked impressive in the 100 and 110 hurdles. Wallace won the open section with a time of 13.68 seconds, the fourth-fastest time in school history. She was able to follow up her performance by winning the invitational section with an even faster time, crossing the line in 13.33 seconds. Allen also finished first in the invite hurdles, finishing with a time of 13.99 seconds.
Friday was dominated by the Oregon throwers as three events were won and three personal records were set by the Ducks.
Jillian Weir won the invitational hammer throw with a season-best throw of 201-4 (61.38). Greg Skipper looked strong in the men’s weight throw as well, finishing with a mark of 223-5 (68.10 meters). His throw was more than 25 feet further than the next best mark, and set a personal record for the redshirt sophomore who maintains the fourth-best throw in Oregon history.
The Ducks also won the open divisions for both men and women’s discus, with Ryan Hunter-Simms and Laura Bobek both finishing in first place.
The 200 meters turned out to be another strong event for the Ducks. Prandini won the women’s race with a time of 22.98. The time posted was a personal record, world-leading mark, meet record and the fourth fastest time in Oregon history. Allen was the top finisher for the Oregon men, coming in fourth (21.24) . He was followed by Jack Gaplin, who finished seventh (21.71).
For all of the meets results check the official stats from the Aztec Invitational.
The next meet on the schedule for the Ducks is the Stanford Invitational on April 4.
Follow Chris Keizur on Twitter @chriskeizur