The Oregon track and field team had another impressive day in California, this time at Mt. Sac Relays, the Bryan Clay Invite and the Beach Invitational on Friday.

Freshman Katie Rainsberger was the highlight for the Ducks. Instead of participating in the open women’s 1,500-meter at the Mt. Sac Relays, which is filled with collegiate runners, Rainsberger ran in the invitational alongside professionals. She finished in second behind pro-athlete Amanda Eccleston with the NCAA-leading time of 4 minutes, 13.25 seconds.

The rest of the women and men distance runners headed to Bryan Clay to compete in the 1,500. Four of the women hit personal records. Jessica Hull finished the 1500 in 4:17.76, Emma Abrahamson in 4:18.32, Samantha Nadel in 4:18.75 and Kelly O’Neill in 4:26.70.

The men also had a strong showing in 1,500. In a field of over 250 athletes, Sam Prakel placed seventh in only his second race since the cross country season. He finished with a time of 3 minutes, 40.87 seconds. Just behind him was freshman Austin Tamagno, who finished in 3:41.04 for ninth.

Kyree King also had a successful day but experienced some trouble early. After multiple false starts during his heat, King placed second in the men’s 100-meters, running 10.35 seconds. However, the meet decided to rerun his heat. He again placed second overall and first in his heat and improved his time to 10.27.

But King wasn’t done yet. Later in the day, he won the 200, finishing in 23.24. Both times are now seventh in Oregon history.

The women also found success in their 200-meter dash. Freshman Makenzie Dunmore won with a time of 23.24, while Elexis Guster finished sixth in 23.58. Hannah Waller bounced back from a 17th-place finish in the 200 to finish second overall in the 400 after winning her heat in 53.13.

The Oregon throwers were also prosperous, particularly in the discus events. Cullen Prena won the men’s event, throwing 179 feet, two inches, while Kiana Phelps threw 163-7 to finish in second place in the women’s event.

Meanwhile at the Beach Invitational, in the javelin, John Nizich placed eighth. However, he was the third collegiate finisher and hit a personal record of 225 feet, 9 inches in the process.

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– After making the Final Four for the first time in 80 years, Oregon basketball is losing three of its players who were eligible to return. Tyler Dorsey and Dillon Brooks both declared for the NBA draft and chose to hire an agent, while junior Casey Benson decided to graduate early and transfer as a grad student.

– During the men’s tennis team’s 4-1 defeat of Arizona on Sunday, Jayson Amos made school history by achieving his 91st career singles win.

-The men’s golf team finished their impressive season on Tuesday with a third-place finish at the Western Intercollegiate with all Ducks hitting over-par. In two weeks, the team will head to Colorado for the Pac-12 Championships.

– After UCLA ruined their perfect season last week, Washington ended the Ducks’ undefeated home record on Thursday. The Huskies beat the Ducks 4-2. Oregon is now 36-3 on the season.

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In March, the Oregon women’s volleyball head coach, Jim Moore, and his wife, Stacy Metro, stepped down from their coaching roles. Moore was the winningest head coach in Oregon volleyball history and tallied 197 wins in 12 seasons at Oregon.

It was later reported that the couple had been fired for cause. A press release sent out by the university later that day said that “his coaching style is mismatched with the standards of the University of Oregon athletic department.”

Matt Ulmer/Oregon Athletics

In that same press release, Moore had acknowledged that his coaching style – which at times had been overly aggressive – may have been viewed negatively by his student-athletes and he had apologized. Other than that, no other information was given about why he had been dismissed.

Although it was said the Moore would continue coaching from afar, no information was given about his role during that time. Matt Ulmer, who had been named the new head coach, declined to answer questions about his involvement when he spoke with the media for the first time on Tuesday.

Assistant coach Matt Ulmer, who had been named the new head coach, declined to answer questions about his involvement when he spoke with the media for the first time on Tuesday.

Ulmer, who had served as an assistant coach for two years and one as the associate head coach under Moore, was initially named the interim head coach. He recently signed a one-year contract with the Ducks to become the official head coach.

When Ulmer spoke with the media, he declined to answer any questions about Moore. When asked if during his tenure as an assistant, if had he noticed anything that he would want to change immediately, he simply replied, “I’ve always been supportive of Oregon volleyball, and I will continue to be supportive of Oregon volleyball.”

When Ulmer took the associate head coach job in 2016, he said he had no indication that the program wasn’t going in an appropriate direction.

“I think I just do my job, and so I’m here to support whoever I’m working with and that’s the University of Oregon and the administration,” he said. “So I think I’ve always just done my job to the best of my ability, and I’ll continue to be here for the girls.”

He also wasn’t aware that he would be named the head coach until he was asked by the administration. However, when asked if he was surprised, he declined to answer. He also declined to answer about the teams’ response to Moore’s dismissal, saying he “didn’t want to put words in their mouths.”

Ulmer’s new coaching staff has been mostly finalized but isn’t yet official. Oregon will make an announcement with the names of the new coaches at a later date.

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Kyree King has wasted no time in making his mark on the Oregon track and field program.

A redshirt senior who transferred to Oregon for his final year of eligibility, King has not only tied a long-standing school record — and come close to breaking others — but established himself as a leader of a young Ducks squad that lacks veteran presence.

King joined a good group of sprinters at Oregon, although none of them had run for the Ducks before this year, except senior Marcus Chambers. The youth on the team may explain why the men didn’t do as well as they had hoped during NCAA Indoor Championships. Oregon placed third — not a bad finish by any means, but disappointing to a team that has won the title for the past three years.

King scored crucial points that helped lift Oregon to a third-place finish in the NCAA Indoor Championships. He was the only Duck sprinter on the men’s side to qualify for the championships, even though he wasn’t projected to score points for Oregon. He finished sixth to score three vital points that pushed Oregon passed Georgia for a third-place finish.

King could very well find himself in a similar role, carrying the Ducks to the finish line, come the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.

“We have a lot of young people on the guy’s side,” Chambers said. “Kyree’s really stepped up.”

Courtesy Kirby Lee/GoDucks.com

One of the reasons King transferred to Oregon was because of the competition he would face going against other top-notch sprinters during practices. After all, as Johnson says, “Iron sharpens iron.”

“I just wanted to be around a good group of sprinters,” King said. “We really push each other to be the best we can be.”

Only a couple months after he transferred from Western Kentucky, King tied the school 60-meter record, winning the event in 6.62 seconds at the Columbia East-West Challenge. Samie Parker, a dual-athlete in football and track, set the previous record in 2003, and since then, only world decathlon championship Ashton Eaton and running back Tony Brooks-James have come close to Parker’s time, tying for second on the list in 6.71 seconds.

“It gave me a lot of confidence because I’ve never been good at indoors,” King said. “I feel like I’m more of a longer runner, like the 100 and 200 meters. But this year, I ran fast in the 60, and it makes me feel really confident about outdoors.”

It wasn’t the only time King had a chance to set an Oregon record. When Chambers claimed the school record in the 200-meter at the Columbia East-West Challenge, head coach Robert Johnson joked that Chambers should be careful because King may steal the record out from under him. Chambers finished in first with a time of 20.78 seconds; following him swiftly across the line was King, with a time of 21.02.

Another reason for his transfer was more complicated: The Western Kentucky track and field program suffered cuts in funding. Although the school didn’t completely lose the team, King believed that transferring was the best decision for him, and Oregon was his top choice.

“Being here and watching people like Devon Allen compete, I see the crowd and how their energy transfers to the track,” King said. “I’m excited for that.”

King introduced himself to Oregon with a win in the 60-meter at the UW Indoor Preview in a speedy 6.62 seconds. Only a couple weeks later, he dropped a second off his time to tie the school record.

“I feel a lot faster this year,” King said. “I feel better prepared than I did before to run fast for outdoors.”

Last weekend when the sprinters headed down to Gainesville for the Florida Relays, King began his outdoor season with another spot on Oregon’s all-time list. While competing in the men’s 4×100 relay, King, alongside Chambers, Damarcus Simpson and Julius Shellmire, ran a 39.39 for second place on the school record list.

Even though King has yet to set a new school record, it is certainly possible he will before his brief time at Oregon comes to a close. At Western Kentucky, his outdoor personal record in the 200-meter was 20.51 seconds, which would be second on Oregon’s all-time list. Only .12 seconds above him is Don Coleman’s 38-year-old record, which has only been matched once, back in 1995 by Pat Johnson.

If King keeps improving like he has since he became a Duck, he has the potential to break a record no one has come close to in more than 20 years.

“I don’t think we’ve quite seen the best out of Kyree King,” Johnson said.

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After dropping its first two matches of the season against Portland last month, the Oregon beach volleyball team earned its first win of the season against Sacramento State, defeating the Hornets 3-2.

However, soon after, the Ducks fell to Boise State by the same score, finishing the day 1-1 at the Boise State Volleyball Complex.

The Ducks’ freshmen led the team against Sacramento State on courts 1, 3 and 5. On the top court, Brooke Van Sickle and Lindsey Vander Weide took down Sacramento State’s Morgan Stanley and Madeline Cannon in three sets, two of which were closely-contested. They finished with scores of 21-17, 15-21 and 15-9.

Meanwhile, it only took two matches (21-16 and 21-15) for the third pairing of Willow Johnson and Maddy Silberger-Franek to claim their victory. Ronika Stone and Maggie Scott closed out the match, winning in three sets with scores of 11-21, 21-11 and 15-5.

Taylor Agost and August Raskie lost in two sets. Lauren Page and Marine Hall-Poirier did the same.

Against Boise State, Stone and Scott claimed another victory, finishing in two sets (21-17 and 21-19). For the Ducks’ second win against Boise State, Page and Hall-Poirier redeemed themselves by winning two of three matches against the against the Broncos.

However, Oregon’s defeat came because of the results on the top two courts. In the top court, Van Sickle and Vander Weide fell to Maddy O’Donnell and Maddi Osburn after three hard-fought sets (17-21, 21-17 and 15-13). Meanwhile, Agost and Raskie had their second defeat of the day, once again in two sets. Their final scores were 21-17 and 21-12. Johnson and Silberger-Franek were also defeated in two sets.

Next week, the Ducks will play five matches, two of which are rematches against Sacramento State and Boise State. They will also face Pac-12 opponents Washington, Stanford and Cal.

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After a successful indoor season that resulted in the women’s team claiming its seventh NCAA Indoor Title in eight years, the Oregon track and field team kicked off its 2017 outdoor campaign on Friday. The distance team, led by the winningest athlete in collegiate history, Edward Cheserek, headed to the Stanford Invitational, while the sprinters, jumpers and throwers traveled to Gainesville, Florida, for the Florida Relays.

Sophomore Alaysha Johnson kicked off the action on Friday with a win in the women’s 100-meter hurdles. She finished in 12.69 seconds. With that time, she broke the Oregon school record, previously set by Sasha Wallace last year when Wallace finished third at the NCAA Championships with a wind-adjusted time of 12.81 seconds. Wallace placed sixth on Friday with a time of 12.94 seconds.

In the long jump, Chaquinn Cook also hit a personal record. She hit a distance of 20 feet, 2 inches. Though she didn’t improve on that distance during the finals, she finished in first, beating out the rest of the field by more than four inches.

Meanwhile, on the west coast, four Oregon women also earned personal records, including redshirt senior Samantha Nadel, who broke her previous PR by more than 10 seconds to win the 5,000-meter in 15:49.26.

In the women’s 1,500-meter, Emma Abrahamson, Jessica Hull and Lilli Burdon all broke their personal records with times of 4:18.62, 4:19.50 and 4:17.07, respectively.

To close out the evening, Cheserek continued his dominance on the track by winning the men’s 10,000-meter at the Stanford Invitational in 28 minutes, 46.48 seconds.

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Oregon track and field will split its team between two meets to open the 2017 outdoor season. The distance runners will compete in the Stanford Invitational on Friday and Saturday, while the sprinters, throwers and jumpers compete in the Florida Relays on Thursday through Saturday.

After making history during the indoor season by winning the 3,000 and 5,000 meters at the NCAA Championships for an NCAA-leading 17 titles, Edward Cheserek will begin his final season as a Duck in the 10,000-meter. He will lead a team of three other Ducks, including redshirt freshman Tanner Anderson in his outdoor season debut.

Freshman standout Katie Rainsberger will also begin her debut outdoor season, set to run in the 800-meter. Meanwhile, Maggie Schmaedick will begin her final season as a Duck by participating in the 10k as the lone Oregon entry.

Both the men’s and women’s teams will be well-represented in the 1,500-meter. After competing in the 5,000-meter earlier in the day, Matthew Maton will lead a fleet of seven Ducks, including Sam Prakel, making his first appearance since the cross country season. For the women, Lilli Burdon will lead a team of three.

Oregon will send the majority of its athletes – 38 of them specifically – to the Florida Relays down in Gainesville.

After winning their seventh indoor title in eight years and setting the meet record for points earned, the women of Oregon will attempt to make history in the outdoor season. Coupled with their cross country title, if the women win outdoors they will become the first women’s team to win a triple crown.

Many Ducks will ease into their outdoor seasons by competing only in relays. The women’s team will send two relay teams in each of the 4×100, 4×200 and 4×400 races. Deajah Stevens and Raevyn Rogers will compete in all three of the relays, along with freshmen Makenzie Dunmore and Hannah Waller. Hannah Cunliffe and Ariana Washington will only compete in the 4×100 and 4×200 relays.

Some of the women athletes will compete in other events besides the relays. Coming off her first NCAA title, Sasha Wallace will run in the 100-meter hurdles, alongside Rhesa Foster and Alaysha Johnson, another athlete competing in all three of the relay events.

Foster is also set to participate in the long jump. Two other athletes, Chaquinn Cook and Oregon newcomer Kiare Tanner, will join her before competing in the triple jump as well.

Oregon will also send four female throwers, including freshmen Kiana Phelps and Maddie Rabing. Both will participate in the shot put in addition to the discus and hammer throw, respectively. After decent indoor seasons, Ronna Stone and Madeline Middlebrooks will lead the way for the newcomers. Like Phelps, Stone will also double in the shot put and discus, while Middlebrooks focuses on the hammer throw.

For the men, Oregon will send one team in each of the relays. Only senior Marcus Chambers is set to run in all three. Kyree King, Julius Shellmire and Damarcus Simpson will join him in the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200.

To train for the decathlon, Joe Delgado and Mitch Modin will compete in the 110 hurdles, alongside Braxton Canady and Jonathan Harvey.

Ryan Hunter-Simms will lead a huge group of Oregon throwers, participating in both the shot put and the discus with Sebastian Barajas and Drake Brennan. Cullen Prena is also entered in the discus, in addition to the hammer throw.

After finishing 1-2 at last year’s Pac-12 Championships, Cody Danielson and John Nizich, will make their season debut in the javelin.

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Edward Cheserek, a 15-time national champion, cemented himself as the most dominate collegiate runner in NCAA history on Friday during the first day of the NCAA Track and Field Indoor Championships in College Station, Texas.

By taking the 5,000-meter, crossing the line in 13 minutes, 41.20 seconds, he won his 16th NCAA title, an all-time best.

Earlier in the day, Cheserek and Matthew Maton went 1-2 in the mile prelims to qualify for the finals, so Cheserek may not be done racking up titles during this weekend as he finishes his final indoor season as a Duck.

The win, in combination with the distance medley relay’s fourth-place finish, placed the men’s team at the top of the leaderboard, narrowly edging out Texas A&M by a point.

Meanwhile, the women’s team had a quiet day, finishing in 14th overall after the DMR team placed third in a closely-contested race that concluded with the top three teams finishing less than a second apart.

Most of the Ducks who competed in prelims advanced to the finals, including Ariana Washington and Hannah Cunliffe. They both qualified in the 60 and 200 meters, going 1-2 in the latter. Cunliffe also had the top time in the 60, while Deajah Stevens placed third. Stevens would have ran in the 200-meter finals, but she was disqualified.

Western Kentucky transfer Kyree King also found success in the men’s 60 – and a school record. By placing third with a time of 6.57 seconds, King moved on to the men’s finals while smashing former Duck Samie Parker’s 14-year-old all-time indoor record in the process.

Sasha Wallace already had the school record in the women’s 60-meter hurdles, but with a fast finish in 7.87 seconds, Wallace replaced her old record of 7.91. She also took the top time, completing the race more than .1 of a second faster than the next finisher. Alaysha Johnson also moved on to the finals, finishing in 8.05 for sixth.

Raevyn Rogers, a three-time national champion, placed first in her heat but fifth overall in the 800-meter after crossing the line in 2 minutes, 5.36 seconds.

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Oregon’s indoor track and field season will come to a climatic end on Friday and Saturday as the team heads to College Station, Texas, for the NCAA Indoor Championships in hopes of repeating last year’s indoor title sweep.

Throughout the season, the team-wide goal has been to send as many athletes as possible to the national championships and with Oregon sending the largest amount of athletes out of any team in the field, it’s safe to say that goal has been accomplished.

Looking for its seventh title in eight years, the top-ranked women’s team will send 10 athletes in 13 events, including both the 4×400 and the distance medley relays. The men are seeking their fourth consecutive indoor title and will send eight athletes in 11 events.

The meet will be broadcast on ESPN3, beginning at 12 p.m. on both days.

All eyes will be on 15-time national champion Edward Cheserek as he attempts to make history in his final indoor championship as a Duck. After breaking the 2-year-old collegiate record last Sunday, he is qualified to compete in the mile as well as the 3,000 and 5,000 meters, completing the only second triple in NCAA history. He will have three attempts to win his sixteenth title, which will be the most in history, and become the most decorated collegiate athlete.

Sophomore Matthew Maton will be joining him in both the mile and the 3,000-meter. The two will also represent Oregon in the DMR, alongside Cameron Stone and Mick Stanovsek. After Tim Gorman barely squeaked into the final qualifying slot following three scratches, the Ducks will have one more scoring opportunity in the mile.

Another huge scoring opportunity for the Ducks will be in the women’s 60 and 200 meter sprint events. The trio of Hannah Cunliffe, Deajah Stevens and Ariana Washington are set to race in both events. While Cunliffe holds the top time in the 60, Stevens leads the 200, though is swiftly followed by Cunliffe.

Although the women sprinters have been Oregon’s greatest strength this season, the Ducks are also well-represented in the 3,000. Alli Cash and Samatha Nadel will be led by NCAA leader Katie Rainsberger, who has had an impressive debut year, finishing fourth overall at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in the fall before becoming the MPSF Champion in the mile.

The final event in which Oregon has the opportunity to score points for multiple athletes is the women’s 60-meter hurdles. Sasha Wallace, who holds the top time in the event, will compete for her first indoor title alongside redshirt sophomore Alaysha Johnson.

Senior Marcus Chambers will look for his own first individual title after being added to the 200-meter entries list as a late addition.

Meanwhile, Raevyn Rogers is running for her fourth 800-meter title, after winning the event in both the indoor and outdoor championships last year. She will also run both relays, including the 800-meter leg of the DMR, which Oregon currently holds the collegiate record in.

Three Oregon newcomers on the men’s team will look to make their mark on Oregon history. Western Kentucky transfer Kyree King will finish off his final indoor season in the 60-meter, while another transfer student, Damarcus Simpson, participates in the long jump after breaking the school record earlier this year. Freshman Braxton Canady will race in the 60-meter hurdles.

Last weekend, two Ducks punched their tickets to nationals after impressive personal-best performances. Senior Maggie Schmaedick rounds out the women’s entries in the 5,000-meter, while Mitch Modin concludes the men’s in the heptathlon.

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Along with three relay teams, including both the women’s distance medley relay and 4×400 teams and the men’s DMR, 16 Ducks have qualified for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on Mar. 10-11 in 22 individual events.

In hopes of repeating their indoor title, the women will send 10 athletes in 13 individual events, along with the two relay teams. Oregon leads the NCAA by more than six seconds after the women’s DMR team broke the collegiate record. The rest of the teams are separated by their closest competitor by only two seconds.

After dominating the indoor season, the women’s 60 and 200-meters will feature the trio of Hannah Cunliffe, Deajah Stevens and Ariana Washington. All three are major contenders for either title. Cunliffe is the top qualifier in the 60 and was runner-up to Stevens in the 200.

Hoping for her first indoor national title in the 60-meter hurdles, Sasha Wallace will enter the meet as the top qualifier by .06 of a second. She will be joined by Alaysha Johnson.

Raevyn Rogers is running in the 800-meter hoping for her fourth national title. Her season best time of 2 minutes, 1.75 seconds, is ranked third in the NCAA.

The women’s 3,000-meter will also be full of Ducks. Despite qualifying for the mile as well, freshman Katie Rainsberger will focus on the 3,000 where she will be joined by Samantha Nadel and Alli Cash. Maggie Schmaedick will be competing in the 5,000.

The men will send a smaller team of six athletes in nine events as they look for their fourth straight indoor title.

Edward Cheserek could make history as he searches for his 16th NCAA title, which would be the most anyone has ever won. After breaking the collegiate record in the mile last week, he is set to compete in that event as well as the 3,000 and the 5,000 meters, where he also holds the top time.

Sophomore Matthew Maton will join Cheserek in the 3,000-meter and the mile, ranking 13th in the NCAA for both events.

Western Kentucky transfer Kyree King has proven himself invaluable to the Ducks since his arrival this season. He is ranked 11th in the event after running the 60-meter in 6.62 seconds at the Columbia East-West Challenge.

Braxton Canady (ranked No. 10) will be the lone Duck in the men’s 60-meter hurdles. Damarcus Simpson is Oregon’s only jumper, set to compete in the long jump after marking the fourth-best distance.

After qualifying for the heptathlon at the MPSF Championships with a personal best score of 7,474 points, Mitch Modin rounds out the team.

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