Championship wheels keep on rolling toward Eugene

Oregon repeats as women's 4x100 and 1,600 sprint medley relay champion, with Ducks capturing third men's distance medley relay title in four years at Penn Relays

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Oregon's latest collegiate record might have been short lived Friday, but the Ducks' impact at the 123rd Penn Relays left a lasting impression on a day of memorable performances at Franklin Field.

Deajah Stevens, Makenzie Dunmore, Hannah Waller and Raevyn Rogers won the women's 1,600-meter sprint medley relay Championship of America in 3 minutes, 39.05 seconds, breaking the 2004 collegiate standard of 3:41.78 set by a Tennessee lineup that included Dee Dee Trotter and Tianna Bartoletta.

Only seven U.S. national teams competing at Penn Relays had ever run faster than Oregon, which achieved its fifth collegiate record of the outdoor season and seventh during the year, including the indoor distance medley relay and the all-time fastest 60-meter dash by Hannah Cunliffe.

With Waller running the 400 leg on the relay, nine Oregon women have contributed to at least one collegiate record performance in the past four months, including four such efforts for Cunliffe and three each for Rogers, Stevens and Washington.

"I couldn't be any more proud of these girls," said Rogers, who set the 800-meter collegiate record April 15 by running 1:59.10 at the 59th Mt. SAC Relays.

"We work hard in our individual events and it just shows when we come together as a whole."

But the celebration for the Ducks was brief when Texas A&M's Diamond Spaulding, Brenessa Thompson, Jaevin Reed and Jazmine Fray responded less than 10 minutes later by clocking 3:39.04 at the SEC Relays at LSU's Bernie Moore Stadium.

"It's a really big motivation. I feel like everyone on this team has higher goals. We're living in the moment and we want to do the best we can here, but we're also looking past this because we all have higher expectations for ourselves and each other," Stevens said. "No matter what race it is, we want to come out at every track meet and excel. We're coming out here and running against the time and that's what we'll continue to do."

Oregon joined LSU (2007-11), Arizona State (1993-95) and Texas (1988-90) as the only teams to win at least three consecutive titles in the women's sprint medley relay.

The Ducks also defended their 4x100 Championship of America title by clocking the fastest time in meet history by a college team at Franklin Field with their 42.35. Oregon's lineup of Alaysha Johnson, Stevens, Dunmore and Ariana Washington produced the fourth-fastest effort run at Penn Relays, trailing only three U.S. national teams.

"I know this track like the back of my hand, so I was really excited just to get to the finish line first," said Washington, who has seven career Championship of America watches, including four from her high school career at Long Beach Poly.

"It's definitely one of the loudest tracks I've ever been to. The crowd is always loud and ecstatic and everyone is cheering you on. I try not to let my nerves get the best of me. I knew as long as we executed the race plan, we'd be fine."

Despite racing with two different lineups, Oregon has produced three of the four fastest times by a women's collegiate 4x100 relay in less than a month.

"We all hold each other accountable and I feel like we all want it and we're all going to go for it," Stevens said. "We're all talented. We didn't go into it nervous because we knew we'd get it around. We just prayed about it and we knew it was going to happen. I looked at the clock and I knew we were going to run really fast. Our handoffs were good and I knew it was going to turn out well."

Oregon also secured its third men's distance medley relay Championship of America title in four years with a 9:32.61, with a 3:59.57 anchor split by Sam Prakel helping the Ducks prevail in a tightly contested race that had seven teams in contention entering the final lap.

"I was excited to take on the challenge," Prakel said. "I think it speaks more to our tactics instead of our fitness. You never know how the anchor leg is going to play out, it could go out hard, it could go out slow, so you have to be ready for anything. A lot of credit goes to (distance coach Andy Powell) for preparing the anchor leg for that, no matter who it is."

Blake Haney, Marcus Chambers and Mick Stanovsek ran the opening three legs for Oregon, which has won four Penn Relays DMR titles in eight seasons.

"This is a true testament to what we are and who we are as a program. For these guys to rally around each other and pull together and continue to get a Penn wheel back to Eugene is great," Oregon coach Robert Johnson said. "For us to be able to come here and win these Penn Relays on a consistent basis is definitely one of the reasons why we keep coming here. We think this prepares us for later on when we have to do this for real and it means a lot for us for our program and our goals, so it's a good stepping stone."