Freshman Shana Grebo Breaks Oregon School Record In 400m Hurdles; Cal Freshman Mykolas Alekna Crushes Record In Discus

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

After an initial taste of American collegiate track and field, and an indoor track season, Shana Grebo finally got a chance to show what she can do in her best event. 

The 21-year-old French champion in the 400-meter hurdles lowered her best by more than a half second en route to 56.28 in her outdoor opener at the 43rd Aztec Invitational at San Diego State. 

That broke a long-standing Oregon school record of 57.03, held by Lexie Miller since 1983. 

"Honestly, I'm a little bit shocked," Grebo said. "I don't know what I was expecting for this meet because we (went through) a hard training camp a few days before. So it was like, let's start the sesaon here and we'll have something to work on."

Grebo's time is the third-fastest in the NCAA after a busy weekend that saw the two fastest times in the country come out of the 94th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays. 

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Oregon's women won the team title at the San Diego State-hosted meet with 170.50 points. UC Santa Barbara won the men's title with 177.50. 

Mykolas Alekna of California, a freshman from Lithuania, shattered a 30-year-old school record in the discus by nearly eight feet and also broke the meet and facility records with his mark of 218-10 (66.70m). That fifth attempt throw was 10 feet beyond any of the others in his series and moved him to No. 1 on the NCAA list.

Cal had four in the top six of the event and Iffy Joyner cracked 200 feet with a 61.09m best for second place.

Sophomore sprinter Micah Williams ran into a -1.5 headwind in the 100 meters but won convincingly in 10.26 seconds. He came back to win the 200 meters in a meet record time of 20.45 seconds, but that one came with a +2.5 tailwind. 

Williams also led off Oregon's victory in the 4x100 relay, which clocked 39.29 seconds. 

Williams and his relay teammates -- Ryan Mulholland, Xavier Nairne and Rieker Daniel -- went 1-2-3-5 in the men's 200 meters. 

Ezinne Abba from California won the women's 100 meters in 11.31, just .01 off her own school record, and she did it with four Oregon Ducks bearing down. Jadyn Mays (11.35), Alysah Hickey (11.51), Iman Brown (11.57) and Jasmine Montgomery (11.62) grabbed places 2-5. 

"I'm feeling ecstatic. My PR from last season is 11.30 and that came later in the season, so I'm glad I can hit 11.30 now and hopefully the time will keep coming down as we progress," Abba said. 

Mays came back to win the 200 meters in 22.80, breaking the meet and facility record of Oregon's Jenna Prandini (22.98) in 2014. Mays' teammate, Brown, also was under the record with her 22.92.

"We weren't expecting to run that fast," Mays said, referring to the recent hard efforts in training. "It was great to be able to go out there and do that."

Mays and Brown now own the first-and third-fastest 200-meter times in the country.

Oregon's 'A' lineup also won the 4x100 relay with 43.80, while the 'B' group took third in 45.79.

Boise State's Kristie Schoffield won the women's 800 meters in 2:07.66.

Alessia Zarbo of Oregon won the women's 1,500 meters in 4:21.10.

Jarrett Chinn of UC Santa Barbara won the men's 1,500 in 3:48.70. His teammate, Jimmy Chahal, won the 800 in 1:51.49.

Alexandra Webster from Oregon ran 13.36 to to win the women's 100-meter hurdles, separating from San Diego State's Danae Dyer, who was second with 13.45. Grebo was third with 13.75.

Ty Hampton of Oregon. making his collegiate debut after missing 2021 due to injury, threw 230-4 (70.20m) to win the javelin.