Ducks Get A Boost From Benjamin Balazs In Steeplechase; Minnesota's Charles Godfred Nearly Takes Jesse Owens' 90-Year-Old Meet Record; Wisconsin's Jason Swarens Launches NCAA Leader In Shot Put

By Oliver Hinson for DyeStat

Brynn Kleinke photo

RESULTS | RACE VIDEOS | INTERVIEWS

EUGENE — The Oregon men capped off the second day of the Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships with a 16-point performance in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, putting them in the lead with 65 points heading into Sunday.

Benjamin Balazs took home the win for the Ducks, running 8:40.93. He kept the pace, in his words, “honest-ish” for the first six laps and then decided to press with about 600 meters left. He closed in 59.19 seconds for his last 400.

Balazs said he didn’t have much of a plan heading into the race, but he got out to an early lead and felt comfortable there, so he decided to stay. Six hundred meters felt like the right distance to press, he said, because it would come down to “who’s better” instead of purely speed.

“If you put everyone in that race in an all-out 200, I probably wouldn’t win,” Balazs said.

He cruised to the win over Michigan’s Caleb Jarema, who finished second in 8:42.53. This championship meant a lot to Balazs for individual and team reasons. On the individual side, it represents a turnaround season; last year, he recorded DNFs (did not finish) in two steeplechase races, including at the Pac-12 Championship. This year, it’s been “win after win after win.”

Balazs was also enthusiastic about the team implications. After the race, he immediately turned around and watched his teammate Sergio Del Barrio cross the line in third place, adding six points to his 10. Balazs knew the team race was close heading into his race, and he said it felt good to put Oregon in a good position heading into the last day.

Nebraska sits in second with 62 points. Minnesota is well behind with 39 points, while USC, the favorite, is sitting in 13th place with seven points.

The Trojans are poised to make a big leap on the track tomorrow, as are the Ducks. The two new Big Ten additions were neck-and-neck in the Big Ten Indoor Championships as well; Oregon won by 6.5 points over USC, which lost the title when its 4x400 relay was disqualified.

Godfred nearly breaks Jesse Owens’ meet record

Minnesota’s Charles Godfred held up one finger in his post-meet interview, but it had nothing to do with being number one. He was demonstrating how far his spike had been over the line on his first attempt in the men’s long jump, which would have been far enough to break Jesse Owens’ 90-year-old meet record of 8.13 meters.

He was over the line by perhaps the width of his fingernail.

Godfred jumped 8.05 meters on his second attempt, which was more than enough to earn him a second Big Ten long jump title, but he knew about Owens’ record coming into the meet, and he was upset that his first jump didnt surpass the legendary mark, which was a world record that lasted 25 years.

After seeing the red flag, Godfred walked over to the board to see how far he had been over.

What bothered him most was that he knew he could have made that jump; he said nearly 10 times in his post-meet interview that “I know what I’m capable of.”

“I’ve been doing it back home,” Godfred said. “My coach just said, ‘Charles, you just need to go back a little bit and just do what you always do back home,’ because I know what I’m capable of doing.”

Godfred is a sophomore, so he could have two more chances to break that record.

Tyus Wilson won the high jump, clearing 7-3 (2.21m). The Nebraska senior and NCAA indoor champion only had to clear three bars to clinch the win, as the rest of the field struggled to cope with the rain.

“The guys that finished second (Kamyren Garrett and Elias Gerald) are both 7-3-plus jumpers,” Wilson said, “so for them to not even jump 7-1 today, that shows you what was going on out there.”

Wilson also struggled a bit despite the win; he got sick in the weeks leading up to the meet and said he was dealing with a “mental block.”

“Working through that mental block, it’s one of those things where my body wants to do one thing, my mind wants to do another thing,” Wilson said, “and they’re just kind of clashing right now.”

Wilson said he’s dealt with things of this nature before, and he has a few strategies to help him through them. In addition to prayer, he said learning to detach his identity from his performance has been a big help.

“At some point, you have to compartmentalize and say that ‘my bad jumping is not who I am, it’s just something that I’m working through right now,’” Wilson said. “That’s freeing, and that takes out the anxiety of it.”

Wilson is currently tied for third on the NCAA outdoor leaderboard with the NCAA preliminaries in two weeks.

Jason Swarens won the men’s shot put, heaving a 20.53-meter throw (67-4.25) on his last attempt. The Wisconsin senior knew he had won before that throw, but he wasn’t content to coast.

“I was in the mindset that I was gonna need one further,” Swarens said. “I kept that mindset, got in the ring… got the crowd involved, used that energy, and then launched one out there.”

Swarens came into the competition with a chip on his shoulder; at last year’s Big Ten meet, he didn’t make it to the final round, and he wanted a lot more from himself this time. He set himself up well with his first throw of 19.57 meters (64-2.5), which allowed him to “have fun with it” in his last few throws.

Last year, Swarens took second in the shot put at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. This season, he’s ranked first in the nation by more than two feet. 

Rafael Rapp of Illinois won the decathlon with 7,572 points thanks to a dominant second-day showing. He won the discus, pole vault and javelin, which catapulted him from fifth place to the lead, and he stayed there despite a 10th place finish in the 1,500 meters.

Despite the win, Rapp was displeased with his performance.

“To be really honest with you, I’m not happy with this,” Rapp said, “mostly because I didn’t qualify for nationals most likely, and I just know that my potential is way higher than what I’m doing right now.”

Rapp won the Pac-12 title last year for Oregon and finished sixth at the NCAA Championships last June.

USC Looking For A Big Rush On Sunday

On the track, Johnny Brackins cruised through his preliminary heat of the 110-meter hurdles, posting a 13.41, the fastest time of the day. Brackins also ran the fastest time of the 400-meter hurdles preliminary round on Friday. 

He’ll need to come through on Sunday to help keep his team in the hunt for the championship.

“I just trust everybody to do what they’re supposed to do and go out there and have fun,” Brackins said. “If we put too much pressure on ourselves to score all the points, I think that takes away from the experience.”

The Trojans will have plenty of opportunities to put up points on the track tomorrow, as Brackins, Garrett Kaalund, Max Thomas and others will lead a strong contingent of sprinters and hurdlers wearing the shield.

Brackins said winning the team championship would mean a lot to him and his teammates, especially after their loss to Oregon in the indoor championship meet in February.

“It just slipped out of our hands indoors,” Brackins said. “We have the pieces now to really dominate, so while there aren't many points on the board now, I think tomorrow is our day to shine.”

Of course, they’re not the only ones who want to see success.

Oregon decathlete Koby Kessler, who finished fourth with a personal best 7,303 points, said there was one school in particular that his team particularly wanted to beat. He declined to name that team, but USC will certainly be Sunday's biggest threat.