Simeon Birnbaum Puts Exclamation Point On Ducks' Win With Emphatic 5,000 Meters Victory; Expected Big Day For USC Undone By Early DQ For Triple Jumper

By Oliver Hinson for DyeStat

Keenan Gray photo

RESULTS | RACE VIDEOS | INTERVIEWS

EUGENE — Plenty of things went wrong for the Trojans, and plenty more things went right for the Ducks. In the end, the Oregon men dominated the Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field with a 110-point performance.

Head coach Jerry Schumacher said he knew his men’s team was not favored to win, but that only helped his athletes.

“They were hungry,” Schumacher said, “and eager to compete. They wanted to get out there. I think you could see that in every event that they contested. They were fighting every step of the way.”

Oregon held a slight lead over Minnesota heading into Day 3, while USC lingered far behind with only seven points, but the Trojans had qualified many athletes for Sunday’s track finals. Star hurdler Johnny Brackins said on Saturday that he knew he and his teammates would need a big day to come out on top, but he trusted everyone to do their respective jobs.

It didn't go as planned. USC finished fourth in the team standings with 78 points; Minnesota and Wisconsin tied for second with 81.

The day started off with a bad omen for USC. Triple jumper Jaren Holmes was disqualified after receiving a gold medal for his apparent win in the event. He was one of a few athletes to have his spikes randomly checked for compliance after his competition, and they were found to be illegal. There are rules in place that limit the maximum thickness of the sole to be  25 millimeters. 

After his disqualification, Holmes promptly threw the spikes in the nearest trash bin.

Illinois’ Viktor Morozov was bumped to first place with his jump of 15.63 meters (51-3.50). He told reportrs that half of the field was wearing illegal spikes. All of the athletes had their spikes inspected before competing inside a tent in the warmup area, but Morozov said the inspectors at that tent “probably don’t know details like that.”

Holmes’ disqualification took 10 points off the board for USC, and the Trojans were unable to regain momentum. The men’s 4x100 meter relay squad, which featured two sub-10 sprinters, took second to Minnesota; Devin Augustine, the Gophers’ anchor, surged ahead of USC’s Eddie Nketia.

“I knew that once I gave Devin the baton in a great position,” third leg Aaron Charles said, “he was gonna take it all.”

USC's Johnny Brackins also had a tough day. The favorite in two hurdles races, he finished third in the 110-meter hurdles and eighth in the 400 meter hurdles (he took a spill in the latter), scoring seven points overall.

Meanwhile, the Ducks took advantage of nearly every opportunity. They had already built up a solid cushion with their performances in the 10,000 meters and 3,000-meter steeplechase on the first two days (those events earned them 39 points in total), but they continued to find their stride on Sunday.

Oregon started with eight points from Safin Wills in the triple jump and five from Aidan Elbettar in the discus, but the success in the distance events made the difference. 

The men’s 1,500 meters final played out even more tactically than the heats — leaders came through the first 700 meters in just under two minutes — which put Simeon Birnbaum in an advantageous position at the bell. He closed in 51 seconds to take third overall, only losing to Wisconsin’s Adam Spencer, a Paris Olympian, and Washington’s Nathan Green, the 2023 NCAA champion. Birnbaum and Rheinhardt Harrison, who finished sixth, put up nine points for Oregon in that event.

However, Birnbaum wasn’t pleased with that performance; he said before the meet that he didn’t want to see anyone in a non-Oregon jersey win that race. The sophomore tends to take pride in his finish, so being outkicked by Spencer and Green, regardless of their accolades, put a sour taste in his mouth.

About an hour after that race, as Birnbaum was getting a massage before the 5,000 meters final, he looked at his phone and saw that his team was still far ahead of USC, which was not supposed to happen on paper. 

“I was like, ‘Alright, I can really just put this away in the 5k, so I’m gonna go out there and win, I’m gonna go out there and ice this meet for us,’” Birnbaum said.

And ice it, he did. In a much more honestly-paced race — thanks to the Wisconsin men, some of whom needed regional qualifying marks — Birnbaum earned his redemption, breaking Moh Ahmed’s meet record by nearly 10 seconds and putting the final 10 points on the board for Oregon with a 13:31.87 performance. 

To do it at Hayward Field was icing on the cake, he said.

“Whenever an Oregon uniform takes the lead, you feel a surge in the energy, a surge in the crowd,” Birnbaum said. “With a lap to go, I took the lead, and the crowd started roaring, and I was like, ‘This is awesome.’”

Birnbaum waved to the crowd as he barreled down the home stretch, putting an exclamation point on perhaps Oregon’s best team performance of the season. After a few years of rebuilding under Schumacher, Birnbaum feels the Ducks are ready to reclaim their former glory.

“As we get older, the better we’re gonna get, the more we’re gonna mature, the more we’re gonna keep bringing in great athletes and keep developing them,” Birnbaum said. “I think Oregon is definitely returning to being a powerhouse.”

“Original” Big Ten Athletes Contend With West Coast Newcomers

Despite the West Coast domination of both team competitions (USC and Oregon went 1-2 on the women’s side), the Midwestern contingent of the Big Ten won seven of the 12 events on Day 3.

Morozov picked up the first with his triple jump win, and he issued a challenge to Holmes afterward.

“I hoped to do way better,” Morozov said. “I knew based on my practices, based on my previous competitions, that there is more in the tank. I’m excited to show it at regionals and then come back here at nationals. If (Holmes) wants redemption, let’s do it, but in a legal way, in legal spikes.”

Wisconsin, meanwhile, far outperformed its expectations thanks to strong performances in the 1,500 meters, 5,000 meters and 110-meter hurdles. Spencer won the 1,500 and said afterward that it’s “always good to see the original Big Ten get a win.”

The Badgers picked up 21 points in the 5,000 thanks to a 2-3-5-6 finish led by senior Bob Liking, while Giovanni Wearing put 10 on the board with his win in the high hurdles.

Wearing said he didn’t know he had won after crossing the finish line, as it was hard to see where he had finished through his peripheral vision. That was not an unfamiliar feeling for Wearing; when he won the 60-meter hurdles at the Big Ten Indoor Championships in his sophomore year, he didn’t know he had won until he looked up the results. This time, though, he was able to glance up at the board and see the real-time results.

“Thank god Hayward Field is high-tech,” Wearing said.

Four other Midwest schools picked up event wins on Sunday. Along with Minnesota's 4x100 relay in a meet record time of 38.54, Ohio State capped off the meet with a win in the 4x400 meter relay. The Buckeyes’ performance, along with those of Iowa and Penn State, kept USC from taking home second place in the team race; the Trojans finished fourth in that race after a disastrous third leg (47.83).

Cameron Miller of Purdue won the 200 meter dash. He only ran 20.31, but it was enough to upset USC’s Max Thomas, who finished second in 20.40.

Thomas was favored to win the 100 and the 200, but he didn’t win either of them; he finished fourth in the 100, which was won by Kalen Walker of Iowa.

Still, the West Coast enjoyed some success. USC’s William Jones won the 400 meters in 45.39, and his teammate Yougendy Mauricette won the 400-meter hurdles in 49.94. Cross-town rival UCLA picked up its only win of the day in the discus thanks to a 60.11m heave by Michael Pinckney.

The East Coast didn’t get left out, either; Penn State’s Allon Clay won the 800 meters, helping the Nittany Lions live up to their name of “800 U.” Clay’s win was the closest of the day; he beat Oregon’s Matthew Erickson by one thousandth of a second, 1:47.921 to 1:47.922.