Ducks Sweep NCAA Championships

Published by Oregon SID on March 12th, 2016

Birmingham, Ala. – Although they achieved their goals in different ways, both the men and women’s track and field teams will board their plane home to Eugene as 2016 Indoor National Champions. The Men of Oregon put together another dominating performance, scoring 62 team points, 23 beyond second-place Arkansas, while the women gutted out a three point win over the Razorbacks with 53 team points.

The men had their national title on ice even before Edward Cheserekcompleted a triple that had only ever been done once before, but the women had to use every ounce of effort in the final event of the day to secure their spot on top of the field.

That final event was the women’s 4x400, which Oregon entered with a five point lead over Arkansas knowing they had to either finish ahead of, or very close behind, last year’s team champions. The team of Alaysha Johnson,Deajah Stevens, Brooke Feldmeier and Raevyn Rogers put together the second fastest time in Oregon history (3:29.77) to finish third and clinch the sixth women’s title in seven years, matching LSU’s record run from 1991-97.

“We’re a combined program,” said head coach Robert Johnson. “We take pride in being a combined, balanced program at that, we score all across the board in all the disciplines. For them to all share and celebrate together is awesome.”

The balance is something Johnson has reiterated since he took the helm of both programs in 2013, and it was on full display over the weekend. The women’s team scored in seven events from 12 different people while the men scored in seven events from nine individuals.

Though the balance is key, a little star power never hurts. The Ducks have that in spades with Cheserek, Rodgers and Devon Allen who each won individual titles on Saturday.

After winning the 5,000 and distance medley relay on Friday, Cheserek was looking for one more individual title in the 3,000. The junior waited patiently until there were 500 meters left in the race, then decided to push the pace.