Two Track Town, U.S.A. events earn top marks in World Athletics Competition Performance Rankings
Beatrice Chebet (KEN) set a new world record of 13:58.06 to win the women’s 5,000m at the 50th Prefontaine Classic on July 5, 2025. Photo by Howard Lao.
The outdoor track & field season in Track Town, U.S.A. concluded in August with not just one, but two events earning the top spot in their respective categories in World Athletics Competition Performance Rankings. Competition performance scores are calculated based on the athletic performances of the meeting’s competing athletes. The faster, higher, and farther the mark, the better the score.
This year’s Prefontaine Classic, which celebrated its 50th edition on Saturday, July 5, earned the highest competition performance score for a single day invitational meeting ever given by World Athletics in the history of competition performance rankings: 98,121 points. The incredible athletic achievements that led to such a score included eight world-leading marks, seven meeting records, seven national records, four Diamond League records, three area records, and two world records over just five hours of action on the track and field.
The only invitational event to ever score higher in competition performance score was the 2023 edition of The Prefontaine Classic, which was staged over two days while serving as the Wanda Diamond League Final. The two-day event scored 99,156 points and saw 14 meeting records, 12 national records, eight world-leading marks, seven area records, three Diamond League records, two world records, and one world U20 record.
Donavan Brazier (right) and Cooper Lutkenhaus (left) claimed first and second in the men’s 800m final at the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor & Para National Championships on August 3. Photo by Howard Lao.
Less than one month following The Prefontaine Classic, professional track & field returned to Hayward Field with the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor & Para National Championships – making history as the first event that has held both groups’ competition in conjunction with one another. The four-day meeting, which served as the selection process for the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 and the World Para Athletics Championships New Delhi 25, scored 183,498 points. This is the highest competition performance score recorded by World Athletics for a championship competition so far in 2025. The meet’s impressive performances included three world-leading marks and one world U18 record.
The past two editions of the United States national championship and world team qualifying events, the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field and the 2023 Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships, also held the top competition performance scores for championship competition in their respective years until that year’s global championship. In 2024, the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field scored 184,657 points for the No. 1 spot before being surpassed by the Paris Olympic Games, which scored 198,350 points. The 2023 Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships scored 181,519 points and held the No. 1 spot for a few weeks before the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 took the year’s lead with 196,643 points. This year’s global championship, the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25, is set to be held September 31-21.
Hayward Field at the University of Oregon is home to some of the greatest athletics achievements and events ever staged. 2025 was no exception.
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Stunning final day of competition at 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor and Para National Championships features U18 world record, sprint, hurdles doubles
Photo by Howard Lao.
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
Donavan Brazier screamed. Cooper Lutkenhaus had both hands on his head. The world watched.
In the men’s 800-meter final at the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor and Para National Championships, two stunning finishes dominated. Brazier’s 1:42.16 personal-best was the #3 mark in 2025. Lutkenhaus’ 1:42.27 broke the U18 world record.
“It means a lot,” Lutkenhaus said. “I don’t know if there’s words for it right now.”
The final day of competition at Hayward Field featured the improbable 800m finish, the completion of Melissa Jefferson-Wooden’s sprint double, Noah Lyles’ world-leading 200m time and Cole Hocker’s rebound win in the 5000m.
Photo by Howard Lao.
Reigning 100m Olympic champion Lyles, who scratched from the 100m final after winning his heat, cruised through the initial round of the 200m final with a 19.97-second win. Jefferson-Wooden’s 22.06-second preliminary win earned her top slot after winning the 100m final in a world-leading, personal-best 10.65 on Friday.
Lyles trailed 100m winner Kenny Bednarek on the home stretch, but powered past with a world-leading 19.63-second time while glancing at Bednarek, who also ran a sub-previous-world leading 19.67.
“It was probably one of my hardest 200s ever,” Lyles said. “I put it right behind the Olympic final in 2021. Something needed to happen here.”
Jefferson-Wooden’s win came by 0.29 seconds — her final time, a personal-best 21.84 seconds, completed her sprint double.
“Coming out here and doing it, it’s all about execution for me,” Jefferson-Wooden said. “I feel that, as long as I’m executing my race the way I know I can, the times are going to continue to come.”
Photo by Howard Lao.
Reigning Prefontaine Classic women’s discus winner and American record holder Valarie Allman threw a meet-record 71.45m (234-5) on her fourth attempt. Allman, whose win on Sunday was her seventh-consecutive at the USATF Outdoor Championships, also holds the world-leading mark.
“I've really wanted to throw over 71 meters,” Allman said. “My PB outside of (the Oklahoma throws series) is 71.46m, and I've been wanting to improve on that, so to be right in line with that feels good knowing that the training is going to start to back off and I’m getting into those really competitive situations. I feel really pleased about it.”
Roisin Willis led the women’s 800m field through the first lap before falling as low as fifth on the final back stretch. Amid a cluttered curve, though, the NCAA record holder in the race surged from the inside to a wide kick that pushed her past second-place Maggi Condon and third-place Sage Hurta-Klecker.
“I just have so much freedom out here,” the reigning NCAA champion, who won in 1:59.26, said. “I used to come to meets with so many nerves, and so by the grace of God I’m just running and having fun.”
Brazier ran a personal-best 1:42.16 in a rapid men’s 800m final followed by 16-year-old Lutkenhaus, who kicked past the rest of the field on the final stretch to finish second. The two sat fourth and seventh, respectively, at the bell but surged with 52.54 and 51.61-second finishes to earn their slots.
“I was really happy to do it today,” Brazier said. “It was pure grit in the last 200m.”
Lutkenhaus’ 12.48-second final 100m outpaced the rest of the field as he rose from fifth on the curve to second at the line. His time is a U18 world record, area U20 record and world U20 #2 all-time.
“During the last 100m, it got really loud. The stadium exploded, and everyone was in the race.”
“I just knew that, with 200m to go, that’s my sweet spot,” Lutkenhaus said. “That’s where I make a lot of my moves, and that’s where I started. During the last 100m, it got really loud. The stadium exploded, and everyone was in the race.”
Photo by Howard Lao.
Hocker, who led the men’s 5000m field for the first 4300m before falling back in the field, unlocked another of his trademark kicks on the home stretch to earn his first American championship in the race. The reigning Olympic 1500m champion, who finished third in that final on Saturday, closed his final 400m in 51.76 seconds and his final 100m in 12.63.
“This was the year that I knew, if I just stayed healthy, that I have the strength to not just help my 1500m, but also be a legit 5k contender,” Hocker said. “I’m far enough into my pro career where I can really test myself and not limit myself to one event and be a real threat in multiple events.”
Reigning NCAA 110m champion Ja’Kobe Tharp took the same title at Hayward Field against the American field in the final race of the day. Tharp, who won the collegiate race in 13.05 seconds earlier in 2025, ran a personal-best 13.01 on Sunday.
“In the preliminary, my first half was good, and the end was trash,” Tharp said. “In the semifinal, my first half was bad and the end was better. Now it has to get hard.”
Rai Benjamin doubled up on hurdles wins with a personal-best 110m victory in 13.01 seconds after winning the 400m edition earlier in the day. There, Benjamin dominated with a 46.89-second time that was 1.56 seconds faster than silver medalist Caleb Dean.
“I think the motivation for me this year is staying in the 46s,” Benjamin said. “I think if I can consistently run that, when the time comes, I’ll be fit enough to drop the time that I need to drop.”
Competition is concluded at Hayward Field for the season.
1500m finals dominate on Day 3 of 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor and Para National Championships
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
Three-time reigning U.S. outdoor 1500-meter champion Nikki Hiltz spent what they called “an hour” talking to their new coach, Juli Benson, about tactics. Then, before they left for the race, Benson told them one more thing.
“Just remember to enjoy it,” Benson told Hiltz. “Because this is what you're really gonna miss when you're on my side of things.”
Hiltz kicked past Sinclaire Johnson on the home stretch to win their sixth-consecutive American indoor or outdoor title in the race. The two escaped a pileup on the bell lap to race each other home, but Hiltz, who trailed Johnson for the first three laps, closed in 58.67.
“These are the moments,” Hiltz said. “A lot of people ask me how I’m going to celebrate…I was like, that last 150m — that was the celebration, doing it and being in the race in the moment.”
The third day of competition at the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor and Para National Championships continued with the able-bodied 1500m finals and para sprint finals. Athletes took swings at world records — while long jumper Annie Carey grabbed one for herself — and concluded para competition.
Jonah Koech, 28, was the surprise winner in the men’s 1500m final ahead of reigning Olympic champion Cole Hocker (third place) and Olympic finalists Hobbs Kessler (fourth) and Yared Nuguse (fifth). Both Koech (3:30.17) and silver medalist Ethan Strand (3:30.25) ran personal-best times in the final.
“I’ve been seeing everything these guys are doing,” Koech said. “I’ve been talking to coaches who watch these guys, and they’re friends to me. I’m doing more than them. I rest only on Sunday. I have six days of training in my week, so I was like, ‘Why am I not beating these guys?’”
Susannah Scaroni won the women’s T53/54 1500m final in 3:18.12. The reigning Paralympic bronze medalist in the event, Scaroni is an accomplished multi-time medalist in long-distance and marathon races but said she sees the sprint finish in the 1500m as “almost a mini-5k.”
“I was very satisfied,” Scaroni, who will race the Sydney Marathon on August 31, said. “I was just trying to go as fast as I could — I’ve been faster before, but I feel like on a day like this and with a little bit of a breezy stadium, I’m really happy with it.”
Annie Carey set a new world record (pending international ratification) in the women’s F44 long jump with her 5.19m (17-0 ½) effort on her second jump. Carey also won the T44 women’s 100m crown on Saturday in 13.55 seconds to go with her 200m win on Friday.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone made another pass at the American record in the women’s 400m final, where she ran 48.90 — a season-best mark that fell .16 seconds short of the record. McLaughlin-Levrone, who also ran the flat 400m at the 2025 Prefontaine Classic, holds the world record in the 400m hurdles.
“I’ve learned a lot about the 400m,” McLaughlin-Levrone said. “But ultimately, every day it’s stepping on the track and being the best I can be, figuring out a race that is very foreign to me, and taking on new challenges and being comfortable with that.”
“But ultimately, every day it’s stepping on the track and being the best I can be.”
The top-three finishers in the men’s discus were the only three in the field who held the world standard before the meet. Winner Reggie Jagers overcame surgery that he said ailed him through the early summer to throw 66.85m (219-4) on his third attempt, earning his first U.S. title.
“In round five, I started cramping,” Jagers said. “It was kind of nerve-wracking when the guys started throwing further and my body started shutting down…I wanted a further mark but 66 was pretty good.”
American record holder Chase Jackson threw 20.84m (68-4 ½) on her first attempt to win the women’s shot put. Jackson, who said she was throwing off her palm due to a finger injury, cleared the next-closest athlete by 0.9m.
“I went out trying to throw really far,” Jackson, who already had a bye to the World Championships before the meet, said. “I had, I think, the best series of my career on average. I just wanted to go out and not let the bye hamper my ability to win.”
The record books are on watch when 100m T38 world record holder Jaydin Blackwell takes the track — and while he didn’t surpass his 2024 Paralympic record (10.64 seconds) with his win at Hayward Field, he clocked 10.65 en route to the World Championships, where he’ll take another swing.
“I’m a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t break my world record,” Blackwell said. “But it just means that I still need tweaks here and there…If I don’t push myself, who’s going to? The only one who can really push me to my highest level is me.”
Two-time 2024 Paralympic gold medalist Ezra Frech won both the T63 men’s high jump and F63 men’s long jump alongside a silver medal in the T36 men’s 100m final where he said he battled issues with his leg prosthetic. Despite that, he said he wasn’t satisfied with his performance.
“I’m going to dominate at world championships,” Frech said. “I’m unhappy because, to the average person, this weekend was successful — I won a couple national championships…but I hold myself to such a high standard that I just look forward to getting back in the lab and fixing the mistakes. That fires me up.”
Frech, 20, officially signed his first professional contract with Adidas on Friday. His high jump winning mark on Saturday, 1.83m (6-0), was still 0.12m off his world record set in 2023, but was enough for his second medal of the weekend.
“Now I feel like all my competitors are going to doubt me,” Frech said. “I’m thinking, ‘Good. Doubt me.’ That’s exactly what happened in Paris, and the same result will happen this summer.”
A 6.95m (22-9 ¾) first attempt was all Isaac Jean-Paul needed to win the T13 men’s long jump. Jean-Paul competed in the able-bodied USATF Championships 10 years ago, and returned to the stage in 2025 with his partner and 3-year-old daughter. His confidence was as high as ever.
“I’m retraining for the high jump, and I’m trying to make the team for the 2028 Olympics — I’m going to be the first-ever Paralympian to win gold at the Olympic Games. It’s got my stamp of approval. I declare it’s going to happen.”
Able-bodied competition finishes tomorrow at Hayward Field with the sprint, jump, middle-distance and 5000m finals.
Men’s, women’s 100m finals push record books on Day Two of 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor and Para National Championships
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden won the women’s 100m final in a world-leading, personal-best time of 10.65 on Day Two of the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor and Para National Championships. Photo by Evan Poulsen.
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
What did Kenny Bednarek think of his first-ever U.S. 100m title?
“I say it’s about damn time,” Bednarek said.
The sprinter ran a personal-best 9.79 seconds in the men’s 100m final to secure his first-ever U.S. title in a field that demanded a sub-9.84-second time to even claim a medal. The two-time Olympic 200m silver medalist was the top qualifier in both the first and semifinal rounds before improving his best qualifying time by 0.11 seconds in the final. Four athletes ran personal-best times in the race on Friday evening.
“I’ve been second for a very long time,” Bednarek, whose time is tied for sixth in U.S. history, said. “I always knew I had the capability of doing it, but I just had to believe in myself.”
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden ran a wind-legal, world-lead, personal-best 10.65-second 100m to claim the women’s title. Her time, good for fifth all-time in world history and third in the U.S., was “surreal.”
“It actually doesn’t sound real,” Jefferson-Wooden said. “You look at all these races, you look at all these amazing women who have accomplished those things so far, and to think of me as being a part of it is great. I’m grateful for it, and I worked my butt off for it.”
The second day of competition at the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor and Para National Championships featured sprint finals for able-bodied and para athletes, alongside a historic decathlon win and jumps finals.
Two-time Paralympic medalist Brian Siemann won the men’s T53 (wheelchair athletes with movement affected to a high degree in their trunk and legs) 800m final in 1:44.41, including a 51.62-second negative split on his final lap. Siemann, the reigning Paralympic bronze medalist in the event, also won the men’s T54 400m final on Friday evening.
“It was just really windy out there,” Siemann said. “I was trying to get a gauge for what the track was going to feel like on that first lap and then once I had that understanding, I was just like, ‘Let’s hit it for the last lap.’”
Photo by Evan Poulsen.
“That was a special race. This almost was my final — now I’m going to go see what I can do in two days.”
High school 800m record holder Cooper Lutkenhaus finished second on Thursday in his heat of the quarterfinal round. On Friday, he returned and overcame an incidental trip on the curve of the second lap to surge into an automatic-qualifying position. His time, 1:45.57, was just 0.12 seconds slower than the personal-best time he ran in June.
“I don’t know if I could’ve imagined it,” Lutkenhaus said. “That was a special race. This almost was my final — now I’m going to go see what I can do in two days.”
Lutkenhaus, 16, will run in the final on Sunday at 1:26 p.m. PT.
Sayers Grooms won the mixed T72 (athletes with a coordination impairment competing in frames) 400m final in 1:31.17 in a race she described as “trying to survive” over the final 300m. The 20-year-old Floridian is a two-time World Championships qualifier and won a bronze medal in the 100m in 2024.
“It shows that my hard work over the last 10 years is finally paying off,” Grooms said. “But also, I know that I have so much more to give.”
Grooms, who has her eyes on an Olympic berth in 2028, founded “Watch Me Run” in 2014, which supports frame runners and educates fans about the sport.
“It was really magical, because I heard so many people cheering for me,” Grooms said of her race. “I just love being in front of crowds.”
Photo by Howard Lao.
Vashti Cunningham returned to Eugene after winning bronze at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials — Track and Field at Hayward Field marked her first non-gold medal at a U.S. indoor or outdoor championship since 2016. Her season-best, world-standard 1.97m (6-5 ½) clearance brought her straight back to the top.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy about a win in my life,” Cunningham said. “I’ve had a really tough season, and it’s just been long. When you don’t know what it’s going to look like at the end, you’re just going through it day by day.”
Reigning Paralympic 400m gold medalist Hunter Woodhall made his first appearance of the meet in the T62 100m final, where he ran a 10.76 — one-hundredth of a second off his personal-best time — to beat the next-closest T62 athlete by more than 0.7 seconds.
“I think, coming in in any competition when you’ve been out of that rhythm, you get kind of nervous not knowing exactly where you are,” Woodhall said. “Just seeing the time on the clock, knowing it’s good, knowing it’s in the right place — it just gives me the confidence to really go out there tomorrow and see what happens.”
Photo by Evan Poulsen.
Woodhall’s 400m is slated for Saturday afternoon, at 2:33 p.m. PT.
Experienced T54 (wheelchair athletes with full function and moderately or highly affected movement in their legs or absence of limbs) athlete Tatyana McFadden has 22 Paralympic medals to her name — and added another American crown to her collection in the women’s 400m final with a 52.38-second finish.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for this, for the national championships to be together,” McFadden, who competed at her first national championships in 2005, said. “I mentioned that to the crowd (in her on-track interview), and they were really excited.”
“It's emotional,” McFadden said. “You deserve to be here and you work hard, and you want to show what your sport's about, you want to demonstrate it.”
By the time the men’s decathlon 1500-meter final arrived on Friday evening, Kyle Garland was nearing the history books. The Pennsylvania native needed just 444 points from the race to set a new personal-best mark.
He went further. Garland’s 4:54.50-second race earned him 592 points, good for 10th all-time in world history and third in the U.S. books.
“The mind was the biggest thing that went right,” Garland said. “I was staying calm throughout all 10 events and didn’t let the moment get ahead of me.”
Garland’s historic decathlon win included wins in the long jump, high jump, shot put, 110m hurdles, discus and javelin. He never lost the lead after the second event, and finished with 8869 points.
Competition continues tomorrow at Hayward Field with the able-bodied men’s and women’s 400m, 1500m and steeplechase finals, and the para 100m, 200m and 400m finals.
10,000m races crown first-time champions at Day One of 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor and Para National Championships
Emily Infeld won her first-ever national title in the women’s 10,000m with a time of 31:43.56 on day one of the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor & Para National Championships at Hayward Field. Photo by Evan Poulsen.
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
Emily Infeld, 35, had never won a national title in her life. With 3,000 meters to run in the US women’s 10,000m final, she was part of the four-athlete breakaway pack. With 100m left, she pulled ahead of four-time national champion Elise Cranny, hit the tape, and won her first.
“I was just like, ‘I’m going to be there, and I’ll try to follow any moves,’” Infeld said. “It felt so good…I can’t believe it.”
The first day of competition at Hayward Field featured field and distance event finals for both para and able-bodied athletes — DeAnna Price and Curtis Thompson took wins in the able-bodied women’s hammer and men’s javelin throws, respectively, while Christie Raleigh Crossley and Beth Grauer (women’s F34 shot put) and Daniel Romanchuk (men’s T54 5000m) headlined the para competition.
The end of the night crowned two first-time national champions on different ends of their career: Infeld (35) and Nico Young (23) earned gold medals.
Price, who said she had complete ankle reconstruction surgery following the 2021 World Athletics Championships, returned to rise above a stacked field that included four other world championship standard qualifiers.
“My strength levels are back up,” Price said. “I feel good. I feel healthy. It’s just about being grateful for what we’re doing and getting in there, making it technical, attacking the throw and staying calm.”
The American record holder threw a season-best 78.53m (257-7) on her final attempt of the competition to take her win at Hayward Field.
In the para women’s F34 (seated) shot put final, five-time Paralympic swimming medalist Christie Raleigh Crossley took a silver medal with a 5.96m (19-6 ¾) throw on her third attempt. Raleigh Crossley, a high school shot put athlete who will compete at the para swimming World Championships later this year, qualified for and earned a silver medal (Grauer won gold in the category with a 6.77m/22-12 ½ throw) in their first-ever national track championship.
“It’s about these conversations,” they said. “It’s about the elevation of awareness for Paralympic sport. Even though I am a swimmer, the hope is to be doing two sports in Los Angeles (at the 2028 Paralympic Games).”
Raleigh Crossley didn’t know if she would be able to compete after a cancer diagnosis, but when they were classified and qualified, their decision was made.
“Now we’re here. Now we’re having fun,” they said. “This is the easy part.”
Athing Mu-Nikolayev ran just her third 800m race of the 2025 season in the preliminary round and took a heat win (second overall) in 2:00.06. Sage Hurta-Klecker had the fastest qualifying time (1:59.28).
Daniel Romanchuk won the men's 5000m – T53/54 with a time of 11:02.93 on day one of the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor & Para National Championships at Hayward Field. Photo by Evan Poulsen.
In the para T53/54 (limb deficiency, impaired muscle power, or impaired range of motion) 5000-meter final, Daniel Romanchuk closed in 44.56 to win the T54 category with a 11:02.93 time. Brian Siemann won the T53 category in 11:06.79.
Romanchuk, a two-time Paralympic gold medalist (Tokyo 2020/T54 400m and Paris 2024/T54 5000m), has wins across sprint, middle-distance and distance events — he’s won worldwide from sprints to the Chicago, New York, Boston and London Marathons and will also compete in the 100m, 400m, 800m and 1500m throughout this weekend’s meet.
Evie Bliss won the women’s javelin competition with a 57.77m (189-6) throw on her third attempt. Bronze medalist Sarah Blake was the only athlete to throw a season-best mark.
Evie Bliss won the women’s javelin throw competition with a 57.77m (189-6) throw on her third attempt on day one of the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor & Para National Championships at Hayward Field. Photo by Kelcey McKinney.
Men’s hammer world leader Rudy Winkler won the event on Thursday evening with an 81.47m (267-3) throw on his second attempt. Silver medalist Trey Knight achieved the world standard with a personal-best 78.76m (258-5) final effort.
“I think everything is just coming together this year,” Winkler said. “It’s the longest I’ve gone without an injury. It’s the longest I’ve been with a coach. I’m married now, so I have a life outside of throwing…I just have a better perspective on my relationship with throwing, in general.”
The women’s para mixed shot put crowned six champions from its 11 entries. F44-category (lower limb impairment without a prosthetic) champion Arelle Middleton had the longest mark of the day — a 12.99m (42-7 ½) effort on her fifth attempt. Middleton, the reigning Olympic and world silver medalist, is just 17 years old.
Reigning women’s long jump Olympic champion Tara Davis-Woodhall jumped 7.11m and 7.12m on her fourth and fifth attempts to set back-to-back world-leading marks after fouling on her first two. Her world-lead (7.12m/23-4 ½) outjumped seven other athletes who had the world standard. Two athletes, Quanesha Burks and Alyssa Jones, achieved it with their third and fourth-place finishes, respectively. Claire Bryant, who secured the world standard earlier this season, finished second and Quanesha Burks finished third.
In the women’s 10,000m final, Cranny led for nearly 7,000 meters before falling into a breakaway group of four athletes: herself, Infeld, Taylor Roe and Weini Kelati Frezghi. Infeld’s final 200m, which she ran in 30.83 seconds, secured her first ever national title in 31:43.56, 13 years after she began her pro career in 2012.
“I was just like, ‘I have to bide my time,’” Infeld said. “It’s gonna hurt. I just have to beat one person.”
“I’ve got a lot of confidence going into worlds.”
– Nico Young
In the men’s final, reigning national champion Grant Fisher waited in third place for 5000 meters of a slow race before falling back in the pack. Northern Arizona University athlete Nico Young was the one to take advantage. Young, who sat as low as 12th with 2000m left, rose into the top three slots with two laps to run before securing the win with a 56.54 final 400m ahead of second-place Fisher.
“It definitely gives me confidence (to beat Fisher),” Young, who thought the 5k, which he races on Sunday afternoon, was still his better event, said. “I’ve got a lot of confidence going into worlds.”
Competition continues tomorrow with the able-bodied men’s and women’s 100m finals and the para T62/64 and T11/12/13 men’s 100m finals.
“This is the precipice of something”: Paralympic gold medalist Ezra Frech, TrackTown USA host screening of Adaptive documentary series at Hayward Field
Paralympic gold medalist Ezra Frech at the “Adaptive” screening at Hayward Field, just days before the start of the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor & Para National Championships. Photo by Tyler DeWaard.
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
Ezra Frech is used to the big screen.
He’s a business of cinematic arts major at the University of Southern California. His favorite movie is “Gladiator.” He’s been before the eyes of the world too, as a two-time Paralympic gold medalist. Usually, though, the screens aren’t this large.
The 20-year-old walks into Hayward Field for the first time on the evening of July 28. Just beyond the steeplechase pit, plastered onto the towering, 5,080-square-foot Experience Board is Frech, mid-flight in the long jump next to the title of his documentary series, Adaptive.
“It’s bigger in person, definitely,” his father, Clayton, says to Ezra as they step onto the track.
The final episode of Frech’s Peacock series was to be shown on that screen later on Monday evening. He’s an executive producer for the three-episode premiere, which follows four athletes — Frech included — up to the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, where he won 100-meter and high jump gold medals.
Left to right: Elijah Frech, Bahar Soomekh, Ezra Frech, Clayton Frech, and Gabriel Frech. Photo by Tyler DeWaard.
“It’s pretty epic,” Ezra says in between photos — Point to the board, his mother, Bahar, implores Ezra and his brothers, Gabriel and Elijah. “It’s quite surreal.”
His phone has been blowing up all day — more than usual for the teenager with 600,000-plus followers on TikTok and Instagram. People have been watching. Frech has been flying from Los Angeles to Eugene ahead of the 2025 Toyota USATF Outdoor & Para National Championships, where he’s entered in the high jump, long jump and 100m. Now, he finally gets to stop and look at the result.
“This is the precipice of something,” he says, leaning against the outfield fence.
Frech is a T63-category athlete, which includes athletes with above-the-knee amputations — he was born without part of his left leg and fingers on his left hand. He also isn’t new to the spotlight. He’s aware why his story is interesting, and he’s determined to increase it. He says that clips in which he shows his prosthetic leg increase in viewership by hundreds of percents over other videos.
“People are naturally interested in my disability, and they're naturally interested by disability in sports,” he says. “It's just not exposed to enough people.”
His TikTok series, in which he counted down to the day he believed he would win a gold medal in Paris, went viral. He was filming Adaptive at the same time. He believed in the broad appeal, not because he wants people to “feel any sort of pity for the athletes…we’re not a charity case.”
“The reality is, it's f–ing entertaining,” he says. “We have the best athletes on the planet that just happen to have a physical disability. You see dudes running at 20-plus miles an hour with blades and jumping 20-plus feet in the long jump and doing this in these insane stuff with the physical disability. That is naturally entertaining.”
Frech welcomes the crowd. He introduces his project with a gregarious grin and implores them to share the series on social media before retreating to the back of the patio. He’s surrounded by his family when the episode begins to play.
He’s calm as he watches, easy-moving between family members as they whisper to each other. When he wins the 100m final, the camera cuts to him on the edge of the track, mouthing “What the f— just happened?” to the lens.
He cracks a smile. He’s a different level of person on the track, Ezra says. To explain, he goes back to “Gladiator.”
“I need it to be life or death, like a gladiator energy when I go compete, because I feel like that’s where you get the most out of yourself, when it matters that much.”
“There's something so almost animalistic about the gladiator who has to fight to survive,” Frech says. “And I like to think of (myself) when I compete in the same light. I need it to be life or death, like a gladiator energy when I go compete, because I feel like that's where you get the most out of yourself, when it matters that much.”
It’s still Ezra underneath. “I don’t know if I’ve settled on an alter ego yet,” he says at a panel later that night. “I’m very confident in the way I prepare now. I think you become a higher version of yourself when you’re out on the track.”
The Frech family foundation, Angel City Sports, was founded in 2013. Since then, they’ve hosted the Angel City Games, which they say are one of the largest adaptive sporting events in the U.S. alongside more than 250 adaptive sports clinics every year. He’s shared moments with kids he’s impacted. It’s more moments like these — ones that land a punch and light fires under people — that matter, he says.
Frech, leaning against the fence, looks back up at the board.
“It makes everything worth it,” he says. “You do it for the impact, right? That's what I do everything for, to rewire the way society sees people with disabilities.
“This is the first step, right?”
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Tyler DeWaard, TrackTown USA
After beating cancer, Oklahoma state champion hurdler Harrison Murphy healed at 2025 Nike Outdoor Nationals
Harrison Murphy sprints to the finish in his heat of the Boys 400m Hurdles Emerging Elite race at the 2025 Nike Outdoor Nationals at Hayward Field on Sunday morning. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
Harrison Murphy probably needed a Band-Aid.
His right leg was sliced open, cut maybe an inch long on the side of his kneecap, where it had hit a hurdle. He’d just run what he called “a horrible, s–t time” at the 2025 Nike Outdoor Nationals. He’d been ahead on the back stretch after starting his 400m hurdles race in lane 9, but burned out and trailed the field down the home straightaway.
But after that, sitting alone in a white folding chair inside the depths of Hayward Field as he dropped his spikes into a drawstring bag, he was happy.
Six years ago, the Oklahoma City teenager was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). After beating it, he turned from football, which had dominated his middle and high school years, to the track, where he became one of the best high school hurdlers in his state in his first full year in the sport. He broke the school record in the 300m hurdles en route to a state title, and one year after watching his twin brother compete in NON at Hayward Field, he returned to Eugene in 2025 with a bib of his own — and for the first time ever completed a year of his track and field career.
In January 2019, the Murphys were on a post-Christmas trip to Costa Rica (which was, the following events notwithstanding, fantastic). Harrison’s back was hurting — they thought maybe it was some kind of bacterial infection. They decided to wait it out.
Instead, it got worse. After an emergency room visit that eased their fears (they agreed with what the Murphys thought about the infection), Harrison’s mom, Lee, had to leave for a business trip. Twenty-four hours later, she was on an emergency trip home. When she made it back, Harrison couldn’t walk. She had to carry him to the car.
The first thing they heard after he checked in at the hospital was that they could rule out cancer.
The last thing they said, after he rehydrated and spent the night, was that he had ALL. He spent the next three weeks in the pediatric intensive care unit before he was released for home.
His new life, without context, was one a teenage boy might dream up. He spent his days at home, in his own words, “Grinding videogames and DoorDashing my life.” But he was stuck inside, too, because the growing coronavirus pandemic meant he couldn’t risk contact — not with anyone outside his family, because of his immunocompromised state. His mom wasn’t taking any risks. Their groceries were delivered, then wiped down and dried.
He calls himself “pretty happy-go-lucky”. His mom compares him to Animal, from the Muppets — the “ornery and funny and kind of mischievous” guy, in her words. He wasn’t really interested in wallowing.
“I was just trying to go with the flow with everything,” Harriosn said. “I didn’t really look anything up about the cancer. I was the only one in my family who was just like, ‘All right.’”
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (also known as acute lymphocytic leukemia) is one of the most common forms of childhood cancer — and also one of the most curable. It’s a bone cancer that starts in the marrow. In 2025, the National Cancer Institute found that it accounts for a quarter of all diagnoses in children under 15, and that 85% of patients treated under 18 years old are expected to be “long term event free survivors”.
But the long-haul was immediate. When he was diagnosed, ALL had a treatment period of three years.
“We knew it was going to be the next three years,” Lee said. ”You’re tortured as a parent because you think, ‘I cannot believe my child is going to have to endure this.’”
Harrison started treatment the same day he was diagnosed: February 1, 2019.
The support, he said, was phenomenal. The Murphys got the food train, felt the love from family and friends, but it grew bigger than that. Pins with a 13 (his favorite number) and an “H” began to show up around school, on backpacks and blackboards. They’re still there, too.
It matters the most during the hard times. On March 27, 2019, Harrison was getting ready for another round of treatment. Usually, he just sleeps through it. He got two loading doses — to test that the chemo was safe — and started to doze off.
This time, he woke up before it finished. When he did, his throat was closing up. It was getting hard to breathe. He heard his nurse start yelling — somewhere in there, he said, he got an EpiPen. It’s tough to compare the experience, so he does it like himself.
“Everything’s starting to fade out,” he said. “You know when you get hurt in Call of Duty, and everything’s blurry? I’m going in and out and I’m about to pass out.”
Somewhere in the mixture of more EpiPens and frantic nurses and metal hospital beds rolling down the hallway and into an elevator, he did. When he woke up, it was to (first, another EpiPen, but then) his face, blown up. He looked at his phone — his dad wouldn’t record him — and felt he’d been stung by bees.
“I was chilling,” he said when he looked at the photo he took that day. “Happy to be alive, I guess.”
The strangest part of the experience, the Murphys said, came because Harrison has a twin. Graham plays football and competes in track and field, too — he’s a linebacker and a high jumper. They don’t know if they’re fraternal or identical.
When Harrison was diagnosed and started treatment, they were the same height. When he finished treatment, Graham had sprouted to just over six feet and around 170 pounds. Harrison was still 5’6’’. To their mom, it was “like having a time capsule”.
“I looked at it day-by-day and just tried to keep my head up. You can’t really be negative in that situation. You’ve just gotta stay positive.”
He’s grown since then — the two are once again about the same height, but if he hadn’t…“I would’ve rocked some high heels, bro,” Harrison said. He’s hanging with the mentality that got him through.
“I looked at it day-by-day and just tried to keep my head up,” he said. “You can’t really be negative in that situation. You’ve just gotta stay positive.”’
In May 2021, he finished treatment. The next two years were focused on recovery. In 2024, he could compete.
Harrison set a goal when he started his season: to break the school record in his race, the 300m hurdles. He started to train — really train — for the first time since recovering. One day, he works out for an hour. The next, he heads to the track. It’s different — so different — from sitting in his room. He dropped personal-best after personal-best as his season began to kick into gear. The times dropped, to 42 seconds, then to 41.
In the regional final, he broke 41 seconds, 0.12 ticks off first place. He got a silver medal, which frustrated him a little, he said, but it was the boost he needed. After that, he said, “I was like, ‘I could win it.’”
When he got to the state 300m hurdles final, he was calm.
“This is the last race,” he told himself. “Just a smooth race. Go run a smooth race. Go run.”
He had three sentences on repeat in his head as he ran: “I’m going to get it. I need it. I’m going to get it.”
In 39.63 seconds, he got it — the school record, a 4A state title and the qualifying time for Nike’s Emerging Elite 400m hurdles category. Suddenly, this wasn’t the last race. The next one was still to come.
The Murphys traveled to Eugene a year ago for Nike Outdoor Nationals, too. That time, Harrison watched from the stands as Graham jumped a personal-best 2.01m mark. He knows what it feels like — they’ve talked about it.
“It’s a Division-I crowd,” Harrison said before the race. “You’ve gotta ball out,” Graham agreed. “Pressure makes diamonds.”
Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
The sun had burned off some of the clouds that made Eugene their home over the first three days of competition by the time Harrison walked out of the tunnel at Hayward Field on June 22.
After he warmed up underneath the grandstand that held his family, the nerves he’d felt over the weekend were gone. He stepped out of the tunnel, though, and they came rocketing right back. He saw the stadium. He felt the atmosphere.
He had the longest walk of the field — out to lane 9, where he said he doesn't like running. The camera parked itself next to him. He was projected, larger-than-life, on the video board adjacent to where his family was sitting on the west side of the stadium.
Lee grabbed her phone. She took a picture of the board. Last year, Harrison was sitting there with her. This year, he had his new place.
Three days before the race, Harrison thought about whether when he crossed the finish line mattered — or if it was just the finish itself that held the value.
“If I win or if I place, that's even better,” he said. “But I'm just so excited to be here. It's only up from here. I mean, nothing…nothing negative can come out of this.”
This was the last race. Just a smooth race.
Just run.
He got out of the blocks. He held the stagger. WIth him on the back stretch, Lee was already on the edge of her seat. Jackson, her oldest, is a thespian. Watching a play was less stressful than this, she thinks.
The stagger caught up on the curve. He made the third turn, and his mom turned, too.
“This is his best part,” she said. She’s willing him towards the front. He’s not sure if he heard her, because he’s blocking out the world. The world, though, hears her.
But Harrison looks tired. Still, he pushes down the straightaway. Somewhere in the mixture of new noise and family standing up and halfhearted rain on rubber, he hits his knee on a hurdle. He keeps going. After 1:00.52, he crossed the line in ninth place. Lee turns again.
“It’s not the best,” she said. “But that’s how life is sometimes.”
You can’t stay negative. You’ve just gotta be positive.
Harrison disappears into the bowels of the stadium, with all the other athletes. He waits in the folding chair, checking his phone and tucking away his spikes. He’s already thinking about when he gets home. He’s not going to rest, he says, not going to take some time off. He’s going right back into intensive training. He wants to come back here.
His knee is still bleeding as he walks away, down the tunnel and towards his family. He could use a Band-Aid, but in this moment, that’s all the treatment Harrison Murphy needs.
Best moments from the 2025 Nike Outdoor Nationals and USATF U20 Championships
Brigham Young University commit Jane Hedengren dominated the Girls 3,000m Championship by breaking her own U.S. high school record with a time of 8:40.03 on Saturday night. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
Hayward Field played host to a duo of national meets between June 19-22 — and to national records on an unprecedented scale. The 2025 Nike Outdoor Nationals and USATF U20 Outdoor Championships split the stage as the summer got going in Track Town, U.S.A. The weekend was special — but the best moments made it unforgettable.
Jane Hedengren breaks her own 3000m high school record
Brigham Young University commit Hedengren wasn’t racing anyone else when she took the track in the 3000m on Saturday night— not really. If she was racing someone, it was herself. The wave light at Hayward Field was set to Hedengren’s national high school record, which she clocked 13 days earlier at the Brooks PR Invitational.
After tailing the back end of the wave for most of her race, Hedengren caught herself on the final lap, where she finished 0.97 seconds ahead of her previous record. In her final high school race, she lowered the last of her national records to 8:40.03.
Rylee Blade beats US #2 and #3 times in girls’ 5000m Nike Outdoor Nationals win
Blade outdueled the new US #2 and #3 times to win the girls’ NON 5000m championship title on Thursday. For Blade, who also finished third in the girls’ NON 3000m final behind Hedengren and Blair Bartlett, the win was her first 5000m race of 2025 — the win was her second-consecutive title at NON.
Last year, she won the 5000m in 16:18.17; on her return, she lowered the mark to 15:59.65 — more than an 18-second improvement over her 2024 season-best time from NON, made especially impressive by the fact she hadn’t logged an outdoor 5K time this season. A senior, Blade is committed to run distance at Florida State University.
Wake Forest University commit Corbin Coombs won both the Boys 3,000m and 5,000m Championships in 8:03.58 and 14:04.49, respectively. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
Corbin Coombs sweeps 3000m, 5000m Nike Outdoor Nationals races
Coombs swept the 3000m and 5000m titles at NON; in both wins, Coombs outperformed a US #2 time in second place. In the 3000m final, Coombs rose above a field stacked with fellow Nike Elite athletes — plus Kentucky’s Paul Van Laningham, who ran his first 3000m race of the season at Hayward Field — and posted an 8:03.58-second time en route to victory.
In the 5000m final, Coombs beat out everyone else with a 1:01.729-second final lap to set a new meet-record time. There, he outkicked Ethan Locke (who ran a new US #2 time) to cross the line alone. His weekend also included a strong mark in the mile, where he finished third in 4:03.86, and en-route times in the 1500m (3:46.13) and 1600m (4:02.22). Coombs is committed to run at Wake Forest University.
Tate Taylor runs meet-record 10.10 in boys’ 100m Nike Outdoor Nationals championship final
In the race billed as the fastest high school 100m field ever assembled, Taylor came out on top in a stunning 10.10, meet-record win. His final time was just .01 seconds ahead of second-place Maurice Gleaton Jr. The top three were separated by just .07 seconds, and the next four were split by .02.
Each of the top three, too, ran a faster time than the quickest qualifier (10.29, Gleaton Jr.) — and Taylor’s win comes in the same season he set the new national record at the UIL (Texas) 6A state championships with a 9.92-second, wind-legal win in May 2025.
Taylor, a high school junior, also ran a 21.35-second qualifying time in the NON 200m championship preliminary round, and won the 4x100m club-only relay with the San Antonio Swift Track Club — their 40.08 final is the new US #9 time.
Twin sisters Mia and Mariah Maxwell claimed first and second place in both the Nike Outdoor Nationals (NON) 100m and the USATF U20 200m finals. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
Maxwell twins go 1-2 in NON 100m, USATF U20 200m finals
Twin sisters Mia and Mariah Maxwell, from Atascocita High School, took the top two slots in both the NON 100m and USATF U20 200m finals. Mia, who won the 200m in 23.10 seconds ahead of Mariah (second, 23.36), also finished second in the women’s U20 100m final — Mariah finished third.
The twins wrapped up a dominant 2024-25 season with their week at Hayward Field; Mia set a state record in the 6A state 100m final in Texas and won the long jump, where Mariah won the 200m.
In the NON 100m final, Mia ran 11.35 to seal the title minutes after officially winning the triple jump championship; Mariah ran 11.52 for second place, still a full tenth of a second faster than third. Both are high school juniors — their senior year is still ahead of them.
US #1 football recruit Jackson Cantwell doubles up on shot put wins
Cantwell wasn’t just one of the nation’s premier collegiate football recruits when he walked out of Hayward Field on the weekend. He was also the undisputed best shot putter in Eugene. Committed to the University of Miami for football, Cantwell threw 21.23m (69-08) and 21.84m (71-08) to win the USATF U-20 and NON shot put titles, respectively — as expected for the U.S. #1.
Just one other athlete in either field (McKay Madsen) touched 21m on the weekend — it was Madsen’s final throw of the NON championship, which thrust him into second after five throws under 20m. Cantwell totaled five of his nine legal throws over the 21m mark, and took home the medals those efforts earned.
Cooper Lutkenhaus stakes his claim as the greatest boys’ high school 800m runner ever
The reigning high school boys’ 800m record holder, Lutkenhaus pulled away from second-place Bodey Lutes over the final straightaway to win in 1:45.45 and lower his own national record. He officially broke the high school record, previously held for 29 years by Michael Granville, earlier this month at the Brooks PR Invitational.
He’s also only a sophomore. Lutkenhaus has a knack for showing up in big moments: he ran a new personal-best at the Texas 6A state championships, and then lowered it with the record on the line at Brooks…and then again in Eugene.
Texas State University commit Ja’shaun Lloyd won the Boys 110m Hurdles Championship in 13.28. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
Ja’shaun Lloyd breaks venue record, sweeps 110m hurdles races
At the 2025 Nike Indoor Nationals, Lloyd won the 60m hurdles in 7.49 seconds. At the Texas high school outdoor championships, Lloyd won again, and ran the second-fastest boys’ 110m hurdles high school time ever — 13.20 seconds — in the process. At Hayward Field, he won the event in 13.28, setting the new venue high school record in the process.
Lloyd’s NON win doubled his total on the weekend, after the Texas State University commit won the USATF U-20 110m hurdles in 13.31 seconds on Friday. There, he bested second-place Joshua-Kai Smith by just .01 seconds — the top four finishers were separated by .08.
Lloyd, though, came out on top again. He’s making it a habit.
Girls hammer throw Kimberly Beard new US #1 NON championship
Outside Hayward Field, Beard waited until her final throw to set the new US #1 high school mark in the hammer: 59.76m (196-0). Her win — a personal-best mark by nearly 18 feet — outperformed second place by more than 11 feet. Her 2024 second-place finish in the competition was 52.90m (173-6). Beard also finished second in the U-20 hammer, with a 57.96m (190-02) mark that trailed only a 59.80m (196-02) from Hannah Alexander.
Quentin Nauman runs meet-record 4:00.52 in boys’ NON mile
Nauman sped away from a field that included double winner Coombs and Evan Noonan to seal a meet-record time in the boys’ mile. Weeks after running a personal-best time at the HOKA Festival of Miles, the high school junior sealed his season with the win at Hayward Field; Nauman finished just .01 seconds ahead of second-place Noonan — a dive at the line secured the win.
He didn’t start high in the field, though, and spent the first two laps in 14th before rising into fifth on the penultimate loop and closing in 56 seconds — more than a second faster than any other athlete. The high school junior’s close isn’t a new phenomenon; at HOKA, he needed a 54.713-second final lap to earn the new US #1 time ahead of University of Washington commit Josiah Tostenson. In Eugene, his near-sub-4-minute effort was enough for a national high school title.
Next at Hayward Field, the 50th edition of The Prefontaine Classic is set for July 5.
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Rian Yamasaki, TrackTown USA
Designers’ stories: Two University of Oregon students and their journey to a Nike Outdoor Nationals t-shirt
University of Oregon student Rossi Nelson poses at Hayward Field with the sketch he created for his Nike Outdoor Nationals t-shirt design. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
Nike and Eugene are tied together. It’s a relationship that has existed since Bill Bowerman started designing shoes for his student-athletes in the 1950s. It only makes sense, then, that when the peak of the sport that began the company returns to the place of its inception, Nike does too.
With its prestigious high school championship meet, Nike Outdoor Nationals, set to run at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field this June, the company decided to return to local designers once again to tell its story.
This time, though, the students had the pen.
Two University of Oregon undergraduate designers were given the opportunity by Nike to create a commemorative t-shirt — the ideas would come from discussion, life experience, and an understanding of what it means to run in Eugene. These are designers’ stories. This is their process. This is Track Town U.S.A.
Rossi Nelson at Hayward Field. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
A few months ago, Rossi Nelson was sitting in his kitchen. He lives in the 2125 Franklin building, in between Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena and the east-west railroad tracks that run along the Willamette River in Eugene. He heard a train.
The route outside the window was carrying lumber. Wrapped around the wood on each car was a surprise.
Three years ago, Nelson entered a contest to design a new transport package for Hampton Lumber. Initially, he was working with a group, but felt that what they had was “missing something”. He was sitting on the couch with his dad when the idea came.
“We have this elk up on our mantelpiece above the fireplace,” Nelson said. “My dad said, ‘What if you just did like an elk or something — represent our area?’
“I could immediately imagine an elk up on these mountains,” Nelson said.
His design won his school’s art department $15,000. When he was in his kitchen this year, he saw the wrap again. He was inspired.
“I’ve seen it before,” he said. “But when I saw that train, that was when I really got the itch to design more. It’s really cool to see your work out there.”
Sports were a little more complicated. Nelson was born with pectus excavatum — essentially, his chest was indented (he describes it as “almost like a bowl pressed into it”). It meant that, after his sophomore year of high school, doctors told him that he’d have to have surgery — and that it would mean that he couldn’t play basketball.
After trying debate club (not as engaging), he turned to his art teacher. The two were close — and the teacher was the one who pushed him towards the lumber wrap design contest. Something clicked.
“When you watch a movie and you feel like it kind of changes your life…that’s what I want to do with my work. I want to give people that same feeling.”
“When you watch a movie and you feel like it kind of changes your life…that’s what I want to do with my work,” Nelson said. “I want to give people that same feeling.”
For him, the movie was Pulp Fiction. He saw it for the first time as a high school freshman and, even though he loved to design, he applied and was accepted to Oregon as a cinema studies major.
It lasted two terms. He didn’t fall out of love with it — he just pivoted to what he knew best instead. He’s an advertising major now, but he thinks of it as art.
University of Oregon student Liz Pollner at the Bill Bowerman workshop exhibit at Hayward Hall. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
Liz Pollner didn’t plan to come to Eugene.
The junior advertising major spent her first two years of college running track — at Division 3 Ohio Wesleyan University. Her events, the 400 meter and 800 meter, were a way to stay connected with sports. She loves the competitive atmosphere: she ran track and cross country while also playing basketball in high school (and before that, softball, volleyball, soccer and basketball).
“I think like I've always been somewhat involved in some sort of sport throughout my whole life,” Pollner said. “I love the competitive atmosphere.”
She’s the only one in her four-person family, though, who fell in love with sports. In Ohio, she watched the Cavaliers — but not much else. She has family in Portland who sent her Ducks gear (“I’ve been wearing Oregon merch since I was in fifth grade”), and Eugene was on her radar.
It just wasn’t where she thought she’d end up.
Liz Pollner at Hayward Hall. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
Pollner took an internship with a winery in Portland last summer — even though she’d never been to the West Coast before. After road-tripping 45 hours in her friend’s Ford Escape from Ohio to South Bend, Indiana (saw a friend) to Yellowstone (another friend) to Oregon, she came down to Eugene to watch the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field.
She felt the competitive buzz again, but she couldn’t leave Ohio.
Could she?
Pollner worked at her internship for the rest of the summer in Portland before flying back to the Midwest.
“I had been thinking about it for two years,” she said. “I was like, ‘No, I’m not going to transfer. I’m not going to.’”
She spent the fall at Ohio Wesleyan. The itch was still there. By January 1, she was a Duck. Five days before Oregon’s winter term started, she got on her flight west.
After her trip to Eugene, she found that the anxiety she’d had about living on her own was gone — she’d done it. She was alone during her internship, totally independent…and loved it.
“The experience gave me the confidence to say, ‘I can do this,’” Pollner said. “This is the least of my worries.”
It’s only been a few months in Eugene, but she’s already found her new favorite trail — the Amazon — and started running again with the Oregon Run Club. She’s got a spot on the top floor of the student union building where she can see Hayward Field. Both helped her find inspiration.
“When I’m walking around, I just try to pick up on things I see,” she said. “Especially since I’m new to Eugene.”
Pollner sketches designs on her iPad as part of her creative process. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
What’s almost as important as what Nelson and Pollner do as designers, though, is what they do when they can’t. Designer’s block is a real thing, they said, and creativity isn’t on-command.
When the design isn’t flowing, they go back to their roots.
They’re both chefs: Nelson drew on his experience at the pizza restaurant to make tacos and nachos for his roommate. Pollner made lemon pepper chicken with broccoli and sweet potatoes for hers.
Sports are what pop up too — Nelson said that basketball, like designing, is inherently creative, but he still plays as much as he can when he can’t get the juices flowing.
When they both started sketching for the Nike Outdoor Nationals project, it was words that served as a base.
Pollner leaned heavily into an example she picked up from a podcast she’d listened to after visiting Eugene for the Olympic Trials. In the episode, which focused on the 2018-2020 renovation of Hayward Field, she picked up on a specific detail.
“They were talking about the acoustics in Hayward Field,” she said. “It was specifically designed so that when the entire field is quiet, you can hear someone cough all the way across the stadium. It’s that effect where it makes that moment so much bigger because everyone could hear it.”
It’s true. Her word was reverberation.
Nelson displays the sketches he used to create his design for the Nike Outdoor Nationals t-shirt. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
Nelson’s process was similarly word-based. He called the phrase he had “poetic”: striving for greatness.
“I’m trying to create this feeling of a grandiose event,” he said of his design. Nike Outdoor Nationals are the championships for high school-age athletes every year. In their world, it doesn’t get much bigger.
He begins on paper, with a yellow Strathmore sketch pad. Tucked into the torn cover are other sketches on scraps — ideas that he got on-the-fly. Everything starts there, in the notebook.
Both Nelson and Pollner learned to use digital software — it’s cleaner — and Pollner pushes her designs from paper into the programs. Some of her artboards there are covered not only with sketches and ideas, but with handwritten notes, too.
Reverberation became tied to an idea, she said, that “these athletes were born in the wrong generation”. They love vintage — and so in went the record player. Records get broken at Hayward Field — another note. Not all of it gets used, but it all has an impact.
That’s the process. It’s creativity — not instant, not on-command, but inspired and innovative. It’s no mistake that those two words headline Nike’s mission statement.
They’ve both thought about what it’ll look like for their shirt to hang on a shelf this summer.
“I've been stressing a little bit about this one just because I wanted it to look perfect,” Nelson said. “I feel like if it's going to have a Nike swoosh on it, I want it to be like my best work ever.”
For him, he said, it’ll feel real when it’s printed. Until then, this seems like a dream.
“Every once in a while, it'll hit me,” Pollner said. “I'll be like, ‘Wow, I'm working for Nike right now.’ I feel like it hasn't really hit me yet, what I'm doing.”
It’s not the only thing. She thinks back to a few months ago, when she told herself she’d never transfer from Ohio Wesleyan.
What would she tell herself now?
“I would tell myself to go for it,” she said. “I didn't realize until I came out here this summer that change is scary, and that it's hard to be by yourself and do big things.”
The change was probably the biggest risk she’s ever taken, she thinks.
“But also, I think the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. That's probably what I would tell myself: Yeah, it's going to be scary. It's going to be hard to leave your friends. You're comfortable where you are, but you have all these goals and ambitions and if you want to accomplish them, it's going to require big risk and big change.”
Rossi and Pollner’s designs can be found on this year’s Nike Outdoor Nationals merchandise, available for purchase at Hayward Field during the June 19 - 22 event.
Georgia women’s track and field wins first-ever outdoor national title at 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships
The University of Georgia claimed the women’s team title at the 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Hayward Field on Saturday. Photo by Rian Yamaski.
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
Results | Broadcast Information
The University of Georgia dominated day two of the 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships to claim the women’s team title with a stunning 73-point haul. The Bulldogs won four events over two days to best second-place University of Southern California by 26 points and win their first-ever women’s outdoor national championship.
USC earned just four day one points, but rose to second place in the team standings on the back of 43 points in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m and 4x400m.
Women's 100m National Champion
— NCAA Track & Field (@NCAATrackField) June 15, 2025
🏆 Samirah Moody of @USC_Track_Field
📊 11.136#NCAATF x 🎥 ESPN pic.twitter.com/VHM62V76f5
The Trojans began their Saturday with a 4x100m win — they ran the fastest time in qualifying on Thursday, and finished in a new DI #1 42.22 seconds. Starter Samirah Moody, who also won the 100m, said that race was “probably one of the first races all season where I really knew I won.”
“I crossed the line screaming,” she said, “so I knew.”
Georgia, though, entered Saturday with the overall lead (26 points, ahead of then-second-place Louisville by nine), and didn’t let it go. The Bulldogs added wins from three day two events to a day one women’s hammer throw title to claim the national team championship.
Elena Kulichenko (SR - Georgia) led the way with a women’s high jump win and a clearance of 1.96m (6-05) — a personal-best and new DI #2 mark.
“It was so amazing, because my outdoor season wasn’t as great as I wanted,” Kulichenko said. “I never jumped 1.90m-plus this season outdoors, so it was really important for me to go there, do my best and help the team to win this title.”
Georgia took home maximum points from the 400m, too, where the Bulldogs finished first and second for an 18-point haul. Aaliyah Butler (JR - Georgia) won the race in a new personal-best, DI #1 49.26 seconds, while her teammate Dejanea Oakley (JR) was close behind in a PB, DI #2 49.65.
“It was an immediate shift (to the 4x400m after the 400m), but Aaliyah made sure we took the moment to hug each other and embrace the moment, because it doesn't get much bigger than this,” Oakley said.
The Bulldogs left no doubt with a DI #1 4x400m win in the final event of the meet — Butler and Oakley both ran legs in a 3:23.62-second race that stacked 10 more points onto their final 73-point total.
“We worked really, really, really hard,” Georgia head coach Caryl Smith-Gilbert said. “We have a team that’s starting to form into something that’s going to be a great program.”
Early on Saturday, Cierra Jackson (SR - Fresno State) set a meet-record in the women’s discus on her way to her first-ever NCAA title. Jackson, whose first throw registered at 65.82m (215-11), was one of seven athletes to throw a personal-best mark.
Women’s heptathlon winner Pippi Lotta Enok (JR - Oklahoma) trailed after the first half of the multi on Thursday, but seized the lead with a 6.39m (20-11 ¾) long jump and didn’t let it slip. Enok won her second outdoor heptathlon title (2023) ahead of two-time NCAA indoor pentathlon winner Jadin O’Brien (SR - Notre Dame) by just 29 points.
“I feel like I perform the best under the pressure,” Enok said. “It feels like deja vu — two years ago, the difference was 27 points, and I had to just run (in the 800m). Today was the same.”
“Towards the home stretch, I couldn’t believe that I was going under nine minutes. I was so happy — it was unbelievable.”
— University of Alabama sophomore Doris Lemngole
Doris Lemngole (SO - Alabama) set a new collegiate record in the women’s 3000m steeplechase — one of two to run under the previous time on Saturday. Lemngole finished in a personal-best 8:58.15; Lexy Halladay-Lowry (SR - Brigham Young) ran a DI #2 9:08.68. The previous record (9:10.13) also belonged to Lemngole.
“Towards the home stretch, I couldn’t believe that I was going under nine minutes,” Lemngole said. “I was so happy — it was unbelievable.”
Roisin Willis (JR - Stanford) set a new meet-record time in an 800m race where each of the top three finished under the previous meet record. Willis’ time, 1:58.13, was a new personal-best — and this time, it earned her a trophy.
“I was visualizing it in my head — for the past six months, but really for the last 24 hours, me crossing that line first” Willis said. “Leading up to the race, I started to doubt myself a little bit, but as it was happening, I was coming down the home stretch and I said, ‘I want to win today.’”
“I think the hardest part was getting over my fear and having to run it. I knew I had it in me. I just had to let it go.”
— University of Michigan senior Savannah Sutherland after breaking the collegiate record in the 400m hurdles with a time of 52.46
Savannah Sutherland (SR - Michigan) broke Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s collegiate record in the 400m hurdles by running 52.46; she said that she’s had a sub-53-second time written on a whiteboard in her room since February. She met McLaughlin-Levrone at last summer’s Olympic Games — and now, she has her collegiate record.
“It was easy in the moment,” Sutherland said. “I think the hardest part was getting over my fear and having to run it. I knew I had it in me. I just had to let it go.”
Hayward Field is just heating up for the summer: Nike Outdoor Nationals and USATF U20 Outdoor Championships are scheduled for June 19-22, followed by the 50th edition of The Prefontaine Classic on July 5.
DAY FOUR PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Rian Yamaski, TrackTown USA
Texas A&M, USC share 2025 men’s NCAA title after team race comes down to 4x400m relay
The men’s teams from the University of Southern California and Texas A&M University were named co-champions after each scored 41 points at the 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field. Photos by Rian Yamasaki.
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
Results | Broadcast Information
The Texas A&M Aggies and USC Trojans split the 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field National Championship men’s team title after it came down to the 4x400m relay at Hayward Field on June 13. A&M finished second in the relay, while USC finished eighth — just enough for each to reach 41 points.
“You do this because you love it,” A&M head coach Pat Henry said. “There’s not a lot of fanfare, you know? Workouts are tough. Training is tough, and there’s only a few days in the year that you get to do it — and there’s a few days of the year that are the most important. Everything’s a rehearsal, except for this one. This is the dance.”
University of Auburn made an early charge at the team title with wins in the 4x100m relay and the 110m hurdles to go with points in the 100m and 200m.
Auburn sophomore Ja’Kobe Tharp. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
The Tigers won the 4x100m relay for the second-straight year; in 2024, they also ran a season-best time. This year, they posted a SB 38.33-second race — five-hundredths of a second faster than in 2024. Auburn also scored points in the 100m (fourth and seventh place), and 200m (second).
Ja’Kobe Tharp (SO - Auburn) ran a personal-best 13.05 in the 110m hurdles to add 10 more points to the Tigers’ total. Tharp outdueled a PR from Zachary Extine (JR - Arizona) to capture his individual national title.
“After all these races where I ran 13.1, or 13.2, I knew I had way more in my legs,” Tharp said. “I’m just glad I was able to come out here and handle it.”
University of Arkansas, powered by Jordan Anthony’s (SO - Arkansas) 15-point haul across the 100m and 200m races, six points in both the 4x100m relay and 4x400m relay and 7-point total from both Rivaldo Marshall (SR - third place) and Tyrice Taylor (JR - eighth), put itself in the conversation.
“I’m out there on an island by myself,” Anthony, who started in lane 9, said. “It’s an F-U mentality. I don’t care what happened in the (preliminary race on) Wednesday. I didn’t have to do anything spectacular.”
Southern California, though, added points in the 4x100m relay (second place), 100m (second), 400m (second), 400m hurdles (seventh), 200m (third) and 4x400m relay (eighth) to surge into the team lead without winning an individual event.
USC head coach Quincy Watts. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
The Trojans’ cadre of sprinters earned 41 day-two points, including Max Thomas’ (JR - USC) 10.10-second 100m finish, which was only .03 seconds behind winner Anthony, William Jones’ (JR - USC) 45.63-second 400m race and Racquil Broderick’s 63.31m, fourth-place hammer personal-best. The one point their 4x400m relay team earned with an eighth-place finish gave USC a share in the title.
“It’s just great to be in these kinds of battles,” USC head coach Quincy Watts said. “You go in one way, and you’re thinking that you have this many points and you’re in a good space, but you always, as a coach, in the back of your mind say, ‘I’ve got to be prepared for the unexpected.’ We were.”
A late win for Texas A&M in the 800m and second-place finishes in the 400m hurdles and 4x400m races, though, thrust the Aggies into a tie with the Trojans in the team race. Sam Whitmarsh left the field behind on the final stretch of the 800m to win in 1:45.86, and exploded into emotion as he crossed the line.
“We knew all of those guys could run,” Whitmarsh said. “They really didn’t give me any option except to go through the line in 23 or 22 seconds. I had to drop in and wait for an opportunity. Coach told me just to find my spot and go through.”
Ja’Qualon Scott (SR - Texas A&M) ran a DI #2, personal-best 48.29-second 400m hurdles in a race where the top three athletes all ran PB times (Baylor’s Nathaniel Ezekiel ran the new DI #1 time) — Bryce McCray (SR - Texas A&M) finished sixth with a personal-best time. The Aggies also scored points in the 400m final (SR - Auhmad Robinson, seventh place) and won the men’s pole vault (JR - Aleksandr Solovev) on Wednesday.
“Everybody has to have a good day on the same day — and when you don’t have a good day, you have to help the next person try to have a good day. It’s got to be a team.”
“It’s the same speech, basically, that I’ve given for 52 years,” Henry said. “It’s that everybody has to have a good day on the same day — and when you don’t have a good day, you have to help the next person try to have a good day. It’s got to be a team.”
Elsewhere, Ralford Mullings (JR - Oklahoma) tossed a meet-record discus on his third attempt — 67.70m (222-01) before the Paris Olympian secured his first-ever NCAA title final throw with a personal-best 69.31m (227-04) season-best attempt. Mullings, who spent a year at both Arizona State and Arkansas before competing unattached in 2024 and transferring to Oklahoma, surpassed the previous meet record on three of his six throws.
“At this point in my career, it’s just about staying calm,” Mullings, whose only foul came on his first attempt, said. “It’s about keeping my heart rate low and staying calm, because it can really get to you if you shank the first throw.”
World record-holder Mykolas Alekna (JR - Cal) fouled on four of his six attempts, but still earned second place with a 66.77m (219-00) throw. Three other athletes in the top five set new personal-best marks.
“I’m immensely grateful to have Mykolas as a competitor,” Mullings said. “He’s paved the way for a different type of throwing that I appreciate.”
A Dawg Unleashed...
— Washington Track & Field and Cross Country (@UWTrack) June 14, 2025
Your 2023 and now 2025 𝑵𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵𝑨𝑳 𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑴𝑷𝑰𝑶𝑵
𝑁𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑛#GoHuskies // 📺 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/tj48GuXana
Nathan Green (SR - Washington) was the second-straight Husky to win the outdoor 1500m title — his former teammate Joe Waskom outkicked Oregon’s Elliott Cook at last year’s edition, and Green said he and Waskom had been chatting about the feeling before the meet.
“They’re like my older brothers,” Green said of Waskom and former teammate Luke Houser. “They were my rocks, and to not have them with me kind of sucked, but I’m glad I could show those two that everything they told me throughout the years didn’t go in one ear and out the other.”
James Corrigan (JR - BYU) was one of two athletes to run a meet-record time in the 3000m steeplechase final. Corrigan, a Paris Olympian, won the final in 8:16.41 just ahead of Geoffrey Kirwa (FR - Louisville), who ran 8:17.12.
“My coach’s words were echoing in my mind today,” Corrigan said. “They said to stay clear of the barrier and be very intentional. I found myself, more than trying to go insane over the last 300m, just be calm and controlled and give enough.”
Carli Makarawu (JR - Kentucky) won the 200m race from lane 9 — he said that he called his parents before the race and they told him “Just to run as fast as I can. I’m outside, and I’m not seeing anybody, so I should just run for my life.”
Competition finishes tomorrow with the conclusion of the women’s heptathlon and women’s team competition. The heptathlon begins at 3:30 pm, while the women’s field events start at 12:30 pm and women’s track kicks off at 6:02 pm.
DAY THREE PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Rian Yamaski, TrackTown USA
‘It felt like I could breathe again’: Second day of NCAA Outdoor Championships feature long-awaited hammer win, pole vault collegiate record
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
Results | Broadcast Information
The second day of competition at the 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships was when the women entered the field: Pole vault played host to a new collegiate-record mark, a hammer queen was crowned, and the fields for Saturday’s finals were set. The men’s decathlon wrapped up, too, and Georgia leapt into an early women’s team lead.
Collegiate record at 4.79m ✅
— NCAA Track & Field (@NCAATrackField) June 13, 2025
NCAA Title ✅
Watch @UWTrack’s Hana Moll win the 2025 women’s pole vault title, from the bleachers#NCAATF pic.twitter.com/51qvapEfyO
Hana Moll (SO - Washington) won the women’s pole vault title with a clearance at 4.64m (15-2 ¾) ahead of Chloe Timberg (SR - Rutgers) and her twin sister, Big Ten champion Amanda Moll (SO - Washington).
“That’s the bar I’ve been going for all season,” Hana said. “It’s a PR, too — I can’t not be happy about that.”
The winning mark was one Hana Moll didn’t even attempt last time out at Hayward — she cleared 4.58m at the Big Ten Championships before passing to 4.78m, where she missed three times.
She didn’t stop. Hana, the second-ranked vaulter in the competition, had just two third-attempt clearances in her otherwise pristine series (four of six clearances were first attempts). After getting over 4.39m in three, Moll cleared 4.79m on her third attempt to set the new meet and collegiate record.
“My 4.39m attempt…it was very close,” Moll said. “It wasn’t a perfect meet today — it never is, but I think I really cleaned it up at the end and focused on the jumping, not the winning.”
Stephanie Ratcliffe (SR - Georgia) won the women’s hammer title with a collegiate-leading 71.37m (234-02) throw. As a sophomore at Harvard, Ratcliffe won the NCAA hammer in 2023, but failed to get a mark in the 2024 edition after transferring to Georgia.
When she landed her first legal throw on Thursday, she said, “It felt like I could breathe again.”
“It’s a lot of relief,” Ratcliffe, a 2024 Olympian, said. “Fouling out last year…there’s a lot of memories that come with that, and a lot of emotions that come with that. I kept my cool, just went out there and took it one throw at a time.”
Ratcliffe’s eventual winning mark came on her fourth attempt — that, she said, was when the relief really began to set it.
“When I threw 71 meters,” she said, “I was like, ‘Okay. We’re good.’”
Oregon qualified three finalists in the women’s 1500m — Şilan Ayyildiz (JR - 4:11.65), Mia Barnett (SR - 4:09.61) and Klaudia Kazimierska (SR - 4:09.94) all earned automatic-qualifier slots through two stacked semifinal heats. Ayyildiz owns three Big Ten titles this season (in the indoor and outdoor 5000m, and the outdoor 1500m), while Barnett ran a personal-best time and Kazimierska placed tenth at last summer’s Paris Olympics.
Oregon seniors Mia Barnett and Klaudia Kazimierska after competing in their heat of the women’s 1500m semifinal. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
“I’m so happy we all got in the final,” Ayyildiz said. “I think it’s going to be so fun for us. I’m super excited.”
Big Ten outdoor champion Sophie O’Sullivan (SR - Washington) returned to Hayward Field to earn the top-overall qualifying time in the event: 4:09.39. O’Sullivan, who was the 16th seed on Thursday, has been in the NCAA championship in each of the past three seasons.
“I think I was just happy to be in the front and running easy enough,” O’Sullivan said. “I had free space to run in — I was kind of waiting for someone to go for the big kick and I was thinking I’d just follow them.”
She didn’t need to, and she crossed the line solidly in front.
The top-overall qualifier in the women’s 3000m steeplechase was never in doubt. Second-place qualifier in the first heat, Katelyn Stewart-Barnett (SR - Michigan State) put it succinctly.
“Hopefully no one tries to run with Doris,” Stewart-Barnett said of her race plan.
Doris Lemngole (SO - Alabama) owns both the meet and collegiate records in the event. She ran 9:10.13 — the college record — in April 2025. She won her heat ahead of Stewart-Barnett by more than 10 seconds.
Yanla Ndjip-Nyemeck (SR - UCLA) ran the second-fastest women’s 100m hurdles time in school history — only Gail Devers is faster. Her 12.71 second park is the new DI #2 time.
“I had a good start, but I kept hitting hurdles,” Ndjip-Nyemeck, who ran her previous personal-best time at the 2025 West Regional, said. “I feel like there’s a lot that I can fix to run even faster.”
Two athletes ran the new Division I-leading times in the women’s 100m; after Anthaya Charlton (JR - Florida) finished in 10.866 seconds, JaMeesia Ford (SO - South Carolina) ran 10.864 to take the DI #1 crown. Both were personal-bests.
Ford, who was also part of a season-best effort in the Gamecocks’ 42.58-second 4x100m relay, is the reigning NCAA indoor 200m champion.
35-YEAR-OLD RECORD BROKEN‼️@LSUTrackField's Michaela Rose runs 1:58.95 in her 800m semifinal.#NCAATF x 🎥 ESPN pic.twitter.com/fFPygTjGXR
— NCAA Track & Field (@NCAATrackField) June 13, 2025
Michaela Rose (SR - LSU) ran a meet-record 1:58.95 time in her heat of the women’s 800m semifinal — just ahead of Lauren Tolbert (JR - Duke), who ran a DI #4 1:59.39.
“We said, ‘Go out and run like it’s a final,’” Rose said. “There’s nobody here to joke with. That’s what I did, and seeing Tolbert next to me, it really encouraged me to push at the end.”
Tolbert was effusive after breaking the two-minute mark — she said that it had been her goal — and both will run in the final on Saturday.
Pamela Kosgei (FR - New Mexico) was the top-seeded athlete in a stunning women’s 10,000m: all of the top-five athletes ran a faster time than the previous meet record (Parker Valby’s 31:46.09 win in 2024). Kosgei, who won all but one of her outdoor races this season (she was second in the West Regional 5000m), finished in 31:17.82 to snag the NCAA title in her first season.
Mya Lesnar (SR - Colorado State) won the women’s shot put as the only athlete to throw over 19m. Her winning mark — 19.01m (62-04 ½) — came on her first attempt of the day.
“There’s more to come,” Lesnar said after the win. “We’ll see.”
Peyton Bair (JR - Mississippi State) took the men’s decathlon lead on Wednesday and never relinquished it. He scored a personal-best mark in half his events, plus a joint-PB and a season-best in two more for a personal-best and collegiate-lead 8323 total points.
Georgia leads the women’s team competition, with 26 points, ahead of Illinois (16.5) and Washington (16). Competition continues tomorrow at Hayward Field with the men’s finals and women’s heptathlon — multis begin at 11:45 a.m., and men’s field starts at 2:15 p.m. with track events starting at 4:50 p.m.
DAY TWO PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Rian Yamaski, TrackTown USA
Duos dominate on first day of 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships
Oregon senior Matthew Erickson qualified fourth overall for Friday’s men’s 800m final with a semifinal time of 1:45.89. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
Results | Broadcast Information
The first day of competition at the 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships was a major one: Two athletes set collegiate-leading marks while long-awaited trophies started to make their way home.
Two duos of teammates, though — Minnesota hammer throwers Kostas Zaltos and Angelos Mantzouranis and New Mexico 10000m pair Ishmael Kipkurui and Habtom Samuel — swept the top-two slots of their respective championship events.
Aleksander Solovev (JR - Texas A&M) and Nathaniel Ezekiel (SR - Baylor) set the two collegiate-leading marks on the day. Solovev dominated the pole vault field, where he cleared 5.78m (18-11.5) to take the crown. Ezekiel didn’t wait for a trophy on offer to pull out the spectacular. The Paris Olympian set his own collegiate-leading mark in the 400m semifinal round: 47.86 seconds.
“This year, when I went 47 (seconds) in the Big 12 preliminaries, I felt like I had it already,” Ezekiel said. “I just had to do something in the finals — it gave me a lot of confidence.”
Mississippi State senior Peyton Bair won the decathlon 100m in 10.25 seconds early on — .05 seconds faster than his previous championship record. No other athlete ran faster than 10.69 seconds. Bair added a second personal-best mark of the day in the long jump, where he laid down a 7.28m (23-10.5) mark (fourth-best in the competition), and a third in the 400m, where he won in 46.00 seconds. Bair ended the day by leading the decathlon field with 4479 – nearly 300 points ahead of second place.
Several other athletes had personal-best marks in multi events: Two of the top four in the shot put — winner Marcus Weaver (SR - Arkansas) and fourth-place Alexander Jung (SR - Kansas); Bair and Weaver in the long jump; Jung, Paul Kallenberg (JR - Louisville) and Emil Uhlin (JR - Kansas State) in the 100m and five other athletes in the 400m.
Seven athletes qualified from the second heat of the 1500m semifinals after a tactical opener (winner Jack Crull ran 3:51.96). Adam Spencer (SR - Wisconsin) had the leading time — 3:41.67 — just ahead of Simeon Birnbaum (SO - Oregon), who ran 3:41.77 in front of a home crowd.
“It was nice and honest and not too quick,” Spencer said. “It was probably the best outcome you can expect from the NCAA semis.”
Oregon sophomore Simeon Birnbaum. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
Birnbaum, who won the event in Eugene at last month’s Big Ten Outdoor Championships, said that his goal was “to just win”.
“It’s exactly how I wanted it to unfold,” Birnbaum said. “We were in the holding area watching the first heat — they were jogging — and said ‘We can get seven guys through now.’”
The 3000m steeplechase, though, was stacked with youth. Two of the top three runners from the first heat were freshmen (Mathew Kosgei, FR - New Mexico and Geoffery Kirwa, FR - Louisville) along with two in the top three of the second heat (Joash Ruto, FR - Iowa State and Collins Kiprop Kipngok, FR - Kentucky). All four qualified for the final on Friday.
Ruto ran the top-overall qualifying time (an 8:22.94 personal-best) in a fast second heat, ahead of Paris Olympian James Corrigan (JR - Brigham Young). Big Ten champion Benjamin Balazs (SO - Oregon) finished in the final time-based qualifying spot after waiting in the final positions for most of the heat — he said that he was “expecting a fast race” and knew that he could beat out a slower first heat, just like Birnbaum.
In the sprints, Auburn sophomore Ja’Kobe Tharp led the 110m hurdles qualifying heats with a 13.15 second qualifying time; top-seeded Kendrick Smallwood (JR - Texas) finished second overall.
“This year we put in three times the amount of work we put in last year,” Tharp said of his team. “I know that our boys are going to go out there and show it this weekend. I’m ready to see that happen.”
T’Mars McCallum (JR - Tennessee) doubled up on sprint preliminary wins; after winning the first heat of the 100m, he emerged from the second heat of the 200m with a 20.03 second first-place finish.
The duos, though, still had to have their say.
Minnesota pair Kostas Zaltos and Angelos Mantzouranis went 1-2 at Hayward Field in the hammer for the second time this season. Zaltos called the pair “the best duo of all time in NCAA history” right after throwing a personal-best 78.08m (256-2) on his fourth attempt (Mantzouranis finished second with a 76.96m throw). “We have a very friendly competition in training,” he said.
That wasn’t all that mattered, though. Zaltos had his own goals.
“I finally won, after my fourth time being here,” Zaltos said. He carried a sticky note with the results of each season he’d competed in the NCAA, which he wrote down in 2023 after finishing second at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
The first two (2021 and 2022) read BRONZE MEDAL — those he already knew. The next read SILVER. 2024 wasn’t gold, yet — that one said REDSHIRT YEAR.
2025, he’d decided, was when he’d win gold. He paid it off on Wednesday with his personal-best mark.
Strong finish all around.
— NCAA Track & Field (@NCAATrackField) June 12, 2025
Tyrice Taylor 1:45.23
Koitatoi Kidali 1:45.31#NCAATF x 🎥 ESPN pic.twitter.com/6E6RfS5rCD
Zaltos and Mantzouranis weren’t the only teammates competing together. Indoor 800m champion Matthew Erickson (SR - Oregon) made his race “more stressful” than he wanted; the Duck had to wait even after running a personal-best 1:45.89 in the first heat of the outdoor semifinal. His teammate, Koitatoi Kidali (FR - Oregon), ran in the same heat — something Erickson said he loves.
“He ran really well today,” Erickson said. “I feel like competitors can be a little bit intimidated by him at times. They don’t know how he trains or what his strengths are. When you’re going up against a 1:42 guy, that’s intimidating. If I didn’t know him, I’d be scared as hell to go up against Kidali — even though I do know him, sometimes I’m scared.”
Their (first) heat, though, was the fastest — each of the top five times (all personal-bests) came from it, and Erickson was made to watch the next two with his qualification hopes on the line.
“There’s two things I hate in the 800m,” Erickson said. “One is getting boxed in. The other is leaning and having people swinging on you in the last 200m. Usually I like to be the hunter. Today, I was getting hunted.”
No one displaced him, though, and he’ll have the chance to defend his indoor title on Friday.
Third-seeded Ishmael Kipkurui (FR - New Mexico) and second-seeded Habtom Samuel (SO - New Mexico) were another pair of teammates to take a top-two sweep — in the 10,000m, the two ran 29:07.70 and 29:08.73, respectively, to snag the honors.
Jason Swarens (SR - Wisconsin) was another Big Ten outdoor champion who made his return to Hayward Field in style. Swarens emerged from a dynamic shot put field to claim his first national crown; the Badger finished second in 2024. His last throw was the necessary winner.
“I knew it was coming — I’ve had some big throws this year. I just had to line one up.”
— Wisconsin senior Jason Swarens
“I knew it was coming — I’ve had some big throws this year,” Swarens said. “I just had to line one up.”
After leading before the final stage of throws, Swarens fell behind four of his competitors — two of whom (Thomas Kitchell, SR - North Carolina and Kobe Lawrence, FR - Oregon) would set personal-best marks.
None, though, had hit 21m, which he said he thought would be the winning bar. He finished fourth at the outdoor championships in 2022, then third in 2023, and then second in 2024. His final throw was the one he knew was coming — the one he’d waited a career for.
He unloaded — 21.23m (69-7.75) — and “blacked out”.
When he woke up, he was a national champion.
Competition continues with the women’s events at Hayward Field on Thursday, June 12. The first decathlon events start at 9:45 am, the field events begin at 1:30 pm, and the track kicks off at 4:05 pm PT. Those out of town can catch all the action on the ESPN network.
DAY ONE PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Rian Yamasaki, TrackTown USA
High school careers end on high notes, team titles decided on third day of 2025 OSAA Track and Field State Championships
Oregon’s top-ranked sprinter Aster Jones throws her hand up in celebration after winning a state title. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
While everyone else was competing on the final day of the 2025 OSAA Track and Field State Championships, 5A pole vaulter Addison Kleinke was taking a nap.
She woke up just in time to watch her last competitor fail to clear the bar on the east side of Hayward Field. Then, she took her pole and won the title with a single clearance at 3.66m. It’s routine for the fourth-ranked national pole vaulter.
“It’s really good to secure it,” Kleinke said of her third-straight state title. “It’s definitely a relief. It’s kind of nerve wracking coming in here, knowing that I’ve told the public what my goal is.”
Caldera High School and Jesuit High School swept the 5A and 6A state titles, respectively, as athletes’ high school careers came to an end at Hayward Field on Saturday. Meet records fell as dominant athletes, including Kleinke, reflected on careers spent under the tower.
Kleinke, who also won the long jump yesterday, said her dual-sport training benefits her pole vault, too.
“Cross training is always good,” she said. “All of it translates — every single part of it, from the speed on the runway to the takeoff, the long jump has made a huge difference in the poles I’m able to get on and the consistency.”
Riverside High School senior Chloe Huyler took her second win on the weekend — after grabbing the 6A 3000m crown on Friday, the University of Notre Dame commit returned to the track with a 4:23.89, 6A meet-record 1500m win ahead of #1-ranked Ellery Lincoln.
“I think I recovered really well (from the 3000m) and put all my mental energy into this race,” Huyler said. “This was definitely the more competitive race, so I was just really mentally ready for it — and mentally ready for it as well.”
Huyler was running in a competitive field: she mentioned both Lincoln and Sophia Malinoski’s kicks as dangerous. That’s why her early lead, she felt, was so valuable.
“I think I executed exactly how I wanted to,” Huyler said. “I just wanted to get out hard and never look back. That’s what I did.”
Crater High School made itself known early, and Josiah Tostenson (who didn’t run in the 3000m race on Friday in favor of a focus on Saturday’s race) took the 5A 1500m title in 3:48.63. His teammate, newly-minted Oregon 3000m state record holder Tayvon Kitchen, finished second.
“We just like to speak our dreams to each other, and then achieve them together.”
Crater High School’s Josiah Tostenson following his and teammate Tayvon Kitchen’s 1500m sweep
“Tayvon and I just wanted to finish off our last high school races — we wanted to make sure we got done what we wanted to,” Tostenson said after the 1500m race. “We always talk about these things we can possibly do, and even if people call us crazy, we don’t really listen to them. We just like to speak our dreams to each other, and then achieve them together.”
He returned and again took care of business: a 1:52.19 800m race with a runaway kick at the end gave him his second gold of the day in his last-ever state race.
“It’s still sinking in,” he said. “But it’s great to end on a high note. That’s all you could ever ask for.”
Oregon’s top-ranked sprinter, Aster Jones, was part of the winning 4x100m relay team (and ran a new OR #1 47.30 time) with her teammates from Roosevelt High School. On the anchor leg, though, something wasn’t right, and Jones emerged for her 100m race with a wrap on her leg.
It didn’t matter. Jones ran a personal-best, OR #1 11.51 seconds in her 100m heat before returning to win the 200m race in 23.95 seconds.
“I do think I could’ve run a lot faster if I was 100 percent healthy,” Jones said after her 100m race. “But ‘shoulda-coulda-woulda’. It just feels so good that I was able to come out here and do what I just did.”
Grant Valley won both the 100m and 200m races — after running a season-best, OR #4 time in the 4x100m relay but finishing second. His 10.36 100m time is a 6A meet record.
“It’s a dream come true,” Valley, from Jesuit High School, said. “I’ve always wanted to break the meet record. It’s insane.”
Earlier this season, Valley ran a 20.86-second 200m race at a dual meet — but he felt he still had something to prove.
“There was no wind gauge, no video (at the dual meet), which sucks,” Valley said. “If anyone doubts it, I would doubt it too. I just had to come out and do what I do. I know I can do it — I just had to do it on the biggest stage.”
He didn’t quite touch that time on Saturday, but his 21.15 was still good enough for the win, and another 6A meet record.
On Friday, Benjamin Antley graduated from Grants Pass High School. On Saturday, he won the 6A 400m title.
“Everything I wanted…I haven’t stopped thinking about it since last year, when I lost,” Antley said. “To come out here, give it my best, and end my senior year with a win is huge.”
Antley stopped the clock in 47.92 seconds. This year, he said, he quit every other sport he’d joined in order to focus on track.
“It’s been exciting — kind of nerve wracking,” Antley said. “I was banking on this win, and it’s just so satisfying to see it all pay off.”
Brooklyn Anderson, meanwhile, didn’t finish her 100m hurdles race on her feet. She got caught on the last hurdle. The former gymnast tucked and rolled into an unintentional somersault…and then, feet from the line, decided to roll again.
“I just knew I had to keep rolling to keep going, because I wanted to get first.”
Thurston High School’s Brooklyn Anderson following her somersault to win the girls’ 100m hurdles
“I wasn’t sure how far back everyone else was behind me,” Anderson, from Thurston High School, said. “I just knew I had to keep rolling to keep going, because I wanted to get first.”
She did. Anderson rolled across the line in 14.93 seconds ahead of the field. The crowd roared, but she didn’t know if she’d won.
“The first emotion was confusion — I didn’t know if anyone had caught me yet,” she said. “Once I saw it up there, I was so proud.”
Rasean Jones won both the 110m and 300m hurdles races — his 13.84-second 110m is the new OR #1 time, as is his 37.03-second 300m (also a 4A meet record). Jones, a junior from Baker High School who is also a three-star football recruit, also won the 110m race at this season’s Oregon Relays.
“I haven’t seen a 13-second time since last year — it feels good,” Jones said. “I was struggling a little bit, but I’m glad 13.8 came up and I’m happy with the result.”
The boys’ team titles went to Damascus Christian School (1A/70 points), Delphian School (2A/84, three-time repeat champion), Siuslaw High School (3A/89), Crook County High School (4A/78, repeat champion), Caldera (5A/80) and Jesuit (6A/56) — which sealed its win with a new OR #1 3:17.36 4x400m relay finish.
The girls’ titles were won by Imbler High School (1A/71), Bandon High School (2A/91, repeat champion), Creswell High School (3A/56), Philomath High School (4A/80, four-time repeat champion), Caldera (5A/70) and Jesuit (6A/66); the latter two completed their sweep of the boys’ and girls’ team titles.
Next at Hayward Field is the 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships, scheduled from June 11-14.
‘I just needed to hang on’: Upper-division distance competition begins, state record falls on Day Two of OSAA State Track and Field Championships
Crater High School senior Tayvon Kitchen won the Boys 3,000m 5A title with a time of 7:58.92—the second-fastest outdoor 3,000m ever run by a high school athlete. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
Results
The medal came off his neck when he hit the media mixed zone — instead, it went to Tayvon Kitchen’s younger brother.
It didn’t matter that Kitchen had just done what no Oregon high school runner ever had. “He’s probably happier than I am,” Kitchen said. “Medals are cool, but you don’t do it for the little thing on your chest.”
In the 5A 3000m race at the 2025 OSAA Championships, the Crater High School senior ran 7:58.92 to win — a new Oregon state record and US #2 all-time. It’s near-unprecedented. For him, the date, too, was special.
“I just wanted to go out and embody [Pre]—go from the front, go out hard, like he did.”
—Tayvon Kitchen, senior at Crater High School
“It’s Pre’s anniversary today,” Kitchen said. “I just wanted to go out and embody him — go from the front, go out hard, like he did, and try to get his record, too.”
The second day of the Championships featured the entrance of 4A, 5A and 6A athletes — including several of the state leaders. They showed out at Hayward Field: personal-bests and meet records fell as the upper-division long distance and field finals, and sprint preliminaries took the morning and afternoon.
Kitchen went out hard in his race (“I was hoping someone would take a lap or two, but no one wanted it,” he said) before closing his final lap in 64.51 to take the record.
“The last lap was hard — I was lactic, and I knew I just needed to hang on,” he said. “The people were so loud. I could hear people screaming. It was incredible, really. It was so fun.”
Crescent Valley High School senior Emily Wisniewski won the Girls 3,000m 5A title with a time of 9:39.35. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
The energy didn’t stop. Crescent Valley High School senior Emily Wisniewski was ranked second in the state before Friday’s 5A 3000m run — and she paid it off. Wisniewski won her heat in 9:39.35 ahead of a talented field; more than half of her competitors ran personal-best times.
“I think that (Crater’s Brynn Davenport) was on me for a while, so I just wanted to push it in the middle,” Wisniewski said. “I wanted a little gap.”
Friday’s win was her fourth-consecutive state title in the race. She put it down to hear health — she’d experienced injury, but it had never held her out of the state championship race — and down to her team.
“I think just having such an amazing team — they’re all so supportive — makes it more fun,” Wisniewski said. “It’s awesome to have our state meet here at Hayward Field. It makes it a great experience.”
Lakeridge High School senior Chloe Huyler won the Girls 3,000m 6A title with a time of 9:25.01. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
6A girls’ winner Chloe Huyler is very familiar with running at Hayward Field. Earlier this season, Huyler ran a then-U.S. #1 time (4:46.70) in the mile at the Oregon Relays. This time, she took the meet record in her 3000m division with a 9:25.01 meet-record time.
“I just wanted to come here and enjoy every single moment,” Huyler said. “I think I did that today.”
She blew away the field — runner-up Nelida Dalgas ran an OR #3 9:49.45 time, but Huyler, who announced her verbal commitment to run at Notre Dame last year, was more than 24 seconds faster.
“The race was a little slower than I wanted to go, but at the end of the day, that’s how this sport works,” she said. “Obviously, I’m really happy. My workouts have been amazing these past few weeks, so I have a lot of confidence right now.”
Carter Bengston didn’t have that same confidence before his 4A 3000m final.
“I was absolutely terrified,” he said. “I barely slept last night.”
He won all the same: a physical race in 8:26.40 — a new personal-best, OR #12 time.
“The race hurt a little bit at the start, but then I just got a second wind and felt awesome,” Bengston said. “I was not going to get outkicked a second year in a row.”
On the field, dual-event athlete Addison Kleinke won the 5A girls’ long jump with a 5.61m (18-05.00) mark. Kleinke, whose 4.29m (14-0.75) pole vault at this season’s Oregon Open ranks fourth among high schoolers this year, will compete in that event tomorrow.
“Long jump has been meshing really well with pole vault, so it’s felt pretty natural — my speed is definitely helping,” Kleinke said. “They feel mentally very different…it’s just about having fun.”
On the other runway, West Linn High School senior Hayden Williams-Downing won in her last OSAA Championship meet; she took the 6A girls’ javelin title with a 46.34m (152-00) throw.
West Linn High School senior Hayden Williams-Downing won the girls javelin 6A title with a throw of 46.34m (152-00 ft). Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
“I’m happy with how it’s ended,” Williams-Downing said. “I got past 150 feet, so I feel like it’s a good meet for me. It’s bittersweet, but it’s been good. At these kinds of meets, I’m way ahead of the other girls in terms of distance. So, really, the only competition is with myself. I want to PR. I want to push myself. I want to do as good as I can.”
She’s not going anywhere, though: Williams-Downing is committed to throw at the University of Oregon next year. Hayward Field feels just like home.
“Sometimes, I’m getting nervous out here — like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s Hayward”...and I’m going to be practicing out here every day. It makes it a little easier to throw. I’ve been here so many times that I’m more comfortable with it now.”
Finals on Saturday will feature upper-division sprint, middle-distance and relay finals. The first event — the 4A girls’ pole vault final — begins at 9:30 a.m. Pacific time; the 4A girls’ 4x100m relay starts at 12:30 p.m.
DAY TWO PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Rian Yamasaki
‘It was pure joy’: OSAA State Track & Field Championships provide a different kind of finish line for high school state champions
Valley Catholic High School senior Jaya Simmons won the Girls 3,000m 3A title in 9:54.73. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
Results
The finish line at Hayward Field is already world-renowned. On Thursday, though, it became a different type of destination.
High school athletes at the OSAA Track and Field State Championships wrapped up their seasons — and for some of them, their careers — under the tower in Eugene on Thursday. The 1A, 2A and 3A competitors took the stage on day one of the meet — and set new state records, ran several personal-best times and closed out their high school track seasons with a bang.
Top-ranked Oregon pole vaulter Sawyer Dean needed just one clearance to secure the boys’ 1A title: with his first attempt set at 4.31m (14-1.75), he entered the competition after every other competitor exited. It didn’t matter for the Trout Lake High School senior, who stood alone as he cleared for the title.
“You’ve just got to trust your training, and trust everything you’ve done the day before,” Dean said. “I hit the jump like it was my last (high school) track meet — and it was.”
Dean, who jumped a personal-best height at the Oregon Relays at Hayward Field earlier this season, is the Oregon 1A all-time leading pole vaulter. He didn’t set a new lifetime best after three misses at 4.90m (16-0.75) on Thursday, but did break his own 2024 meet record with a 4.73m (15-06.25) clearance by the time he took the podium. Dean’s track & field career is far from over, though. The Trout Lake senior is committed to pole vault for Eastern Oregon University starting this fall.
Yoncalla High School junior Jayden Churchwell won the Boys High Jump 1A title with a jump of 1.97m (6-05.50 ft). Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
Jayden Churchwell had a familiar experience to Dean: after he won his own 1A title, he was the only athlete still jumping. Churchwell, a junior from Yoncalla High School, officially took the win when he cleared 1.97m (6-05.50) in the boys’ high jump — his ninth-straight first attempt clearance.
“I think I can focus less on the competition aspect and more on self-improvement (when it’s less crowded),” Churchwell said. “I love practice — practice is fun.”
He’s been working at his next mark (2.04m / 6-08) in practice for a while, he said. Once he was the only athlete left, he had three shots. It just felt like practice, he said. He didn’t get a clearance — not this year — but that’s what’s coming soon.
“The goal’s always seven feet,” Churchwell said. “I think that, with a lot of practice, and a lot of training I could hit it.”
Bandon High School junior Caitlyn Michalek won the Girls Javelin Throw 2A title with a throw of 43.02m (141-01 ft). Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
Bandon High School junior Caitlyn Michalek was the 5th-ranked javelin thrower in Oregon pre-meet. On day one, she threw a personal-best and OR #3 43.02m (141-01) to become the 2A state champion. Her mark, which was more than nine feet farther than the runner-up, was one she’d been chasing.
“I looked back at it last week, and I was like, ‘I think I can hit 140 feet,’” Michalek said. “I was throwing 130 feet pretty consistently, and just kept bumping it up.”
She didn’t hit her 150-foot goal at Hayward Field this year, but she says that’s top of her list for a potential return in her senior year.
Meanwhile, Caroline Mauro, a senior from the Catlin Gabel School in Portland, jumped a new OR #1 3A girls’ high jump mark: 1.71m (5-08). She’s set to compete at Princeton University next year — but this was how she wanted to cap her Oregon high school career. She recovered from what she called an “overuse injury” in her right foot that held her out from competition for six months to appear at Hayward Field.
“The season has been a little all over the place, definitely,” she said. “I didn’t know if I could compete — I didn’t know how much I would be able to.”
When she cleared 5-7, she said, it was the first time she’d cleared a height over 5-5 since 2024. She was able to take a breath.
“It was very relieving — very exciting,” she said. “It was pure joy.”
The long distance finals took over the rest of the afternoon: Girls 1A 3000m winner Lilly Weer, from Joseph High School, was one of 11 athletes in her race to run a personal-best time. Her final mark, 10:19.80, is a new OR #30 time.
“It’s amazing how this is one of the biggest tracks in the country, and so cool to be able to run on that. Not a lot of high school students get to do that.”
– Joseph High School freshman Lilly Weer
“It’s crazy,” Weer said of the field. “I think four of us are from my district…it’s crazy to have so many fast people, especially in the 1A competition. I never imagined that we’d all run this fast.”
Thursday was Weer’s first time running at Hayward Field — she’d watched state championship races there before, but got to take the track for the first time in her win. She tried not to watch herself on the looming video board, she said — she focused on the kick that “comes when she needs it to”.
She needed it in the final…and it came. She won by less than three seconds.
“Everything is so big,” Weer said of the stadium. “It’s amazing how this is one of the biggest tracks in the country, and so cool to be able to run on that. Not a lot of high school students get to do that.”
Weer’s teammate, boys’ 3000m winner Jett Leavitt, didn’t need a kick. He won his race by more than 51 seconds, in 8:30.37 — a new personal-best and OR #16 time. In second place, too, was his training partner, Jonah Lyman.
“I think it’s really cool,” Leavitt said. “It happened last year, too, but seeing him finish at the end not too far behind me is so cool. We train every day together. Seeing my friend and my teammate finish with me is really cool.”
3A girls’ 3000m winner Jaya Simmons’ win was her second-consecutive state title in the race; a 9:54.73 time secured the win in what could be the Valley Catholic High School senior’s final race in that uniform.
“There was definitely a lot of pain on the final lap,” Simmons said. “I really went out hard, but just knowing as a senior that this is my last 3000m here meant that I had to push through that last lap.”
Friday at Hayward Field welcomes the 4A, 5A and 6A competitors to the stadium. Competition begins with the 4A girls’ 3000m at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time.
DAY ONE PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Rian Yamasaki
University of Oregon men, University of Southern California women secure team titles on final day of Big Ten Championships
The University of Oregon men's team and the University of Southern California women's team clinched the team titles on the final day of the 2025 Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships.. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
By Owen Murray, TrackTownUSA
Some of the wins were dominant. Others were decided by a single thousandth of a second.
They all counted the same on Sunday at Hayward Field. The final day of the 2025 Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships wrapped with team titles for the University of Oregon men and University of Southern California women, but they got there in starkly different ways.
The Oregon men’s win was of the dominant type: by the time Simeon Birnbaum sealed their team win with a 5000m victory, the Ducks led by 29 points — a 110-point total they wouldn’t surrender. Oregon grabbed its first conference men’s outdoor track and field title of its Big Ten era — and the university’s eighth conference title overall.
Oregon head coach Jerry Schumacher and sophomore Aiden Smith speak to the media after winning the men's team title. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
“Our goal was just to stay in the fight,” Oregon head coach Jerry Schumacher said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”
Before the Championships, Schumacher made it clear that he knew Oregon wasn’t favored on paper. On Sunday, he confirmed: the races aren’t run on paper.
The women’s battle, though, was mostly of the close-run variation. Oregon led USC by just one point before the 4x400m final — the last event. A 4x400m Trojan relay win there pushed them to the top of the pile in the Big Ten, ahead of the Ducks, who finished second. It’s the USC women’s first Big Ten track and field title since joining the conference.
Earlier in the day, Illinois junior Viktor Morozov opened the triple jump with a 15.63m (51 - 3 ½) effort, which eventually won the competition following an equipment disqualification, while Ducks senior Safin Wills was just .03m behind in second place. Morozov, who didn’t improve on his first mark, said that he’s got even more in the tank.
“I opened up decently — it was a confident mark,” Morozov said. “I felt that it should’ve become better as the competition went on, but I just couldn’t find my rhythm.”
University of Washington pole vaulter Amanda Moll came in with victory on her mind, too. She left with the new Big Ten women’s outdoor record.
“I think today, I was a little excited and a little nervous,” Moll said. “It was definitely a competition — I had quite a few third-attempt clearances, which is part of the sport…they’re not fun, because they’re very nerve wracking, but in the end they’re worth it.”
Moll’s final mark, 4.78m (15 - 8 ¼), was her third third-attempt clearance of the day — she was one of four athletes on the podium to jump a new personal-best height.
The University of Minnesota’s 4x100m relay set Sunday’s first meet record — a 38.54-second race that bested the USC group over the final 100 meters. Gophers anchor Devin Augustine passed his Trojan counterpart, and broke the Big Ten Championship record in the process.
“The goal was to break the meet record,” Minnesota sprinter Kion Benjamin said. “Hayward Field is a beautiful facility, so we had one job — that was to come home with the gold medal. We did exactly what we came here to do.”
The USC women set the day’s second meet record, though, in the next race. The Trojan women’s 4x100m group ran a 43.00-second race just ahead of SoCal neighbors UCLA — a vital set of points in the long run.
University of Washington senior Sophie O’Sullivan took the women’s 1500m crown with a stunning final 200m that saw her pull away from Oregon’s Şilan Ayyildiz. O’Sullivan ran a 58.41-second final lap, and finished in 4:11.66. Ayyildiz and her Oregon teammate, Mia Barnett, grabbed 14 points for the Ducks, finishing side-by-side in second and third place.
The University of Wisconsin’s wins weren’t to be ignored: Giovanni Wearing ran a season-best 13.46-second time in the men’s 110m hurdles. Wearing, who finished second at last year’s Big Ten Outdoor Championships, went one better in Eugene.
“Oh my gosh,” Wearing said. “I didn’t even know I won (when I crossed the line). I knew I was in the top three…I saw that I won, and I started screaming. I can’t hide it. I was happy.”
The Oregon women put more first-place points on the board on Sunday with Aaliyah McCormick’s 100m hurdle win: she ran a season-best 12.86-second time to better her best-in-qualifying 12.94 time.
“What really motivated me was Hayward Magic.”
- Oregon juinor Aaliyah McCormick following her win in the women’s 100m hurdles
“I just walk in there knowing that these ladies will definitely have me compete,” McCormick said. “I love competition in general — just going in there, what really motivated me was Hayward Magic, and knowing that these people around me are really fast and will push me to go faster.”
The men’s 800m race came down to just a thousandth of a second — Penn State junior Allon Clay ran 1:47.921 seconds to hold off a late charge from Oregon senior (and 2025 NCAA Indoor 800m champion) Matthew Erickson, who finished in 1:47.922.
“I was just relieved…my plan was to just front-run and run away,” Clay said. “I was skeptical whether I won, when I crossed the line — they were with me, and I was just waiting for the results.”
The Ducks still put up their points, though — Erickson earned eight points despite missing out on the event title.
“I thought I had it,” Erickson said. “I thought about diving at the line, too, but it was one of those split-second decisions, and I just decided to put my shoulder out. It wasn’t quite enough to get it.”
Klaudia Kazimierska didn’t want it to be that close — so she didn’t let it be. Oregon’s Paris Olympian ran a 2:02.92 800m race — including a 4.26-second negative split on her second lap — to cross the finish line without another athlete in the picture. She watched herself win on the video board, and that confidence comes from where she’s already been.
“I think it’s just experience,” Kazimierska said. “I’m believing in myself, trusting myself…I’ve raced so many times, and this is like any other meet. It’s about putting the same mindset into championship racing as in any other race.”
Just before Kazimierska and teammate Ella Nelson (who finished fifth overall) secured their points in that race, the Ducks grabbed the top two slots in the women’s triple jump, too; senior Ryann Porter and freshman Cassandra Atkins both set new personal-best marks with their final jumps to score 18 combined points. Schumacher called it “maybe his favorite event” of the day.
“That was so exciting, for both of us to get personal-bests,” Porter said. “That was so special for us — we knew we needed some more points on the women’s side, so I feel like that’s really helping the team.”
🧹 @BigTen 200m SWEEP 🧹
— USC Track & Field / XC (@USC_Track_Field) May 18, 2025
🥇 @justmadrad04: 22.66
🥈 @samirahmoody_: 22.785
🥉 @DajazD: 22.788
4. Jassani Carter: 22.790
📺 @BigTenNetwork pic.twitter.com/LBDjoNAM15
📺 Big Ten Network
Sprints, though, held the answer for USC. It scored 59 combined points across the women’s 100m and 200m races to swing into first place on the weekend — the Trojans placed first, second, third, fifth and seventh in the 100m race and first, second, third and fourth in the 200m race.
“Honestly, I think it was just believing in myself,” USC’s Madison Whyte said. “My coaches and my family — they all believe in me. It was just a matter of getting on the track and doing what they know I can do.”
Simeon Birnbaum was one of the dominant winners on the day — made even sweeter when his meet-record 5k secured the Ducks’ men’s team title. The Oregon sophomore flew across the finish line with violent emotion — his trademark sunglasses flew off his face with the first fist-pump.
“It was just an in-the-moment thing,” said Birnbaum, who finished in 13:31.87 while whipping up the crowd down the home stretch. “I had some gears left, so I thought, ‘I’m going to have fun.’ You might as well have fun and let the emotions take over every once in a while.”
A women’s 5,000m race that saw 10,000m winner Diana Cherotovich fade over the last lap — only for Ayyildiz, her Oregon teammate, to surge into an unassailable lead — set the stage for the final women’s 4x400m showdown.
The Ducks had 112 points — the Trojans had 111 before the relay. After 20 races, it was decided by one.
The Oregon women climbed from fourth place on the penultimate lap of its heat into second by the finish — but the Trojans took the track next and left no doubt: a 51.89-second anchor leg meant that they secured maximum points from the event.
Collegiate teams will return to Hayward Field on June 11-14, for the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
What a finish in the 5000M! That's a meet record for Simeon Birnbaum with a time of 13:31.87! 🤩 #B1GTF x @OregonTF pic.twitter.com/FxbxFrltNP
— Big Ten Conference (@bigten) May 18, 2025
📺 Big Ten Network
DAY THREE PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Rian Yamasaki
Field events thrust Oregon men, Illinois women into Day Two lead at Big Ten Outdoor Championships
Oregon sophomore Benjamin Balazs crosses the finish line to win the men’s 3000m steeplechase in 8:40.93, earning 10 points for the Men of Oregon to lead the team standings after Day Two of the 2025 Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
By Owen Murray, TrackTownUSA
Results
The second day of the Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships focused on the latter, as the conference crowned nine national champions across five field events, the decathlon, heptathlon, and men’s and women’s 3000m steeplechase — and provided opportunities for new schools to jump into overall leads.
The Men of Oregon took the team lead from the University of Nebraska after Benjamin Balazs won the day’s final event, the men’s steeplechase, and totaled 65 points. The University of Illinois women, meanwhile, took advantage of a second-overall finish in the heptathlon and a meet-record mark in the women’s long jump to pass the University of Minnesota and lead with 41 points. The Women of Oregon sit fourth, with 25 points.
University of Minnesota sophomore Charles Godfred won the long jump with an 8.05m / 26 - 5 effort on his second attempt ahead of Ohio State University jumper DJ Fillmore. Fillmore, who jumped a personal-best 7.68m (25 -2 ½), fouled on four of his six attempts.
After Godfred’s first jump — one that negated a stunning jump with a red flag— he “almost cried” on the way back. The 2024 Big Ten champion in the event, though, gathered himself.
“I’ve been (practicing) it back home, and when I walked back to my coach, he just said, ‘Charles, you just need to go back a little bit. Just do what you always do back home’ — I know what I’m capable of doing.”
He’s now the back-to-back Big Ten champion in the event as just a sophomore.
Oregon freshman Koby Kessler, who led the decathlon through five events on Friday, tapered off and placed seventh in the 110m hurdles (15.15 seconds), 10th in the pole vault (4.00m / 13 - 1 ½), 11th in the discus throw (33.61m / 110 - 3 PB), seventh in the javelin (44.42m / 145 - 9 PB) and second in the 1500m race (4.23.93). The effort, though, was still good enough for a fourth-place finish and personal-best 7303 points.
“It’s not my best day two, but that was everything I had,” Kessler said. “I’m not sad about it. I’m not mad about it. I left nothing in the tank, so there’s nothing to be regretful about.”
“Oregon has always been a beautiful place to compete.”
- University of Illinois junior Rafael Rapp following his win in the decathlon with 7,572 points
Former Duck Rafael Raap, who transferred from Oregon to the University of Illinois after the 2024 season, won the decathlon discus throw 45.42m (149 - 0), pole vault (4.70m / 15 - 5) and javelin 59.57m (195 - 5 SB). He finished tenth in the 1500m race and eighth in the 110m hurdles (15.20 seconds) — enough to claim first place ahead of University of Washington senior Jami Schlueter.
“Oregon has always been a beautiful place to compete,” Raap said. “Even though I’m wearing new colors right now, it’s always a magical place for me to be. It feels like coming home.”
Ducks senior Annika Williams, who also led her multi after day one, held her advantage through the long jump 6.00m (19 - 8 ¾) and the javelin throw 41.45m (136 - 0) — she placed third in both events.
Oregon senior Annika Williams won the heptathlon–her first time competing in the event since last June–with a personal best 5,914 points. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
Williams completed the heptathlon with a 2.26.75-second 800m race — good enough for a personal-best 5914-point total and the heptathlon win. She remains third in Oregon history in the event, and fourth nationally so far in 2025.
“I told myself, ‘You’ve been in this position before,’” Williams said. “‘You always go into day two either in the lead or second, and anything can happen to anyone going into day two — especially recovery-wise.’”
Her recovery process after she left the track on Friday night? A flush, cold tub, dinner…and a few episodes of “Bridgerton”.
She didn’t hit her goal in every event, she said, but overcoming that is part of her mentality.
“This is my sixth year,” Williams said. “I’ve built up the confidence to just know that this isn’t it (when I don’t hit a goal). In the past, you probably would’ve seen me on the sidelines crying.”
This year, instead, she was on top of the podium.
Illinois freshman Lucie Kienast finished second overall in the heptathlon, just 63 points behind Williams, and 94 points ahead of third-place UCLA senior Sydney Johnson; 11 of the 20 athletes in the field set personal-best marks.
University of Nebraska senior Tyus Wilson took the men’s high jump crown out of a final field of four athletes — he cleared every height, including the final 2.17m (7 - 1 ½) bar, on his first attempts.
“I think that my mentality today was just to go out and have fun,” Wilson said. “It’s my last Big Ten meet ever. Some people would say they have a target on their back, but once you do that, you start putting unnecessary pressure on yourself.”
The field didn’t push Wilson to his limit — he was still 12 centimeters short of his personal-best when he won. It didn’t matter, he said.
“I don’t want to put a target on myself,” Wilson said. “I just want to go out there and jump freely.”
Wisconsin senior Jason Swarens already knew he’d secured the men’s shot put title before he stepped into the ring for his final throw. That didn’t matter — he had even more in the tank: a 20.53m throw that bettered his previous top mark by 0.49m.
Wisconsin senior Jason Swarens won the men’s shot put with a throw of 20.53 meters, earning 10 points for the Badgers. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
“I was in the mindset that I was going to need one that was further,” Swarens said. “I kept that mindset, got in the ring, got the crowd involved, used that energy and launched one out there.”
He knew it was good once it left his hand. He saw the mark once he looked up.
“From there, it was just pure energy,” he said.
The day’s only meet record was set in the women’s long jump, where Illinois senior Tacoria Humphrey jumped 6.59m (21 - 7 ½) on her second attempt. The mark surpassed Iowa athlete Jahisha Thomas’ 2018 record, which stood at 6.55m (21 - 6).
“I came in pretty confident — I put out some pretty big jumps earlier in the season, so I kind of did come in expecting to get first place or to medal,” Humphrey said.
Women’s shot put winner Anthonett Nabwe led for much of the women’s discus throw, but Nebraska senior Kalynn Meyer surged into pole position with her final, 59.29m (191 - 3 PB) throw.
Benjamin Balazs and Sergio Del Barrio thrust Oregon into an end-of-day lead with first-and-third place finishes, respectively, in the men’s 3000m steeplechase. Balazs, who ran 8:40.93, is a sophomore at Oregon; Del Barrio is a freshman.
“I was so happy — it’s a close team battle right now, I know,” Balazs said of the Ducks’ 16-point haul in the event. “We knew we could do it…I finished the race, and I was super happy, and then I turned around and there’s Sergio kicking in for third. It’s a great result.”
Balazs, though, didn’t finish last year’s conference-championship steeplechase (the Pac-12 meet, hosted in Boulder, Colorado).
“I had a chip on my shoulder,” Balazs said. “I had to prove a lot of things (today), and I feel like I did it. It’s a huge weight off my shoulders.”
Michigan State University senior Katelyn Stewart-Barnett secured a 9:42.78 win in the women’s steeplechase — but only after she passed leader Washington senior Maggie Leibich, who stumbled over the final water obstacle but still ran a personal-best 9:48.84 time.
“My race plan was just to go to the front, and run a pace where I felt confident and calm, and ready to compete that last kilometer,” Stewart-Barnett said. “I’d say it executed pretty well — a little more stress on me than I anticipated with Washington there, but I was ready to move on the last lap.”
Competition concludes tomorrow at Hayward Field with the women's javelin, jumps and track event finals, and the team trophy presentation.
DAY TWO PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Rian Yamasaki
Oregon athletes lead multis while meet records fall at first day of Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships
Oregon teammates Simeon Birnbaum and Koitatoi Kidali finish first and second, respectively, in the second heat of the men’s 1,500m. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
By Owen Murray, TrackTownUSA
It took until the final men’s race of the day to fully emerge, but the first day of the Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships blossomed when a stumbling, reaching pair fell across the finish line of the men’s 10,000m race.
Evan Jenkins, a sophomore from the University of Washington, out-leaned University of Oregon sophomore Aiden Smith to earn victory. The surprise?
They were both horizontal.
After over 29 minutes on the track, the two long-distance runners lost their footing over the final 20 meters of the race — but still managed to cross the finish line…just not on their feet. Smith was followed by two Oregon teammates, Evan Bishop and Evan Burke, in the Ducks’ highest-scoring race of the day (23 points).
The Men of Oregon finished the first day of the conference championships in second place overall, with 27 points, while the women earned 10 points and sit fourth — the University of Minnesota leads both categories, with 28 and 20 points, respectively. The two meet records from the day, in the women’s hammer throw and women’s 10k, set the standard, but it was the nightcap long-distance competitions that paid it off.
The conference’s first champion was crowned by mid-afternoon: Minnesota senior Kostas Zaltos took home his fourth-straight Big Ten trophy in the men’s hammer throw. Zaltos, who threw 77.67m (254 - 10) with his third attempt, was one of three Gophers on the podium; sophomore Angelos Mantzouranis earned second place 75.11m (246 - 5) and senior Isaiah Schafer placed seventh, 66.57m (218 -5) joined their teammate in the point-earning places.
It was Zaltos’ teammate, Anthonett Nabew, who set the meet record in the women’s event. A sophomore, Nabwe threw 69.85m (229 - 2) on her third attempt in the hammer throw to win the event despite both the second and third-place athletes also setting personal-best marks.
University of Illinois sophomore Cody Johnston won the men’s pole vault.
“It’s a relief,” Johnston said afterward. “I was expected to win it freshman year, indoor and outdoor. I was expected to win it at indoors this year, but I didn’t come through. I’m happy that I came through today.”
Even though it’s not his home track, he said that the facility made the difference on Friday. He’s been at Hayward Field before for high school championship events, but “It’s always a blessing…this is Track Town, U.S.A.,” he said. “It’s just great being here.”
Oregon freshman Koby Kessler leads the decathlon through the first five events with 4,028 points. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
Oregon freshman Koby Kessler leads the decathlon through the first five events — Kessler placed first in both the 100m race (10.69 seconds, personal best) and the long jump (7.37m) before finishing 10th in the shot put (12.41m, personal best), second in the high jump (2.02m, personal best), and 12th in the 400m (51.62 seconds).
“It’s definitely a rewarding feeling when you’ve got something you have to push through,” said Kessler, who added that he has been battling a knee tendonitis injury since Oregon’s indoor season. The effects meant that he had to pass some flights of the high jump, but the freshman from Canby, Oregon still leads the decathlon by 34 points at the end of the day.
“Yes, one hundred percent it is (an advantage to compete at home),” Kessler said. “I love having the home crowd — it’s awesome, and my family comes down and supports.”
It wasn’t just Kessler who was thriving at home, either. Oregon heptathlete Annika Williams built on an eighth-place finish in her 100m race with a second-place performance in the high jump (1.78m) to take the lead in the heptathlon.
The lead wasn’t one that Williams, a senior who placed eighth in the heptathlon at last year’s NCAA Championships, would relinquish for the rest of the day. She added a 14.15m (46 - 5 ¼) effort in the shot put, good enough for second place, and a 24.83-second 200m race (ninth place) to push her advantage to 99 points by the end of the day on Friday.
All four Oregon men in the field largely eased through qualification in the 1500m preliminary round — after spending the first two laps trailing the pack, Simeon Birnbaum strode to the front of his heat alongside Koitatoi Kidali to seize the Ducks’ first two automatic qualification slots.
“I said that I’m just going to go to the front and control it,” Birnbaum said. “Just stay in lane one, don’t run any extra distance, and just forget about the race.”
Birnbaum and Kidali will be joined in Sunday’s final by Rheinhardt Harrison and Evan Dorenkamp, who finished first and third, respectively, in their heat. Harrison ran the fastest time of the evening — 3:42.47; Dorenkamp placed third with the best non-auto qualifier time (3.42.88).
Minutes later, Mia Barnett secured her place in the women’s 1500m final with a dominant 4:15.91-second win. Şilan Ayyildiz, Oregon’s NCAA record holder in both the indoor and outdoor mile, booked her place in the next heat with a 4:15.52 cruise.
Both Evan Jenkins and Aiden Smith, the men’s 10,000m pair who hurled themselves past the line, said they couldn’t remember anything after they began the final straightaway — ”I just blacked out,” Smith said. “My last thought was, with 100m to go, just to move my knees.”
“I don’t remember much about the last lap,” Jenkins said. “With a lap to go, you’ve just got 400m left…already did 5 ¾ of a mile — one more lap won’t hurt. I took the lead with 200m to go, and then just started going as hard as I could.”
Oregon freshman Diana Cherotich won the women’s 10,000m final with a meet record time of 32:00.48. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
The Women of Oregon continued their charge toward a conference championship triple crown (Oregon won both the Big Ten cross country and indoor track & field titles earlier this season) with a 10,000m race that saw Oregon freshman Diana Cherotich dominate the field and set a meet-record time of 32:00.48.
Cherotich, who won by more than 32 seconds, wasn’t worried about her lead. “It’s not bad, because I get to go alone,” she said. “I wasn’t struggling. I was going easy.”
“She’s very well known in Kenya,” Cherotich’s coach, Shalane Flanagan, said. “Now, she’ll be very well known in Eugene, I think. She’s exceptionally good for her age, but we knew that when she arrived here.”
The Big Ten Championships continue tomorrow, headlined by the completion of the multis and field event finals.
DAY ONE PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Rian Yamasaki
TrackTown USA Earns 2025 Oregon Consular Corps “Ambassador Award”
On May 15, TrackTown USA and Hayward Field at the University of Oregon will be honored by the Oregon Consular Corps (OCC) with the reception of the OCC’s 2025 “Ambassador Award,” given annually to an Oregon-based organization for outstanding work in contributing to the region’s economic vitality and quality of life. The OCC is an organization of career and honorary consular officials who serve, or have served, as representatives of foreign nations and jurisdictions in Oregon and in the Pacific Northwest. The Oregon Consular Corps promotes activities that support international trade, business, exchange, and education.
TrackTown USA was selected as a co-recipient of this award due to the organization’s work in upholding the history and tradition of Hayward Field through hosting premier track & field meets, which attract fans and athletes throughout the world. TrackTown USA organized the 2014 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF, now World Athletics) World Junior Championships; the 2015, 2022, 2023, and 2025 USA Track & Field (USATF) Outdoor Championships; the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Portland; and the 2016, 2020, and 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials—Track & Field. In partnership with USATF, the organization brought the 2022 World Athletics Championships to the United States for the first time. TrackTown USA also delivers the Wanda Diamond League’s recurring Prefontaine Classic, recognized as one of the world’s best track and field meets and the only Wanda Diamond League meeting held in the United States.
“We are honored to be recognized by the Oregon Consular Corps for our work alongside the University of Oregon in the sport of track & field,” says TrackTown USA CEO Michael Reilly. “Our mission has, is, and will continue to be hosting premier events and providing exceptional service to thousands of athletes and fans who visit Hayward Field from every corner of the world.”
TrackTown USA and the University of Oregon will receive the award at the Oregon Consular Corps’ annual Celebrate Trade event, a gala held in cooperation with its sister organization the Oregon Consular Corps Scholarship Fund that helps fundraise for the OCC’s Scholarship Fund as well as honors organizations and individuals. This year’s keynote speaker at the event is none other than University of Oregon track & field alumnus and former decathlon world record-holder Ashton Eaton.
TrackTown USA will continue to uphold the organization and Hayward Field’s status as an international beacon of track & field excellence with next year’s hosting of the 2026 World Athletics U20 Championships, once again bringing the best in the world to the state of Oregon.