Cheserek, Jenkins, Crouser lift Ducks into lead

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, June 10, 2015

EUGENE — High expectations for the defending champion Men of Oregon accompanied Day 1 of the NCAA track and field championships, and the second-ranked Duck met them, for the most part.

Edward Cheserek and Eric Jenkins, riding the home-crowd buzz from 9,627 at Hayward Field, finished 1-2 in the 10,000 meters on Wednesday night.

Oregon teammate Sam Crouser won the javelin title by almost seven feet.

Those three performances helped hoist the Ducks into first place with 34 points. Top-ranked Florida was second with 16. USC ended the day in third with 15 points.

Cheserek recorded his seventh individual NCAA title, tying former Ducks distance great Steve Prefontaine.

Cheserek, a sophomore, finished in 28 minutes, 58.92 seconds. Jenkins, a senior, made it home in 28:59.13, more than five seconds ahead of third-place BYU senior Jason Witt.

Cheserek and Jenkins are entered in the 5,000 on Friday, the final day of the men’s competition at the four-day NCAA Division I meet.

“It wasn’t too tough of a race,” Jenkins said of the 10,000. “It’s always good to get one race under your belt and shake the nerves out.”

Jenkins led for most of the final 200 of the last lap, but Cheserek passed him on the home stretch and did not let up, as the Ducks secured maximum points.

Neither seemed to want to let the other win, but both seemed content with the outcome.

“If I’m going to lose to one person, I guess I’m all right with it being this guy,” Jenkins said, dusting off the suggested rivalry.

Crouser, the senior from Gresham High, took an unfortunate foul on what looked to be a massive personal best before throwing the winning mark of 259-9.

“I knew it was a pretty good throw when I let go of it, but then I looked at the scoreboard and saw that my foot touched the line. Pretty frustrating,” he said.

Crouser is still searching to top his personal best, 265-1, set at the 2012 Olympic Trials, but his farthest throw Wednesday was 2 feet, 2 inches better than his winning mark at the NCAAs a year ago.

Earlier in the day, Oregon claimed its first points of the meet. They came in the hammer, as junior Greg Skipper took third with a PR of 233-9 on his second attempt. USC senior Conor McCollough ran away with first place, throwing 252-4. Kent State senior Matthias Tayala edged Skipper by a foot on his final attempt.

Skipper had placed fourth in the NCAA meet the past two seasons.

After one day of the decathlon, Oregon’s Dakotah Keys was fifth with 4,072 points after a solid collection of marks: 11.07 (wind-aided) in the 100, 24-1 (wind-aided) in the long jump, 45-2 in the shot, 6-7 in the high jump and 50.46 in the 400.

The Ducks’ Joe Delgado was 17th with 3,792 points, and Oregon’s Mitch Modin fell from 10th to 19th at 3,119 after a DQ for a lane violation in the 400.

Oregon advanced three runners to the 1,500 finals. In the second heat, freshman Blake Haney and senior Johnny Gregorek placed second and third. In the first heat, Daniel Winn from Cleveland High ran second with a time of 3:45.78 that was 11th overall on the day.

Ducks senior Johnathan Cabral moved on in the 110 hurdles, posting the second-fastest time (13.49) of the day.

Sophomore Marcus Chambers of Oregon earned a spot in the 400 finals, matching the second-fastest run in the prelims (45.43). Five runners were within .07 of one another at the top of the qualifying from the three heats on Wednesday.

Notes: University of Portland senior Scott Fauble did not finish in the 10,000. … Pilots senior Korey Thieleke ran in the 400 qualifying and clocked 47.47. It took 45.93 to qualify for the eight-man final on Friday.

OREGON DUCKS

WEDNESDAY RESULTS

WINNERS

Sam Crouser, javelin

Edward Cheserek, 10,000

RUNNER-UP

Eric Jenkins, 10,000

THIRD PLACE

Greg Skipper, hammer

FAILED TO SCORE

Trevor Ferguson, Nate Moore, long jump

QUALIFIED FOR FINALS

Blake Haney, Johnny Gregorek, Daniel Winn, 1,500

Johnathan Cabral, 110 hurdles

Marcus Chambers, 400

FAILED TO ADVANCE

4×100 relay

4×400 relay

Tanguy Pepiot, 3,000 steeplechase

Arthur Delaney, 200

DECATHLON AFTER DAY 1

Dakotah Keys, fifth

Joe Delgado, 17th

Mitch Modin, 19th

HEPTATHLON AFTER DAY 1

Ashlee Moore, 18th