NCAA CHAMPIONS: Oregon Women Win First NCAA Outdoor Title Since 1985

EUGENE, Oregon – After watching yesterday their men’s teammates win their second NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field national team title in as many years, the Oregon women claimed the national team crown for the just the second time in program history and the first time since 1985.

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Powered by a historic effort from sprinter/jumper extraordinaire Jenna Prandini, the Ducks scored 59 team points to top runner-up Kentucky’s 50. The Wildcats, without an entry in the meet-finale 4×400-meter relay, outlasted third-place Texas A&M with 47 and Arkansas with 43 to comprise the top-four podium teams.

Both Kentucky and Arkansas appeared on the podium for the first times in their programs’ histories.

For Oregon’s women, they combine with their male teammates for the first outdoor team title sweep in school history. The Ducks become the first to sweep the outdoor title titles since Texas A&M did so three years in a row in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

What was billed to be a dramatic team race indeed shook down that way. Fifth-place Georgia just missed the podium with 41 points, a hard-charging Florida State team finished sixth with 35, Southern California was seventh with 34, Florida was eighth with 32, and Big 12 duo of Texas and Kansas State tied for ninth with 28 points.

Prandini was the star for the Ducks this weekend, scoring a combined 26 points with a win at 100 meters and a narrow runner-up 200-meters effort to go along with a runner-up long jump performance on Thursday. That ties her for the third-highest scoring total in women’s meet history, and it could have been more but for a disqualified 4×100 relay to start the meet after a out-of-the-zone exchange.

But it wasn’t just Prandini for the Ducks. Frosh Raven Rogers scored what might have been the upset of the meet as she claimed the 800-meter crown in 1:59.71 to become the first frosh and the fourth collegiate woman ever to break the 2:00 barrier.

Thursday’s women’s competition also so a 4-5 finish from Molly Grabill and Waverly Neer at 10,000 meters, plus fourth-place finishes from Jasmine Todd in the long jump and Jillian Weir in the hammer throw, and a fifth-place showing from Brittany Mann in the shot put.

Kentucky’s day may have been much different if it hadn’t lost its 4×100 relay team on Thursday to a disqualification as the result of a bad handoff, but the Wildcats still notched their best-ever team finish – bettering their seventh-place effort from a year ago.

Kendra Harrison got the win in the 100-meter hurdles and was runner-up in the 400-meter hurdles to now two-time defending champ Shamier Little of Texas A&M, providing a significant 18-point boost for the Wildcats.

Dezerea Bryant closed out her collegiate career in a big way, running the low-altitude collegiate record (No. 2 all-time) at 200 meters to win in 22.18 over Prandini’s 22.21. She had been the 2014 indoor national champion in this event as well.

But given that Harrison had been penciled in for those points, the more impactful hurdles finish may have come from Leah Nugent, who took third in the 400-meter hurdles. Other significant points came from Sha’Keela Saunders in the long jump (third) and Becky Famurewa in the discus and Keilah Tyson at 100 meters, both of whom finished seventh.

Texas A&M did not defend its national title from a year ago, but did score 47 points behind back-to-back discus winner Shelbi Vaughan, a win by Little in the 400-meter hurdles, and nine points between Kamaria Brown and Aaliyah Brown at 200 meters.

Three-quarters of the way through the 5000 meters, it looked as though Arkansas might not make the podium as Dominique Scott faded back out of the top four in the final laps of the race before mounting a furious kick to reclaim a runner-up effort. Those points ended up being the difference as the Razorback 4×400 relay finished sixth – two spots below projections – and Arkansas edged out Georgia by just two points in the overall team standings.

The Bulldogs themseles came in ahead of projections, getting a triple jump win by Keturah Orji with a new U.S. Junior Record mark of 46-5¼ (14.15m) – also tied for the No. 5 mark in collegiate history and just five centimeters shy of the Championships record – to win by more than two feet. Last year’s national high jump champion Leontia Kallenou finished third this year, while teammate Tatiana Gusin was fifth. Those efforts came in addition to runner-up and third-place finishes in the heptathlon by Kendell Williams and Quintunya Chapman, and a fifth-place effort by javelin thrower Freya Jones.

Coming into the meet ranked No. 13 in the country, Florida State well exceeded that projection with a sixth-place effort. FSU got upset wins from Colleen Quigley in the steeplechase – who became just the third collegiate woman to break the 9:30 barrier – and Kala Funderburk at 400 meters. Sage Watson also provided a big boost in the 400-meter hurdles with a fourth-plae effort in that event, and the 4×400 relay finished third overall.

Southern California got a world junior record in the 100-meter hurdles from third-place finisher Dior Hall to finish seventh overall with 34 points. That just edged out eighth-place Florida with 32, which kicked off Saturday with a winning 4×100 relay and closed it with the 4×400 relay win.

Rounding out the top 10 was a ninth-place tie between Kansas State and Texas with 28 points. The Wildcats got a big win from Akela Jones in the heptathlon, who also doubled back for a fourth-place high jump effort. Her high-jump teammate Kimberly Williamson was the runner-up in that event.

Texas got a pair of runner-up finishes from 400-meter runner Kendall Baisden and 100-meter sprinter Morolake Akinosun, the latter of whom also finished fifth at 200 meters and ran legs of the fourth-place 4×100 and eighth-place 4×400 relays.