Oregon Ducks Sports Weekend Roundup: Track and Field, Women’s Lacrosse, Beach Volleyball

Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championships

The teams from Track-town USA wasted no time establishing themselves in the pecking order of their new conference, with the men and women each earning first place at the Conference Championship meet in Indianapolis, IN. The last sweep for the indoor teams was in 2022, then competing in the Pac-12.

Half of Oregon’s six first place finishes came on the first day of competition. Connor Burns and Silan Ayyildiz took the men’s and women’s 5000M titles, respectively. At the end of the end of the day’s events, the women’s distance medley relay team of Wilma Nielsen, Moriah Oliveira, Samantha McDonnell and Mia Barnett won for Oregon’s only first place relay finish of the weekend.

The Ducks took first in three more events on Saturday. Matthew Erickson and Koitatoi Kidali finished 1-2 in the men’s 800M while Wilma Nielsen and Mia Barnett did the same in the women’s mile. Rounding out the first place finishes was Aaliyah McCormick by .005s in the women’s 60M hurdles.

The women dominated their competition by scoring 131 points, 49 points ahead of second place Illinois. The men faced a closer meet, edging out fellow former Pac-12 foe USC at 106 points to 99.5. Both teams will now wait for results from all conference championship meets to find which athletes and relay teams will be invited to the NCAA Indoor Championships (March 14-15) in Virginia Beach, Va.

Full meet results

Women’s Lacrosse @ UC Davis

The Ducks played their former conference foe (UC Davis and San Diego State competed in the Pac-12 in WLAX until this season) in Davis, CA on Saturday and were bested 20-15. Oregon kept the game close through much of the match and scored the first goal of the fourth quarter to trail only 14-13. Davis then put together a 6-0 run that put the game out of reach.

The two teams were closely matched across the box score, with the notable exception of draw controls where the Aggies had 23-14 edge. This is the first time all season Oregon has lost the draw battle. Five cards also allowed Davis to score three woman up goals and denied the Ducks the services of Anna Simmons for the last 18 minutes of the game. Four different Oregon players pulled off hat tricks: Simmons, Lyla Hurley, Gabby Santucci, and Bri Carrasquilo (5), but it wasn’t enough to overcome the team’s mistakes.

The Ducks return to Eugene to take on San Diego State this Thursday at noon.

Beach Volleyball @ Cactus Classic

Beach volleyball struggled throughout the weekend, losing four consecutive matches in Tuscon, AZ. Bella Gamache and Ella Tyus won a match against Arizona, but the team was then swept 5-0 by Boise State on Friday. Saturday was an even tougher task against #11 ranked Arizona State and #20 Stetson. The Ducks lost 5-0 by both of their Saturday opponents, taking 2 sets from ASU and one from Stetson.

Beach volleyball will be back in action this weekend at the MPSF Mid-Season Rumble (March 7-8) at Stanford.