Duck sweep Pac12 Meet

EUGENE - In the end it was all Oregon.

And it wasn't close.

The Ducks crushed the competition to sweep the Pac-12 Track & Field Championships Sunday, blowing open what was supposed to be a close battle with USC.

The UO men piled up 175 points, far in front of USC, second with 115.5.

The Oregon women scored 189 points. The Trojans were a distant second with 135.

The Ducks have swept the team championships for nine consecutive years. They have won every men's team title since 2007. Rarely have they looked as impressive from start to finish as they did on the sunny afternoon before 6,778.

The Oregon women were so far in front late in the meet, they left reigning NCAA sprint champ Ariana Washington on the sidelines for the 200-meter final.

UO coach Robert Johnson had already said he wouldn't bring distance ace Edward Cheserek back in the 5,000 - not that the Ducks needed him.

"I was super-surprised by the margin," UO coach Robert Johnson said. "Looking at it coming in, I had it a lot closer than that."

In fact, Johnson said he had the UO men losing the meet by 12 points on his pre-meet form chart.

But the Ducks began rewriting the form charts with the day's first event. Not only did Ryan Hunter-Simms win the discus, but teammates Cullen Prena and Drake Brennan exceeded expectations by finishing fourth and sixth respectively.

The Ducks won the 4x100. They went 1-2 in the men's 100, Kyree King winning in a wind-aided 10.09 seconds and Damarcus Simpson chasing him to the finish line in 10.27.

King doubled back to win the 200 in a wind-aided 20.27. Marcus Chambers - who already had finished second to USC's Michael Norman in the 400 - came in second in the 200.

King's times in both short sprints are the fastest in school history.

It was more than a scoring spree. It was an avalanche.

"Those guys in the discus were a huge surprise," Johnson said, talking about when he first began thinking the day could become something special. "That started the tide early."

He had been battling Arizona's Viktor Gardenkrans and Arizona State's Kyle Long throughout the competition.Hunter-Simms showed a flair for the dramatic.

Going into Hunter-Simms' last throw, the final one in the competition, Long led with a best mark of 192-1. Hunter-Simms was second

"I was trying not to think about anything," Hunter-Simms said. "I just tried to throw far. I yelled a little bit. That was the first yell I did all day."

Maybe that was all it took. The throw measured 192-7.

Then the sprinters took over. King's sweep of the short sprints was the first by an Oregon man in a conference meet since Roscoe Cook won the 100 and 200 yards in the 1959 Pacific Coast Conference Championships.

"I'm trying to get in the habit of winning at Oregon," King said.

Maybe it's contagious.

If anything, the women were more impressive.

Olympic finalist Deajah Stevens swept the 100 and 200 in dominating fashion, winning with wind-legal times of 11.05 and 22.09. She led Washington and Hannah Cunliffe to a 1-2-3 sweep of the 100. With Washington watching, Stevens, Cunliffe, Makenzie Dunmore and Elexis Guster went 1-3-5-6 in the 200, Stevens winning in 22.09.

Her 200 time obliterated the meet record of 22.49 Cunliffe set last year and the school record of 22.20 set in 2015 by Jenna Prandini.

Raevyn Rogers won her third consecutive 800 title, shooting to an early lead and holding it all the way. She crossed in 2:02.93, way in front of Stanford's Christina Aragon, second in 2:05.67.

The women's 4x100 of Alaysha Johnson, Stevens, Dunmore and Washington ran away with the 4x100 in 42.81.

Johnson recovered from an indifferent start to come on late and take the 100 hurdles in a wind-legal 12.90.

She said the UO women convened a group chat before the start of competition.

The consensus?

"It's us against everyone else," Alaysha Johnson said. "No matter what, try to put our color in front of some other color. That was the message. Do everything you can do to get a win."

ChaQuinn Cook was paying attention. The sophomore transfer from Portland State opened the triple jump with a first attempt of 44-1 1/2, a personal record by more than two feet.

The jump stood up for the victory, and is No. 2 on the school's career list.

"She wasn't on my form chart to win," Robert Johnson said. "She was training really well, but she had been having foul problems."

On her initial attempt Sunday, she was almost perfect.

And, so were the Ducks across the board.

Here are the results from the 2017 Pac-12 Track & Field Championships.