On Friday, the Oregon track and field program had a sweep of a sort to celebrate as well. Three alums of the program were in action Friday, and all three advanced to their event finals on the closing weekend of Oregon22.
Raevyn Rogers made the 800-meter final on time and will have a day to rest after her semifinal Friday evening. The women’s 4×100-meter final Saturday night will feature two teams that advanced Friday with the help of Ducks: Kemba Nelson of Jamaica and Jenna Prandini of the United States.
In other action Saturday, Emmanuel Ihemeje will participate in the men’s triple jump final, and Alaysha Johnson gets started with the preliminaries of the 100 hurdles. Shana Grebo is in the 4×400 relay pool for France, and Kyree King is in the U.S. men’s 4×100 pool, though he did not run in Friday’s preliminaries.
Rogers, the 2021 Olympics bronze medalist, had a cleaner trip around the track Friday than in Thursday’s opening round of the 800. She finished third in her semifinal, the second of three on the night, and her time of 1:58.77 made her the fastest on-time qualifier for Sunday’s final.
“I tried to focus on being more aggressive, being more in it,” said Rogers, who was jostled twice in the final 250 of her opening round heat and had to work hard to come from behind and win that race. “I watched my race yesterday, and I just felt like I looked a little sluggish. … Today I worked on that. I really wanted to be aggressive, be in the mix, stay in position. All in all I gave my best today, and I’m happy with that.”
Rogers was sixth in her semifinal at the bell, and began moving up with about 250 to go. She was comfortably in third coming off the curve and went wide to try and move up, closing the gap but being edged at the line for the second and final automatic qualifying spot of the heat by Natoya Goule of Jamaica in 1:58.73.
“Everyone’s legs are feeling some type of way,” Rogers said of having to dig deep in the homestretch. “You prepare for it, but at the same time it’s World Championships — you gotta go through rounds. So I didn’t expect anything else.”
Rogers said her primary focus with a day off Saturday will be relaxation, clearing her mind for Sunday’s final.
“Also, recovery is important,” she acknowledged. “But tomorrow I’m going to use…
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