ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Senior Lexi Ellis broke the school record in the triple jump and Jadyn Mays had two top-five national finishes in the sprints Saturday as the Ducks put a cap on the 2023 indoor season. The Women of Oregon finished the weekend tied for 11th in the team race with 22 points, one tally shy of a top-10 national finish.
With her showing Saturday, Mays became the first UO woman to score in the 60 and 200 meters at the NCAA indoor meet since Hannah Cunliffe and Ariana (Washington) Murphy did so in 2017. Mays began the day with a time of 7.13 in the final of the 60 meters, and roughly 40 minutes later, followed that up with a 22.63 in the 200. She finished in fifth place in both events, collecting eight points for the Ducks.
After a foul in the first round, Ellis responded with a then-lifetime best of 13.82m/45-4.25 on her second attempt to secure a spot in the final. The measure put her within one centimeter of the school record of 13.83 meter set by Chaquinn Cook in 2019. Then, on the final jump of her indoor career, Ellis moved her name to the top of the UO all-time list with a 13.97m/45-10 effort.
All three of Ellis’ legal jumps were beyond her previous best of 13.56m/44-6 from two seasons ago. She finished in eighth overall, collecting the first top-eight national finish of her UO career.
The Ducks’ first points of the afternoon came from Klaudia Kazimierska in the mile. As the only freshman to advance to the final, she registered a time of 4:37.82 to come away with sixth place and three points. Teammate Izzy Thornton-Bott (4:44.34) just missed a scoring position in ninth place.
On the men’s side of the mile, sophomore Elliott Cook finished seventh in his NCAA indoor debut. The Dublin, Ohio, native crossed the finish line in 4:04.27 in a race where the top seven were separated by less than a second. Cook came into the meet as the No. 11 overall qualifier with his time of 3:55.34 at the BU Valentine Invitational in early February.
Having never competed indoors during her prep career, freshman Aaliyah McCormick finished in sixth place in the 60-meter hurdles. She matched her lifetime best of 8.01 in the race, a time that she’s now run four times during the 2023 indoor campaign. Like Kazimierska earlier in the afternoon, McCormick was the top-finishing freshman in the event.
The final points of the weekend for the UO women came from Jorinde Van Klinken and Jaida Ross in the shot put, finishing in sixth…
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