Solid Opening Day at Pac-12 Championships

WALNUT, Calif. – The No. 4 Women of Oregon advanced six to finals and scored in two events during Friday’s opening session of the 2023 Pac-12 Championships at Hilmer Lodge Stadium in Walnut, Calif. The UO men sit in fourth place with 16 points after three events scored and in preliminary action, got two through finals.
 
Both teams are also in scoring position in the decathlon and heptathlon with seven of eight combined entries inside the top eight after day one.
 
Up Next: Day two of the conference meet begins at 11:30 a.m. with the resumption of the decathlon. In tandem with the combined events, the Ducks have 20 scoring opportunities—eight men, 12 women—on Saturday including Alysah Hickey going after a third-consecutive title in the long jump.
 
The Ducks’ first points of the weekend came from a sixth-place outing by Mason Strunk in the hammer. He got the implement out to a lifetime best of 67.33m/220-10 on his third attempt of the competition. Along with secure three points for the UO men, Strunk moved from 10^th to eighth on the program’s all-time list. The Salem, Ore., native came into the meet ranked eighth in the league.
 
In their other scoring chance Friday, the UO men collected 13 points in the javelin. Ty Hampton led the trio of Oregon entries with a third-place finish, getting the javelin out to a day’s best of 68.84m/225-10 on his second attempt. Dalton Rasmussen (67.20m/220-5) and Jett Kinder (62.26m/204-3) each posted their bests in the final round to finish in fourth and seventh, respectively.
 
Rasmussen moved from fifth to fourth on his last attempt while Kinder, pulling double duty with the in-progress decathlon, went from ninth and out of scoring position to seventh place.
 
The UO women registered their first points of the meet with Kohana Nakato’s fifth-place showing in the javelin. The sophomore started strong, getting out to a measure of 51.28m/168-3 in the opening round. With the finish, Nakato contributed four points toward the team total and for the first time, cracked the program’s top-10 list and now sits at No. 8 in UO history.
 
The final event of the night saw Harper McClain pull a point for the women in the closing moments of the 10,000 meters. Sitting in ninth place with 200 to go, McClain passed Washington’s Naomi Smith in the turn and held on down the stretch for eighth place. McClain’s time of 33:42.26 knocks more than two second off her previous best from the Oregon Preview (March…