EUGENE, Ore. – Micah Williams and Matthew Erickson extended their seasons Wednesday at the NCAA West Preliminary with qualifying efforts in the 100 and 800 meters, respectively. At week’s end, the top 12 in each event advance to the NCAA Championships (June 7-10) in Austin, Texas.
Making his second-career appearance at the meet, Erickson was the fastest qualifier of the day with a new lifetime best of 1:47.14 in the last of six heats. He took more than a second off his previous best of 1:48.27 set at last year’s West Preliminary meet in Fayetteville, Ark. Erickson surged to the lead at the top of the homestretch and held on for the top spot.
The UO sophomore is back in action Friday at 7:05 p.m.
Williams secured the team’s first quarterfinal spot of the week, crossing the finish in a time of 10.33 which stood as the fastest at-large qualifier in the 100 meters. The two-time Pac-12 champ returns to the track Friday at 6:35 p.m. to race for a lane at the national meet.
Freshman PJ Ize-Iyamu Jr. also competed in Wednesday’s opening round of the 100, finishing with a time of 10.41, just .002 shy of advancing. He was one of two runners on the at-large list with identical times of 10.41 but Nylo Clarke of Texas Tech (10.404) edged Ize-Iyamu (10.406) for the final spot.
In the Ducks’ first result of the day, Mason Strunk posted a mark of 64.85m/212-9 and finished in 19th place in hammer qualifying, matching his finish at last year’s West Preliminary meet. Strunk ends the season with a lifetime best of 67.33m/220-10—No. 8 at Oregon—in a sixth-place finish at the Pac-12 Championships.
Jett Kinder (64.17m/210-6) and Dalton Rasmussen (61.85m/202-11), both in their third appearances competing at the regional meet, finished in 26th and 31st, respectively, in the javelin. Both began their postseason by scoring at the conference meet.
Oregon’s first action on the track came in the 1500 meters where James Gormley just missed grabbing an automatic qualifier into the next round. Needing a top-five finish in heat two, the UO senior crossed in seventh and with a faster previous heat, his time of 3:50.65 fell below the on-time qualifiers. Places four through nine in Gormley’s heat finished within four-tenths of each other.
Up next: Day two of the NCAA West Preliminary marks the start of the women’s competition. The UO women will have nine opportunities in six events—10,000m, pole vault, long jump, shot put, hammer and…
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