Women of Oregon in Second After Day Two

AUSTIN, Texas – Jorinde van Klinken opened her final NCAA Championships with a runner-up finish in the shot put Thursday night at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas. She and teammate Jaida Ross accounted for 12 points in the event which, added to Alysah Hickey’s finish in the long jump, put the Women of Oregon in second—17 points—in the team race at the end of day two of the national meet.
 
The Ducks also advanced five to Saturday finals including the 1500-meter trio of Klaudia Kazimierska, Izzy Thornton-Bott and Maddy Elmore. Along with both relays qualifying for finals, Oregon will have additional scoring chances with van Klinken in the discus and Taylor Choceck in the heptathlon.
 
Hickey recorded the team’s first points of the week with her fourth-place finish in the long jump. Down in sixth place ahead of her final attempt, she got out to a day’s best of 6.48m/21-3.25 to jump two spots in the overall standings. The result is a career-best showing at the NCAA Championships for Hickey, up a spot from placing fifth in 2021.
 
In the shot put, van Klinken saved her best for round six with a toss of 18.48m/60-7.75 to go from fourth to second in the standings. The result matches her national runner-up finish a year ago when she was at Arizona State. She returns to the infield Saturday at 5:35 p.m. (PT) for the discus, an event she has won the previous two years.
 
Ross also matched her NCAA finish from a season ago, placing fifth overall with a best of 18.11m/59-5 in the second round. The Medford, Ore., native added another 18-meter effort on her fifth attempt.
 
The Ducks opened the evening session with a qualifying effort in the 4×100-meter relay. The team of Lily Jones, Jadyn Mays, Shana Grebo and Ella Clayton combined for a season-best showing of 43.09, good for the No. 10 spot on the program’s all-time list. The team came into the week with a best of 43.31 at the Pac-12 Championships.
 
The 4×100-meter relay final will kick off Saturday’s television coverage at 6:02 p.m. (PT) on ESPN2.
 
The UO women went 3-for-3 in the 1500 meters and will make up a quarter of the 12-runner final. In heat one, Kazimierska was part of a blanket finish among the spots two through five to secure a spot into the next round. Behind her, Elmore was making a charge into seventh to grab one of the two on-time spots with another heat to go. Kazimierska finished in 4:09.84 while Elmore’s kick down the final 100 meters resulted in a 4:11.49…