Titans shine at Twilight

Lane competes at UO Twilight meet before heading to NWAC Championships

May 9, 2018 Noah Noteboom / The Torch

On April 17, the University of Oregon announced that the historic Hayward Field will undergo a $500 million renovation. On May 4th, the last regular season track meet was held on the field until 2020, when the renovations are scheduled to be finished.

The University of Oregon Twilight meet is the last home meet for UO athletes before they compete in the upcoming PAC-12 Championships held at Stanford University on May 12-13. For a few Lane runners, it is the last meet before the NorthWest Athletic Conference Championships held in Gresham, Oregon.

“I was a little disappointed with my results, but you can’t not enjoy competing at Hayward Field,” Lane pole vaulter Morgan Fossen said about the possibility of this being her last meet at Hayward Field. Fossen came in second in the women’s pole vault, jumping 11’-9.75”.

On the men’s side, three Titans placed in the top five in the pole vault. Bai Abiello and Nathan Wirth placed fourth and fifth, while sophomore Corey Sledge came in second with a final jump of 16’-2”.

Titan jumper Jacob Williams takes his second attempt in the long jump competition at the UO Twilight meet on April 4 at Hayward Field. Williams’ best jump of the day was 23’-4.5” which earned him a first-place finish in the event.

Other jumpers included Jacob Williams, whose 23’-4.5” long jump was good enough to take home first place. In the men’s triple jump, Titan Able Williams placed third with a jump of 45’-1”.

The Titan men’s 4×100 meter relay team set a new season record with a run of 41.71 seconds, which placed them second ahead of teams like Clackamas and SouthWest Oregon, who they will be competing against in the NWAC Championships.

“It was a rough beginning of the season, but we knew things would come together,” said Jacoby McNamara, the anchor leg in the Lane 4×100 relay team.

McNamara would also compete in the 100m and 200m races later in the meet. In the 100m, McNamara raced against former Olympian and Oregon Duck Devon Allen, who set meet records in both the 100m and 110m hurdles in his return to Hayward Field. McNamara placed fourth overall in the 200m with a time of 21.49 seconds.

In the women’s 200m, two Titans placed in the top five. Freshman Shayla Noil placed third and sophomore Carly Kleefeld finished in fifth. Noil posted a time of 24.86 seconds, while her teammate, Kleefeld, ran a 25.25. Noil came just 0.06 seconds shy of breaking the school record held by Allie Church, who went on to compete at Division 1 Oregon State.

20 Lane track and field athletes have met the qualifying time or measurement to compete at the NWAC Championships, which will be held at Mt. Hood Community College on May 21-22.