2019 Preview: The Women of Oregon

Photo by: Samuel Marshall/Eric Evans Photo

01/10/19 | Track and Field

2019 Women's Roster 2019 Schedule

By: Zach Lawson

Answering the "who's back?" and "who's that?" questions ahead of the Ducks' 2019 track and field campaign which begins this weekend (Jan. 12) at the UW Preview in Seattle…

Sprints/Hurdles

The Ducks return five All-American sprinters in 2019, all of which have at least two such honors. That list features Venessa D'Arpino, Briyahna DesRosiers, Makenzie Dunmore, Jasmin Reed and Hannah Waller.

Dunmore has picked up six All-America accolades through the first two years of her college career. The versatile sprinter is the only woman in UO history with top-10 career marks at 60, 100, 200 (indoor and outdoor) and 400 meters (indoor and outdoor). At last year's Pac-12 meet, Dunmore won the 200-meter title and ran a personal best 50.63 as the runner-up at 400 meters.

Oregon returns three legs—D'Arpino, DesRosiers and Waller—of its 4x400-meter team that finished third at last year's NCAA Championships. Individually, DesRosiers and Waller were indoor and outdoor NCAA qualifiers at 400 meters.

D'Arpino—part of last year's NCAA champion DMR—and DesRosiers have exhausted their indoor eligibility but will be back for the Ducks during the outdoor season where they both own top-10 program times at 400 meters.

Reed was a three-time All-American during her freshman campaign, securing all three honors during the outdoor season. She was an individual qualifier at 100 and 200 meters and helped the Ducks to a runner-up finish in the 4x100-meter relay.

Sophomore Kaylah Robinson is the Ducks' top returning hurdler having established personal bests of 8.33 in the 60-meter hurdles and 13.24 in the 100-meter hurdles. She finished sixth at the Pac-12 meet and qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary.

The Ducks also bring back Rhesa Foster—primarily a long jumper—and Khadejah Jackson who own personal bests of 8.39 in the 60-meter hurdles and 59.46 in the 400-meter hurdles, respectively.

Transfers Iman Brown and Brieasha Hobbs will add to the sprinting depth while freshman Emily Sloan was one of the nation's top recruits in the hurdle events.

Sloan posted the No. 2 all-time prep mark of 8.07 in the prelims of the 60-meter hurdles at the 2018 USATF Indoor Championships. The six-time Colorado 5A state champion begins her collegiate career with personal bests of 13.35 (100mH) and 59.73 (400mH).

Distance

On the heels of a third-place national finish and a Pac-12 title during the cross country season, the Women of Oregon will get a boost on the track from their distance crew. With increased depth from the addition of several newcomers, the Ducks return a pair of NCAA champions in Jessica Hull and Susan Ejore.

Hull, named to The Bowerman preseason watch list, is the defending national champion at 1,500 meters and ran the lead-off leg of last year's victorious distance-medley relay. She also won the Pac-12 title at 1,500 meters. Hull is the school-record holder in the mile (4:31.76) and is the program's No. 2 performer at 3,000 meters (8:8.50). In winning the NCAA title at 1,500 meters, she also moved into fourth place on the UO all-time list.

Ejore won her first national title as the 800-meter leg of last year's DMR in College Station. Individually, she was also a national qualifier in the mile by establishing a personal best of 4:38.65 at the Husky Classic.

The Ducks also return redshirt junior Carmela Cardama Baez who was the indoor conference champion at 5,000 meters. In that race, she posted a winning time of 15:55.00 to become the No. 9 performer in program history. During the outdoor season, Baez qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary at 10,000 meters.

Newcomer Weronika Pyzik joined Hull and Baez as a cross country All-America selection. Last year as a standout at San Francisco, she finished 10^th at the NCAA Championships at 10,000 meters and carries a personal best in the event of 32:37.89 which would rank second on the Ducks' career list.

She is one of a handful of transfers, a list that also features Phily Bowden, Isabelle Brauer and Ruby Stauber. Brauer, a teammate of Pyzik at USF, was an all-conference and all-region performer for the Ducks during the cross country season.

Stauber began her collegiate career at LSU where she was the 2017 SEC Outdoor Co-Freshman Runner of the Year. She was a two-time conference runner-up at 800 meters and established an overall personal best of 2:03.01 in a fifth-place showing at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Jumps

Senior Chaquinn Cook leads the team's jumpers as the school-record holder—indoor and outdoor—in the triple jump. The three-time NCAA Championships qualifier was the 2018 runner-up at the Pac-12 Championships in her signature event. Cook enters her senior year with bests of 13.11m/43-0.25 and 13.89/45-7, respectively.

She and Foster both earned All-America honors last year. Foster was the MPSF champion in the long jump and moved into fourth on the UO all-time indoor performance list with a 6.33m/20-9.25 mark at the Columbia Challenge. She was also the 2017 Pac-12 champion in the long jump.

The veteran duo will be joined by a trio of newcomers in transfer Jaimie Robinson and freshmen Lexi Ellis and Asiah Cooper.

Robinson spent one year at Alabama where she qualified for the NCAA Championships in the triple jump. She was the 2017 U.S. junior champion in the event and was the silver medalist at that year's Pan-Am U20 Championships. She comes to Eugene with personal bests of 20-2.5 in the long jump and 42-9.5 in the triple jump.

Ellis qualified for the 2018 IAAF World U20 Championships in the triple jump with a runner-up finish at the USATF Junior Championships. She was a two-time state champion in Washington, securing one of the titles with a personal-best and state-record mark of 43-6.

Throws

Keira McCarrell represented Oregon's throwers at the NCAA Championships as a qualifier in the javelin. At the NCAA West Preliminary, she unleashed a personal best of 52.15m/171-1 which made her the No. 4 performer in school history. She went on to represent Canada in the event at the IAAF World U20 Championships.

Having twice qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary, Maddie Rabing is looking to make that next step after a 2018 that saw her established personal bests in the discus, hammer and weight throw. At the Pac-12 Championships, Rabing had a toss of 61.17m/200-8 in the hammer throw to finish sixth. She owns the No. 4 spot on Oregon's career hammer list.

Kiana Phelps is a two-time qualifier for the NCAA West Preliminary in the discus. She comes into the season ranked No. 5 on the UO all-time list with a best of 53.04m/174-0 from the preliminary meet. Phelps missed advancing to the NCAA Championships by one spot.

Redshirt junior Ronna Stone is ninth in program history in the shot put (indoor) and weight throw. She did not compete during the outdoor season last year but was a conference scorer in the discus at the Pac-12 meet in 2017.

Sophomore Sydnee Walker had the Ducks' top mark in the weight throw, a toss of 18.52m/60-9.25 at the Columbia Challenge.

Multi-Events

In addition to her prowess in the javelin, McCarrell is the Ducks' top-returning performer in the multi-events. She established bests last season of 3,359 points in the pentathlon and 5,161 points in the heptathlon.

The Ducks have also added freshman Tori Sloan who was a 2017 USATF Junior Olympics All-American in the high jump and heptathlon. She was a four-time Idaho 5A state champion including two wins in the long jump.