Sprinters Post Top-10 NCAA Marks in Opener

Saturday, January 18

Seattle, WA

All Day

University of Oregon

UW Indoor Preview

Photo by: Ben Crawford

01/18/20 | Track and Field

Meet Results

By: Zach Lawson

EUGENE, Ore. – On their way to a sweep of the 60 meters, redshirt junior Gaston Bouchereau and senior Brianna Duncan posted a pair of NCAA top-10 season marks Saturday at the UW Indoor Preview. Overall, the Ducks collected five wins in the team's season opener.

In the Winners' Circle…
Gaston Bouchereau – men's 60m
Rieker Daniel – men's 200m
Brianna Duncan – women's 60m
Susan Ejore – women's 1,000m
Tori Sloan – women's high jump

Bouchereau opened his indoor campaign with a time of 6.64 in the prelims, securing the qualifying spot in the next round. He was back on the track in the final to out-lean UCLA's Kenroy Higgins, 6.656 to 6.66, for the top spot in the event. With his showing in the prelim, Bouchereau moves to No. 4 in the Oregon top 10 and fifth on the NCAA season performance list.

In a similar debut splash, Duncan wasted no time posting one of the fastest times in the nation with her 7.29 in the prelim. She lowered that time to a personal best of 7.27 to win the final over a field that also featured Olympic long jump champion Brittney Reese. Based on times entering the day, Duncan is inside the top eight in the NCAA and now holds the No. 9 spot in UO history.

The Ducks picked up another sprint win from junior Rieker Daniel at 200 meters. Earlier in the meet, he was ninth in the prelims of the 60 meters and just missed advancing to the final. Daniel and teammate Jacob Miller finished 1-2 overall and the Men of Oregon occupied four of the top-six spots in the final of the 200 meters with Oraine Palmer and Jacoby McNamara in fourth and sixth, respectively.

Sophomore Tori Sloan was clean through five attempts on her way to winning the high jump. She ended the day with a best clearance of 1.73m/5-8 which established a new personal best and matched the No. 8 mark in program history.

Competing at 1,000 meters, Susan Ejore held on for the victory in the seldom-race distance. She finished two-hundredths of a second (2:45.34 to 2:45.36) ahead of Stanford's Julia Heymach. In the men's event, Cooper Teare crossed in second place and was one of five Ducks—Teare, Charlie Hunter (third), James West (sixth), Jackson Mestler (seventh) and Luis Peralta (ninth)—in the top 10.

In a two of Oregon's eight runner-up efforts, senior Danyel White (200m) and sophomore Emily Sloan (60m hurdles) were the top collegiate performers. The Ducks also had runner-up showings from Lexi Ellis (long jump), Ben Milligan (high jump), Maddie Rabing (shot put) and Jaimie Robinson (triple jump).

Milligan, in his first competition since 2018, cleared his first three attempts of the afternoon before taking three attempts at a would-be indoor PR of 2.16m/7-1. The Portland, Ore., native was an NCAA outdoor qualifier in 2018.

What's Next: The Ducks will have an off weekend before traveling to Fayetteville, Ark., for the two-day Razorback Invitational (Jan. 31-Feb. 1) at the Randal Tyson Track Center. Saturday's meet was Oregon's first of three trips to Seattle for this indoor season: Husky Classic (Feb. 14-15) and MPSF Championships (Feb. 28-29).

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