Dakotah Keys’ win in the Pac-12 decathlon championship a week ago wasn’t the only score by an ex-Sweet Home athlete for the Oregon Ducks at the conference level.
On Saturday, May 11, Annie Whitfield came through big with a PR to place third in the javelin at the conference championships at USC to help the Oregon women to the league title. Oregon’s men also won their championship.
After a stumble by the Oregon women on Saturday morning when junior English Gardner, the two-time reigning conference 100-meter champion, false started in that event, other Ducks took over.
The women got nine points in the javelin, in which Liz Brenner grabbed third with a throw of 150-0 and then Annie Whitfield came through with a personal best throw of 145-11 as the freshman from Sweet Home picked up three team points.
“Annie – I was so proud of her,” said Brenner, a multi-talented athlete who signed with the Ducks as a volleyball player, but has also competed for the women’s basketball, softball and, this year as a junior, the track team.
“Coach told us that English had fouled so we had to go get some extra points.”
Whitfield’s previous best was 144-2, set as a high school senior.
Delayed TV coverage of the PAC-12 track and field championships will be aired at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 15, on the Pac-12 Network.
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Corban sophomore Olivia Johnson ran a PR of 39:52.97 to finish third in the 10,000 Friday night at the Cascade Collegiate Conference Championships held at Mt. Hood Community College.
Her previous best was 41:00.00.
Johnson, who has qualified to run the marathon at the NAIA nationals in the marathon on May 25 in Marion, Ind., scored six points for Corban, which placed fifth as the College of Idaho took home the team title, snapping Concordia’s six-year reign, with 210.5 points. Following C of I was Eastern Oregon (145 points), Concordia (131), Southern Oregon (114), Corban (107), Oregon Tech (58), Warner Pacific (47), Northwest (23), and Northwest Christian (16).
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Maria Kropf, a freshman at Grand Canyon University, ran 14.31 in the 100 hurdles at a Last Chance Qualifier meet at Azusa Pacific Friday, May 10.
That mark was well off the personal-best 13.95 she ran late last month at the league championships, which was well under the 14.40 provisional qualifying time for the NCAA Division II national championships. The automatic qualifier for the 100 hurdles is 13.56.