Micah Williams, Kemba Nelson Both Win 100-200 Sprint Doubles To Power Oregon To Conference Sweep; Cal Freshman Mykolas Alekna Breaks His Own Collegiate Discus Record; Colorado Distance Group Dominates

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Fifteen years ago, when Oregon's 15-year conference championship winning streak began, there were still just 10 teams in the meet. 

The 2007 team featured Galen Rupp, who won the 5,000 and 10,000, Tommy Skipper, who won the pole vault, and a young Ashton Eaton, a newbie in the decathlon, who took second. 

Oregon scored 114 points and edged out Arizona State (111) and USC (110). Forty percent of the Ducks' points came from distance races 1,500 meters and above. 

On Sunday, in a new Hayward Field and with a new generation of athletes and a more diversified lineup relying heavily on the horizontal jumps and sprints, the Oregon men scored 161 points and there was no final-day drama. Second-place Washington was 55 points back. 

But another Oregon-born talent, Micah Williams, is the face of the new franchise. The sophomore blasted through the 100 meters in a wind-legal time of 9.93 seconds and ran a personal best time of 20.05 seconds to win the 200. 

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Elliott Cook picked off a big win in the men's 800, running a personal best 1:48.81, but the long distance events (1,500, 3,000-meter steeplechase, 5,000 and 10,000) generally belonged to Colorado, Washington and Stanford this year. 

"This championship wasn't going to be won by the kids that were 1-2-3, it was going to be won by those sixth, seventh and eighth places, and you guys know that we have a balanced approach, so we've got bullets everywhere," Oregon head coach Robert Johnson said. 

Oregon had 12 individual champions across the men's and women's results. The women scored 167 points and returned to the top of the podium for the first time since 2017. 

Again, the formula was heavily sprints and jumps. The Ducks went 1-2 in both the men's and women's long jump competitions and also had both champions (Emmanuel Ihmemeje and Lexi Ellis) in the triple jump. 

Kemba Nelson matched Williams' successes in the sprints and doubled 11.05 in the 100 with a personal best 22.74 in the 200. 

The USC women, reigning national champions who graduated many of its top stars and endured the departure of head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert to Georgia, finished fourth after winning the past three conference championships. 

The Women of Troy pulled out Sunday wins from Jan'Taijah Ford in the women's 400 meters (51.22) and Jasmine Jones in the 100-meter hurdles (12.92). 

One of the biggest stories of the meet was the domination of the Colorado distance crew. 

The Buffaloes won five of the eight races longer 800 meters, including a 5,000-10,00 double by Abby Nichols, Eduardo Hererra's victory in the men's 5,000, Michaela DeGenero winning the women's 1,500 meters and Madie Boreman winning the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase. 

Colorado's women finished second with 102.5 points and pulled 69 points out of the four distance races. 

Washington got a pair of big wins from Joe Waskom in the men's 1,500 meters and Carley Thomas in the 800 meters on Sunday, after Brian Fay's victory in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase on Saturday. 

The weekend also revealed the dominance of the California throws group. Mykolas Alekna, a freshman from Lithuania, achieved the biggest mark of the meet on Sunday when he broke his own collegiate record in the discus with 68.73m (225-6) on his fifth-round throw.

Alekna's win came after earlier wins by the Bears in the women's hammer throw (Camryn Rogers) and men's shot put (Josh Johnson). 

Cal piled up 77 total points in the men's and women's hammer, shot put and discus.