First Meet On A Busy 2024 Calendar At Hayward Field Set For Friday/Saturday

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

Photos by Crash Kamon/Becky Holbrook

Oregon freshmen Simeon Birnbaum and Rheinhardt Harrison are set to make their highly anticipated debuts for the Ducks with the 2024 collegiate outdoor season opening up this weekend at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. with the Oregon Preview on Friday and Saturday. Cool temperatures and wet weather is forecast. 

Birnbaum and Harrison, two sub-4-minute mile prep standouts, are entered in the men’s 800- and 1,500-meter races taking place Saturday afternoon, with Oregon teammates Elliott Cook, an NCAA cross country qualifier, Matthew Erickson, Tomas Palfrey and James Harding joining the fields.

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Harrison last raced at Hayward Field in the 1,500 at the 2023 USATF U20 Championships as the Ponte Verde, Fla. native won the men’s final in 3 minutes, 48.30 seconds.

Birnbaum makes his way back to the track for first time since racing at the 2023 Pan American U20 Championships in Puerto Rico for the U.S., placing second overall in the men’s 800-meter final. The Rapid City, S.D. native also race at the USATF Senior Championships in the 1,500, finishing sixth in heat two of the preliminary round.

Oregon’s Sergio Del Barrio, European U20 steeplechase champion from Spain, and Benjamin Balazs, USATF U20 steeplechase champion, are another pair of freshman set to make their Oregon debuts in the men’s steeplechase field.

Courtney Klatt of Portland headlines the women’s 1,500 field as the top entry, with Kamryn Weber, racing unattached, and Saint Martin’s Cassidy Walchak-Sloan in the field too.

Samantha McDonnell, former Newbury Park CA standout, will make her outdoor Oregon debut following her transfer from UCLA in the women’s 800 and 3,000 steeplechase.

McKenna Ramsay, a former Duck now representing BTC Elite, will race the 800 as well. 

E’Lexis Hollis of Central Washington, fourth at NCAA Division 2 Indoor Championships in the women’s 60, will race the 100 and 200 in her season debut.

Xavier Nairne, an NCAA Outdoor Championship competitor in the 4x100 relay for Oregon, will race unattached in the men’s 100 and 200.

Oregon’s Anika Thompson headlines Friday night’s women’s 5,000 race, coming off a career-best indoor season. The Junction City, Ore. native ran her lifetime best in the event this past indoor season in 15:52.19 at Eagle Elite in Boston in early Feb.

In field events, NCAA Indoor shot put runner-up Jaida Ross of Oregon is set to make her discus debut with teammate and reigning Pac-12 Outdoor hammer champion Shelby Moran, who’s also in the hammer competition.

Former Arizona Wildcat Grayson Fleming and Oregon’s Mason Strunk bring in the top marks in the men’s hammer competition. 

Oregon’s Kohana Nakato and Oregon State’s Maryann Ackerman, NCAA West Regional qualifiers, are the top two entries in the women’s javelin competition.

Northwest Nazarene’s Laurenz Waldbauer, 13th at NCAA Division 2 Outdoor Championship in the javelin, brings in the top entry mark in the men’s competition.