BIG 10 TRACK AND FIELD
FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2025
DISTANCE IS DOMINANCE
The
Women of Oregon have eyes on a third Big Ten title this season. To win, it’ll take excellence where they’ve been strong all year long: middle distance Read on page 7
The Daily Emerald’s
By Brady Ruth Sports Editor
Welcome to Hayward Field in beautiful Eugene, Oregon! We at The Daily Emerald are excited to greet you into one of the most iconic track and field locations in the world. TrackTown, USA, is bustling with life, energy and, of course, track!
We hope you’re able to get around Eugene and see some of the historic sights and highlights of the town’s
rooted track history. We hope it gives you a feel for why we love TrackTown, USA, so much and why we’re so honored to cover track and field in Eugene!
Being a student journalist is a privilege in itself. This year the Emerald has produced incredible content covering a wide range of collegiate athletics, but now we have an opportunity to report on the sport that truly has put Eugene on the map in our very own historic Hayward Field. The Daily Emerald is proud to pro-
vide coverage of this year’s Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships! We hope you enjoy reading the history of this iconic stadium, the present Oregon dominance in track and field, and what the future has in store for Hayward Field and the Ducks! On behalf of the Sports Desk, the editing and design teams, our photographers and everyone else at The Daily Emerald, enjoy your time in TrackTown, USA and thank you for supporting student journalism!
NEWSROOM
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Tristin Hoffman
PRINT MANAGING EDITOR
Mathias Lehman-Winters
SPORTS EDITOR
Brady Ruth
ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR
Jack Lazarus
PHOTO EDITOR
Molly McPherson
COPY CHIEF
Olivia Ellerbruch
DESIGN EDITOR
Sam Butler
SPORTS REPORTERS
Owen Murray
Lily Crane
Beck Parsons
Joe Krasnowski
DESIGNERS
Eva Andrews
Adaleah Carman
Gabriela Martinez Contreras
Taylor Grace
BUSINESS
PUBLISHER AND PRESIDENT
Eric Henry (X317) ehenry@dailyemerald.com
VP OPERATIONS
Kathy Carbone (X302) kcarbone@dailyemerald.com
DIRECTOR OF SALES & DIGITAL MARKETING
Shelly Rondestvedt (X303) srondestvedt@dailyemerald. com
CREATIVE & TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Anna Smith (X327) creative@dailyemerald.com
STUDENT SALES MANAGER
Lola Tagwerker
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Cooper Gast
Elliot Byrne
Ysai Hong
Nate Ghilarducci
Emerald Media Group 1395 University St.,#302 Eugene, Or 97403 (541)-346-5511
PG. 5 Bill Bowerman: A titan on and off the track Fifty years of magic
PG. 7 The Women of Oregon have eyes on a third Big Ten title this season
PG. 9 Oregon rewrites record books
PG. 11 Big Ten Outdoor Championship preview
From iconic Hayward Field tees to spirited UO Track & Field hoodies and keepsakes, find the perfect way to show your passion. Shop the new collection!
BILL BOWERMAN: A TITAN ON AND OFF THE TRACK
How one man changed running forever
By Beck Parsons Sports Reporter
William “Bill” Bowerman was born Feb. 11, 1911 to former Oregon Governor Jay Bowerman and his wife, Elizabeth. Instead of politics, Bowerman dedicated his life to running and built two empires in the process.
Bowerman grew up with his mother in Fossil, Oregon. He enrolled at the University of Oregon in 1929, where he played football and basketball. As a junior, legendary coach Bill Hayward convinced Bowerman to join the track team.
After college, Bowerman became a schoolteacher and served in World War II following the Pearl Harbor attack. He achieved the rank of major and returned to UO to coach track in 1948.
There, Bowerman became a legend. Across 24 years in Eugene, Bowerman won four national titles and coached 33 Olympians. He also developed the now-commonsense “hard-easy” training method, which stressed that athletes not overwork themselves. In 1964, three weeks of ‘hard-easy’ training shaved 27 seconds off Olympian Kenny Moore’s best two-mile time.
It was as Oregon’s track coach that Bowerman met Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight, who walked onto the Oregon track team as a middle-distance runner in 1955.
“It was Bowerman who’d first made me think, really think, about what people put on their feet,” Knight wrote in his 2016 memoir “Shoe Dog.”
“Bowerman was a genius coach, a master motivator, a natural leader of men, and there was one piece of gear he deemed crucial to their development,” Knight continued. “Shoes. He was obsessed with the way human beings are shod.”
According to Knight, Bowerman was notorious for stealing his runners’ shoes. He’d then return them days later “with some minor modification, which made us either run like deer or bleed.”
Bowerman tinkered with every aspect of these shoes, but he prioritized weight above all else. He calculated that removing an ounce of weight from a shoe would translate (the male average of 880 steps per mile multiplied by one ounce per step) to 55 pounds less lift required over a distance of one mile. By Knight’s senior year in 1959, Bowerman was making Knight’s shoes himself.
In 1964, while still coaching the Ducks, Bowerman again partnered up with Knight, this time in distributing Japanese Onitsuka
Tigers under the name Blue Ribbon Sports. While Knight handled the expansion of the company that would one day become Nike, Inc., Bowerman continued to fuel his passion for footwear, combining the best elements of existing Onitsuka shoes into what would eventually become the world-famous Nike Cortez training shoe.
Released in 1972, the Cortez was Nike’s first track shoe. The company’s popularity immediately skyrocketed when the American athletes Bowerman was coaching at the 1972 Summer Olympics were seen wearing Cortezes.
Bowerman’s subsequent development of the “moon shoe” and “waffle trainer” outsoles drove Nike’s continued ascension, paving the way for the Jordan Brand and the billions of dollars that followed.
Bowerman retired as Oregon’s head track coach in March of 1973, but stayed on Nike’s board of directors until June of 1999. He died in Fossil on Christmas Eve of 1999 at 88 years old.
However, 25 years later, Bowerman’s legacy remains. Nike has been a Fortune 500 company since 1995. Meanwhile, Oregon’s track and field team has won six outdoor national titles since his retirement, and another 13 in indoor competition since 2009.
Eugene’s Hayward Field bears several
tributes to Bowerman. A statue of Bowerman — installed in 2000 and preserved in Hayward’s 2018 to 2020 renovations — stands in the northeast corner, facing the track with a stopwatch in hand. Bowerman is also depicted atop Hayward Field’s 10-story tower, offering his legendary coaching to an unnamed Oregon runner.
The history behind one of track and field’s most beloved meets
By Lily Crane Sports Reporter
The fans at Hayward Field slowly got up for a standing ovation as Kenyan distance runner Beatrice Chebet began her final lap around the track.
Chebet trailed the favorite to win, Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, for most of the 2024 Prefontaine Classic 10,000 meters. Chebet lapped several runners coming off the belt, then crossed the finish line at 28 minutes and 54.14 seconds — a new world record. History-making performances like Chebet’s — the only world record from the 2024 edition — are what the track and field world has come to expect from the Prefontaine Classic.
The meet honors Steve Prefontaine, a former University of Oregon and Olympic dis-
tance runner. The start of the meet can be traced back to 1973, but it operated under the name the Hayward Restoration Meet.
Bill Bowerman, the legendary Ducks track and field coach and Nike co-founder, and the Oregon Track Club started the meet to raise money for the renovation of the West Grandstands at the old Hayward Field.
The inaugural event was highlighted by former Olympic gold medalist David Wottle defeating Prefontaine by 0:01.3 seconds in the mile. Wottle wowed the 12,000 fans in attendance as he recorded what was at the time the second fastest mile ever by an American man, doing so while running in his signature golf cap.
The Hayward Restoration Meet was renamed the Bowerman Classic, but eight days before the 1975 meet, the track and field world lost Prefontaine in a tragic car accident. Bowerman and the Oregon Track Club decided to rename it again to the Prefontaine Classic that year.
Since the first Prefontaine Classic, the world’s top track and field athletes put on a
show every year in Eugene, with world records broken on multiple occasions.
While this year’s meet is the 50th anniversary, one of its most prestigious events — the Bowerman Mile — is in its 25th year. The Bowerman Mile began in 2000, shortly after the passing of the former UO coach.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist, Jakob Ingebrigsten, recorded the fastest Bowerman Mile in 2023 at 3:43.73. Almost every year, it has taken less than four minutes to win the event.
“Always excited to race at Hayward Field,” Ingebrigsten said to the media ahead of the 2022 Bowerman Mile, which he also competed in. “The Bowerman Mile has always been special, as everybody knows. That’s how I felt when I raced here the first time.”
Ingebrigsten will be joined by Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse, the reigning Olympic gold and bronze medalists, respectively, in this year’s Bowerman Mile. Hocker himself left the UO track and field team in 2021 to go professional, signing with Nike and continuing to train under his former coach, Ben
Thomas.
Track and field athletes relish the opportunity to compete in the Prefontaine Classic. The 2023 100-meter World Champion, Sha’Carri Richardson, spoke about the thrill of competing at Hayward after her first-place finish at last year’s edition.
“It’s exciting that the stadium here has the magnitude, has the magic and embraces the sport and the love that we as track and field athletes deserve,” Richardson said. “It’s always magical running here.”
Every Prefontaine Classic has taken place at Hayward with the exception of 2019, when it was held at the Cobb Track at Stanford. Hayward Field once again underwent renovations ahead of the 2022 World Championships. In 2020, the meet was cancelled due to COVID-19.
The 2025 Prefontaine Classic is set to be held on July 5 at Hayward Field.
( BELOW ) This three-dimensional image of Bill Bowerman is displayed at the top of the Bowerman trophy. Hayward Hall is open to the public and is located at the base of the tower on the eastside of Hayward Field in Eugene.
(Julia Massa/Emerald)
DEPTH, EXPERIENCE IN MIDDLE DISTANCE FUEL OREGON WOMEN’S TITLE HOPES
With their eyes on a conference-title sweep, the Ducks’ middle-distance dominance could be the key
By Owen Murray Sports Reporter
At Hayward Field, distance and dominance traditionally rhyme.
In 2025, it’s been no different. The Women of Oregon have already won both the Big Ten cross-country and indoor track and field championships this season — and have their eyes set on a clean sweep ahead of the outdoor championships at Hayward Field on May 16-18.
Their strengths are varied, of course, but this season, all eyes are on middle-distance.
Oregon returned several talented runners in 2025 — not just at the top, but deep in the roster — and their experience and dominance continues to be the key.
The stars are obvious: Paris Olympian Klaudia Kazimierska and dual-collegiate mile record holder Şilan Ayyildiz have had little regard for what should happen in their races. Instead, they bend the field to their will.
This season, Kazimierska returned from a hip adductor injury that held her out of the Ducks’ NCAA Championship-winning indoor season to dominate both the 800m and 1500m race at the Oregon Open — her first race in nearly a year at Hayward Field — on April 18 and 19.
Ayyildiz, meanwhile, has been on a mission all year long. On Feb. 15, at the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational, she snapped the collegiate indoor mile record — lowering the bar set by Katelyn Tuohy in 2023 to 4:23.46.
But she didn’t stop there. At the Drake Relays in Iowa on April 23, she grabbed the collegiate outdoor record, too: 4:25.50.
The top-end talent is there. That isn’t though, where it stops.
Of the six women named to the indoor All Big Ten First Team in 2025, four are middle-distance runners. Excellence runs deep.
Oregon’s 4x800m relay team — Kazimierska, Barnett, McDonnell and Ella Nelson — is proof of that. It outpaced the field by more than 10 seconds in April’s prestigious Drake Relays, and while there aren’t 4x800m relay event finals at either of the Big Ten or NCAA Outdoor Championships, it’s still a sign of good things to come for the Ducks.
Four Ducks rank amongst the Big Ten’s top-10 female 800m runners — more than any other school. Kazimierska (third, 2:02.03), Ayyildiz (fourth,
2:03.11), Barnett (seventh, 2:03.78) and Nelson (eighth, 2:03.79) have all run inside that top group this season. McDonnell ranks 17th in conference, with a 2:05.96 time.
At 1500 meters, it’s similar excellence: Ayyildiz, Barnett and Kazimierska make up three of the top four slots in the Big Ten rankings; transfer sophomore Juliet Cherubet also ranks 12th after running 4:13.11 at the Drake Relays.
On May 9, at the Oregon Twilight, Oregon sophomore Ella Thorsett decided to run the 800m race — not her usual spot.
Generally, Thorsett thrives over longer distances; she ran the 3000m and 5000m races at the indoor Big Ten Championships. She had run a 1500m race earlier in the month, where she finished in 4:21.36, but that wasn’t the end of the story. She gave the race a shot at Twilight, and found success in a 4:16.82 finish (a new personal best) borne from a familiar place.
“I’m really close with them,” Thorsett said of Oregon’s middle-distance runners. “They’re great mentors…I look up to them so much.”
The distance crew loves working together — “In the workouts, we support each other,” Kazimierska said before she made her return at the Open.
They haven’t yet touched the long-standing school records — Claudette Groenendaal ran the 800m race in 1:58.33 in 1985, and Leann Warren ran the 1500m race in 4:05.88 in 1982. It has, though, won them both the cross country and indoor conference titles.
It’s not enough.
They turn their eyes to the trophy once again, at Hayward Field for the Big Ten Outdoor Championships. Oregon, though, isn’t the only one that thrives when the lap count rises.
Washington’s Chloe Foerster owns the top Big Ten mark in both the 800m (2:00.52) and the 1500m (4:05.75), and she’s got plenty of high-ranking teammates in each: four of the top-25 in the 800m and seven in the 1500m. The Huskies didn’t run at the Drake Relays, where many of Oregon’s runners set their top times this year.
In Savoy, Illinois, where Oregon won its cross country title, the second-place team (three points off the Ducks’ winning 33-point tally) was Washington.
It’s not going to be a cakewalk, but that’s not a problem, because these Ducks don’t walk to wins. They run.
(Eric Becker/Emerald) Oregon's Samantha McDonnell gets ready to run the Women's Performance 800m. The University of Oregon Ducks Track and Field team hosted the Oregon Twilight Meet at Hayward Field in Eugene on May 3, 2024.
(BELOW) Klaudia Kazimierska with head coach Jerry Schumacher during the senior recognition ceremony following competition. The Oregon track and field team closes out its regular season home schedule with the Oregon Twilight on Friday, May 9, 2025, at Hayward Field. (Julia Massa/ Emerald)
OREGON REWRITES RECORD BOOKS OREGON REWRITES RECORD BOOKS
As the outdoor track and field gets underway, the Ducks have posted some incredible times and continue to challenge the nation’s best for collegiate records
By Jack Lazarus Sports Associate Editor
Hayward Field is no stranger to history being made within those historic confines as 20 world records have been broken in Eugene. Oregon’s program is no stranger to posting records as well, with the most recent coming in the women’s indoor mile.
Oregon senior Silan Ayyildiz ran a 4:23.46 mile beating the previous 4:24.26 mile that was posted in 2023 by North Carolina State University’s Katelyn Tuohy.
Ayyildiz was named the Big Ten Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year this past fall, and has been on a tear ever since. The Turkish international student also broke the outdoor collegiate mile record with a time of 4:23.69 on April 26, which was a 38-year old record. This happened at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.
Oregon senior Mia Barnett also ran under the previous collegiate record with her time of 4:26.40 in Des Moines, which spells out what could become an interesting trend as the outdoor season progresses.
The long distance squad also includes Polish Olympian Klaudia Kazimierska, whose resume would also make her a candidate to challenge collegiate records this spring.
“(Klaudia) always does her part,” Schumacher said. “We’re just looking for her to be herself and do what she does best, which is compete against the best athletes in the country and in the world.”
Kazimierska credits a lot of that success to the team environment that’s established in Eugene, as bringing the best athletes in the world creates ample competition.
“This feeling that we are all together in the same place at the same time is so encouraging, and you can feel that support,” Kazimierska said.
Kazimierska noticed the success that her team enjoyed during the indoor season and hopes to add to that. She posted a very respectable time of 2:02.03 in the 800m during the Drake Relays, in which she was the only collegiate athlete competing.
Testing their mettle against the world’s best can prove to push the Ducks toward challenging for even more records as they compete on their home track for much of the spring outdoor season.
Kazimierska joined Barnett, junior Ella Nelson and junior Samantha McDonnell in a victory in the 4x800m relay as well, and being some of the only collegiate athletes in the field, their success may translate into record challenges this spring.
Ayyildiz is set to grow even better as the season progresses as well, so her challenge for her own record will become a story to fuel the entire season. The competitive atmosphere existing everyday at Hayward only ignites the fire that could push the Ducks to new heights this spring.
With athletes like Barnett, Kazimierska and Ayyildiz, Oregon’s times look primed to decrease as the Ducks hope to rewrite the record books in what can become a historic outdoor season.
BIG TEN OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW
By Joe Krasnowski Sports Reporter
There’s a phrase that resonates with Eugene perhaps more than any other location in the world.
“TrackTown USA.”
It’s everywhere, you can’t avoid it. It’s one of the first things seen when landing at the Eugene Airport, and there’s murals throughout the city — not to mention the world-famous Hayward Field.
With the Ducks making their long-awaited move to the Big Ten in 2025, they will get the chance to make Eugene home for athletes throughout the United States, hosting the Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships from May 16-18. There’s plenty of Pacific Northwest talent on display, with a sprinter from Oregon and a University of Washington pole vaulter at the peak of the competition.
The weekend will mark the 11th time the Ducks have hosted a conference meet at Hayward Field — but of course, the first in Oregon’s Big Ten era.
The best performers at Hayward Field will advance to the NCAA West First Round, which will take place from May 28-31 at E.B. Cushing Stadium in College Station, Texas.
The top 12 performers in each event will then advance to the NCAA Championships and head back to Eugene to look for a national title in their respective events.
Oregon last hosted a conference meet in 2022, with the Ducks tallying the highest team scores, with 167 and 161 for the women and men respectively, in the Pac-12 Championships.
Past hosts of the Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships were the University of Michigan in 2024 and Indiana University in 2023.
For Oregon, 100-meter runner Rodrick Pleasant will be entering the tournament in peak form, after posting a personal-best time of 10.31 seconds just two weeks before the Desert Heat Classic and OSU High Performance meet in Corvallis.
Matthew Erickson is another Ducks marquee performer, with the senior being the 2025 NCAA 800m champion, Big Ten Track Athlete of the Year and a member of both the First Team All-American and All-Big Ten First Team in his indoor track season.
Ohio State’s Leah Bertrand enters the competition with one of the best 100-meter finishes in the Big Ten with a finish of 10.94.
Max Thomas of USC currently holds the men’s best 100-meter score in the Big Ten, with a finish at 9.92 on April 11.
University of Washington pole vaulter Amanda Moll will enter the Big Ten Championships at the top of her game. The sophomore broke the NCAA Outdoor Record in the pole vault at the Desert Heat Classic in Tuscon, Arizona. Moll, alongside her sister Hana, won the NCAA Indoor Championships in March.
USC junior JC Stevenson will look to build upon a long jump of 26-3.75/8.02 (+1.8) — which was good for the first among Big Ten athletes at the time — on April 19.
Nebraska’s Tyus Wilson was the Indoor NCAA Champion in the high jump, and will look to take the men’s title in the outdoor events.
It’s set to be a marquee weekend in Eugene, with Oregon softball likely to host a regional that same weekend. Hayward Field will surely be packed throughout the three-day tournament, with the best athletes in the conference flocking to Eugene to call “TrackTown USA” home for the next couple of days.
The best of the best will face off in Eugene
(TOP RIGHT) Matthew Erickson runs a 47.04 to win the 400m in a new lifetime best. The Oregon track and field team closes out its regular season home schedule with the Oregon Twilight on Friday, May 9, 2025, at Hayward Field.
(Julia Massa/Emerald)
(MIDDLE RIGHT) Junior pole vaulter Kyle Gibbs clears the vault and lets go of his pole under the Hayward lights at the Oregon Twilight meet.
(RIGHT) Hannah Seubert leads a pack of two Pacific University runners in the women’s 3000m steeplechase.
(Saj Sundaram/Emerald)
Get ready for an all new student lifestyle at The Hayward.
New Ownership
New Name & Branding
DON’T MISS OUT
Be the first to receive exclusive info for Fall 25-26 leasing. Check out our website and tap the "Join Now" button at the top of the page to join our VIP waitlist.
COMING FALL 25-26
• New! Study Lounges
• New! Gaming Area
• New! Resident Lounges
• New! Music Room
• New! Golf Simulator
• New! Podcast Room
• Refreshed Resort-Style Pool
Millions in Renovations 1180 Willamette St Eugene, OR 97401
*Finishes may vary
• Upgraded Fitness Center with Yoga Room & Rock-Climbing Wall