Oregon Relays preview: Meet to conclude with world-best 4xMile attempt by former Duck greats

Chris Hansen, Register-Guard
·4 min read
Former Ducks Cole Hocker, middle, and Cooper Teare, right, will reunite for a attempt to take down the 4xMile world best on Saturday.
Former Ducks Cole Hocker, middle, and Cooper Teare, right, will reunite for a attempt to take down the 4xMile world best on Saturday.
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The Oregon Relays track and field extravaganza will conclude its two-day run at Hayward Field Saturday night with some familiar faces chasing down a unique record.

Former Ducks Cole Hocker, Cooper Teare, James West and Matt Wisner will take a crack at the 4xMile relay world best of 15 minutes, 49.08 seconds set by Ireland in 1985.

“Lord knows we need more fun in track and field, so I’m just trying to bring a little,” said Oregon associate head coach Ben Thomas, who continues to coach Hocker and Teare in their post-collegiate careers. “They’re in good shape and I think we can give it a run if there’s a good crowd out there and everything.”

Thomas also will assemble a couple teams of Ducks to chase the collegiate-best time of 16:03.24 set by Oregon’s Matthew Centrowitz, Andrew Wheating, Shadrack Biwott and Galen Rupp during the 2009 Oregon Twilight meet.

The record run that night came with fans down on the track to cheer on the runners. Thomas said they’ll try and replicate that same scene on Saturday as fans will be able to fill lanes 7-9.

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One of the Oregon squads will most likely comprise Reed Brown, Elliott Cook, Jack Yearian and a fourth runner still to be determined, Thomas said.

Hocker and Teare haven’t raced since March 19 when they both set 5,000-meter personal records at the Cardinal Classic in Stanford, California. Teare ran 13:06.73 and Hocker ran 13:08.55 as both hit world championship qualifying marks.

“They’ve just been training,” Thomas said. “They don’t have to race as much because they don’t have regionals and all the NCAA stuff, but they’re really fit.”

The Oregon Relays, which is both a high-level national high school meet and a high-performance collegiate/professional meet, will run Friday and Saturday.

The high school competition begins at 11 a.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday. The high-performance section on the track begins at 7:45 p.m. Friday and 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

Related:Oregon track athletes get four wins and multiple PRs Friday at the Mt. SAC Relays

Here’s a look at other potential standout events.

  • The Bill McChesney Jr. men’s 5,000 Invitational is the final event on Friday’s schedule. It will be paced by Teare and mark the season-opener at that distance for Oregon senior all-American Aaron Bienenfeld.

  • On Friday, Oregon Olympian Aneta Konieczek will race in her first 3,000 steeplechase since competing in Tokyo last summer. Konieczek’s school record of 9:25.98 is nearly 25 seconds faster than any other Duck.

  • The men’s 3,000 steeplechase is also Friday and is expected to include five 2021 Olympians — Americans Bernard Keter and Mason Ferlic; Japan’s Ryoma Aoki; Zak Seddon of Great Britain; and Sweden’s Simon Sundstrom. Also entered is former Duck Jackson Mestler, the 2021 Pac-12 champion and a U.S. Olympic Trials finalist.

  • The men’s javelin on Friday will include U.S. Olympic Trials champion Curtis Thompson; Umpqua Community College standout Zach Holland, who threw a PR 258 feet, 6 inches in March; and Oregon’s Ty Hampton.

  • Oregon’s top sprinters — Micah Williams, Kemba Nelson, Jadyn Mays — are only entered in Saturday’s men’s and women’s 4x100 relays. The men’s top time this season is ranked 10th nationally at 39.08. The women’s best of 43.54 is ranked 13th.

  • In the high school meet, don’t miss a chance to see Lake Oswego sophomore girls sprinter Mia Brahe-Pedersen, who is entered in the 200 Friday and 100 Saturday. Brahe-Pedersen ranks No. 2 all-time in the state in both events with PRs of 11.43 in the 100 and 23.62 in the 200. The state records for both — 11.30 in the 100 and 22.95 in the 200 — were set in 1968 by Churchill's Margaret Bailes.

Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com. For more sports coverage, visit registerguard.com. Want more stories like this? Subscribe to get unlimited access and support local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: World-best 4xMile attempt highlight's 2022 Oregon Relays schedule