Oregon throwers Jaida Ross, Jorinde Van Klinken take down school records
With a pair of school-record throws, Jaida Ross and Jorinde Van Klinken moved to the top of the NCAA leaderboard over the weekend in the women's shot put and discus, respectively.
Van Klinken opened her outdoor track and field season for Oregon on Friday at the Triton Invitational in La Jolla, Calif., with a mark of 219 feet, 11 inches on her final attempt to crush the previous school record of 192-8 set by Kiana Phelps in 2021.
The mark is the best in the NCAA this season by nearly 21 feet for the transfer from Arizona State who owns the collegiate record and is the two-time defending NCAA champion.
Van Klinken finished second in the event to Olympic champion Valarie Allman but ahead of 2019 world champion Yaime Perez Tellez of Spain.
Ross also set a personal-record in the discus on Friday, as she added 5 feet to her previous best with a mark of 189-1 — third-best all-time at Oregon. Three of her throws were beyond her previous PR of 183-7.
She would excel again on Saturday as she reset her school record in the shot put with a throw of 60-8 as she moved into the NCAA lead by 4 inches.
Her throw was the first outdoor 60-foot measure in program history. Her previous best was 58-6 from last season, though she did throw 59-9¾ indoors this year.
Also Saturday, Harrison Canfield and Hunter Angove finished 1-2 in the men's pole vault at the Boyman Memorial Invitational in McMinnville. Both cleared 15-11.
Colleen Uzoekwe and Nathan Poff scored wins in the heptathlon and decathlon, respectively, at the Brutus Hamilton Multis in Berkeley, Calif.
Uzoekwe scored a PR 5,349 points and ended the weekend with outdoor bests in five of the seven events: 200 (24.40), 800 (2:46.72), 100 hurdles (14.33), high jump (5-7) and javelin (106-2). Poff scored 6,738 points for his victory.
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: Oregon throwers Jaida Ross, Jorinde Van Klinken down school records
