Oregon's Jaida Ross, Kemba Nelson shine at NCAA Track & Field Championship

Jaida Ross has been on a steady climb all season and Thursday it took her to the podium at the women’s NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Competing in a familiar circle at Hayward Field and against elite competition, the Oregon thrower broke her own school record and finished fifth in the shot put in front of a crowd of 8,451.

Ross’ best throw was 58 feet, 6 inches, topping the school record of 57-7 that she set during her second-place performance at the Pac-12 championships in May.

“This is definitely a victory for me,” Ross said. “I’m very, very happy with it. I’ll be celebrating tonight. Of course, after tonight I’m focused on discus, but for tonight I’m going to be happy about it. It feels good. It feels really good.”

Ross, a second-year freshman from North Medford High, began the season with a lifetime best of 54-3¼ but reset her PR four times this spring.

Her best Thursday came on her third attempt, and it was a throw she needed to get into finals.

Her first two throws were 55-7¾ and 55-10¼ and there were two women who didn’t make finals despite having 56-foot marks.

“This could be my last throw of the season,” she remembered thinking. “I don’t usually grunt when I throw but I yelled a little bit, so I gave it all I had.”

Ohio State’s Adelaide Aquilla set the tone on her first attempt as she broke the collegiate and meet record with a throw of 64-5¼.

The collegiate outdoor record was 63-10¼, set by Maggie Ewen in 2018. Raven Saunders’ overall record of 64-2¼ was set indoors in 2017.

“I’m excited to have the college record and I’m excited to do it here,” Aquilla said.

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No one came closer than 3½ feet of Aquilla, the returning champ, as Jorinde van Klinken of Ohio State threw 60-11½ to finish second.

Oregon freshman Mine De Klerk placed 13th with a mark of 55-4¼.

Ross will return to the field on Saturday in the discus final.

Nelson, 4x100 team advance

Kemba Nelson will have double duty on Saturday.

The Oregon senior qualified for the finals in the 100 meters and 4x100 relay, the Ducks’ only sprinter to advance in two events.

Nelson won her 100 semifinal 10.97 and ran the second leg of the 4x100 that recorded a season-best 42.64 to win its heat.

The rely also included Jadyn Mays, Jasmin Reed and Jasmine Montgomery.

“I believe we’re really confident,” Montgomery said. “We have been working at it really hard this year. We’ve PR'd almost every time that we’ve stepped on the track, so I’m pretty confident that on Saturday we’ll push through.”

Mays and Montgomery fell short in their attempts to qualify in the 100 as they finished 19th and 21st, respectively. Mays ran 11.28 and Montgomery ran 11.37.

Montgomery and Iman Brown didn’t qualify in the 200 either. Brown finished 15th overall in 22.96 and Montgomery was 19th in 23.15.

“Next year I’m going to come back even better,” said the freshman Montgomery after her 200 semifinal. “Everyone in this race is going to feel me next year, for real. But until then, they’re just going to have to feel me in the 4x100.”

Vollmer gets a DNF in decathlon

Decathlete Max Vollmer made a mistake he couldn’t recover from Thursday, as he didn’t clear a bar in the pole vault to go scoreless in that event.

He eventually dropped out of the competition.

Vollmer was in 11th place with 5,737 points when he missed on three attempts at 15-1½ — his first height of day.

He bailed out on his first two attempts and then clipped the bar on his third attempt.

Vollmer was coming off a 7,961-point performance in May when he won his third Pac-12 title. He set his PR of 8,022 in April at the Bryan Clay Invitational.

Vollmer not finishing was a blow to the Ducks, who were counting on his points in their overall team score.

It’s the first time his career that Vollmer didn’t score at an NCAA championship meet as he was fifth in 2019 and eighth last season. He also finished sixth in the NCAA indoor heptathlon in 2021 and was fifth this season.

Vollmer started the day in fifth place and stayed there after scoring 858 points in the 110 hurdles with a finish in 14.93.

The junior fouled on two of his three attempts in the discus and had to settle for a throw of 131-1 as he dropped into 11th after seven events.

He had 5,737 points heading into the pole vault, and 6,396 after the javelin, his last event before exiting the competition before the 1,500.

NCAA’s a learning experience for Thornton-Bott

Izzy Thornton-Bott won’t race in the 1,500 final on Saturday, but that doesn’t mean Thursday’s semifinal was a total loss.

The newcomer from Australia finished eighth in her semifinal heat in 4:23.90, unable to stay with the leaders when the tight, slow pack broke up over the final 300 meters.

Thornton-Bott said she'd prefer more of an honest pace than what took place in her heat, though she wasn't ready to be the runner to move up front and speed it up for the group.

“I think I’m new to the style of championship racing which the NCAA offers,” Thornton-Bott said. “It’s something that I’m still figuring out. … It does make me wonder sometimes, ‘Should I go?’ The rest of the time I just want that first 800 to be as comfortable as possible.”

Thornton-Bott was in third place for most of the race, tucked right in the middle of a group the crawled its way through the first couple of laps. When that slow pace turned into a sprint, she was unable to answer.

“I was in a pretty OK position with the bell but then that cut down was harsh,” she said. “I really applaud the other girls for being able to respond to that as well as they did, but I just didn’t have the legs in me today and that’s just the be all end all of it.”

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Beavers duo has chance to make history

Oregon State hasn’t had an athlete score at an NCAA outdoor meet since 1986, and it hasn’t had a first-team outdoor all-American since 1987.

Now they’ll have a chance to have two in one event after a pair of impressive performances by teammates Kaylee Mitchell and Grace Fetherstonhaugh in the 3,000 steeplechase semifinals.

“It’s so special,” Mitchell said. “She’s my buddy, my training partner, my best friend. I’m really excited to give her a hug.”

Mitchell broke Fetherstonhaugh’s OSU record when she won her heat in 9:41.51 to automatically qualify for Saturday’s final. She had the fifth-fastest time overall.

“I was trying to do as little as possible for as long as I could and then work really, really hard,” said Mitchell, whose previous best was 9:48.30 from the 2021 Pac-12 championships.

Fetherstonhaugh automatically qualified as well as she was fifth in her heat and 11th overall in 9:45.17.

“It’s definitely a nice feeling knowing I can run with these girls that I look up to,” she said. “We’ll see if I can squeeze a little bit more and try and PR next time.”

Fetherstonhaugh set the previous OSU record when she ran 9:44.76 during the Oregon Relays at Hayward Field in April.

The top-eight finishers in the 12-women race on Saturday will score team points and earn the first-team all-American designation. The others will be second-team all-Americans.

Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com. 

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This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon's Jaida Ross, Kemba Nelson shine at NCAA Track & Field Championships