Oregon, Texas A&M take home team titles from 2025 Oregon Team Invitational at Hayward Field
Oregon’s Matthew Erickson and Texas A&M’s Kimar Farquharson following the men’s 800m at the Oregon Team Invitation. Photo by Rian Yamasaki.
By Owen Murray, TrackTown USA
University of Oregon and Texas A&M University — two of the nation’s premier track and field universities — split honors as the Ducks hosted the Oregon Team Invitational at Hayward Field on April 19.
The Ducks took home individual event wins across the board, including a men’s shot put win from freshman Kobe Lawrence and men’s 800m sweep from reigning NCAA Indoor champion Matthew Erickson and Koitatio Kidali. The A&M Aggies won six of the women’s events, racking up 222.5 total informal points. Oregon, meanwhile, snagged 137.5 on the men’s side through four event wins to claim its win.
The scoring system, which Oregon brought to the table in an effort to boost team competition, was unofficial so as to remain in line with NCAA qualifying rules. Every finisher — 14 on the women’s side and 10 on the men’s side in each event — earned a point relative to their position; first place received 14 (women)/10 (men’s) points, second 13/9, and last place a single point.
“As our first go at bringing a team meet back to Eugene and college track, it was a lot of fun,” Oregon head coach Jerry Schumacher said. “The athletes had a great time, and I think the coaches had a lot of fun with it.”
Texas A&M sophomore Abigail Martin took home the first win of the day. A 56.37m throw in the women’s discus secured top spot for the Aggies — Kansas State University junior Tamaih Koonce grabbed second with a 51.75m throw and Martin’s teammate Carlie Weiser threw 50.05m for third.
The Aggie field dominance continued into the women’s long jump, where A&M freshman Sofia Iakushina jumped 6.11m to sneak past Kansas State University senior Shalom Olotu, who jumped 6.09m.
Oregon, meanwhile, took home a win in the men’s shot put when Lawrence, a freshman, threw a 2025 NCAA Division I #16 mark — 19.28m — on his fourth attempt. Lawrence outdueled two Kansas State athletes, Gary Moore and Nate Collier, for the crown.
The Ducks doubled down when Klaudia Kazimierska — winner of the 800m race in the Oregon Open on Friday — returned to the track to run her first 1500m of the season at Hayward Field. The 2024 Olympic finalist surged past her Oregon teammate, Mia Barnett, with 200 meters to go and secured a 2025 Division I #7 time: 4:07.28.
“We opened pretty hard,” Kazimierska said. “I was like, ‘This is a spicy pace.’ But I felt good, and the strategy was just to stay with the pacer and then work with Mia.”
“This is a spicy pace, but I felt good.”
- Oregon's Klaudia Kazimierska following her Oregon Team Invitational 1500m win
Texas A&M won its first track event of the day in the men’s 1500m race, where Luca Santorum ran a personal-best 3:38.91 seconds (2025 Division I #28) to secure the win ahead of Oregon sophomore Rheinhardt Harrison. Harrison ran 3:39.07 seconds — good for a 2025 Division I #29 slot.
The Aggies took the top two slots in the women’s 100m hurdles, too: sophomore Jasmine Harmon ran 13.22 seconds (2025 Division I #16) to best junior Jaiya Covington by one one-hundredth of a second. A&M men’s hurdler Ja’Qualon Scott sped past the field to set a new 2025 Division I #3 mark at 13.30 seconds ahead of Wichita State University sophomore Josh Parrish.
Scott has run at Hayward Field before, at last summer’s U.S.Olympic Team Trials - Track & Field. It still brings the best out of him, he said.
“The adrenaline — I knew that it was going to be there,” he said. “Walking through that little tunnel out to the big old stadium…you don’t get to perform in a place like this often. I wanted to go out there and do the best I could.”
Oregon grabbed a win when high jumper Shaun Miller Jr. hit a new 2025 Division I #50 mark at 2.11m without missing a jump. Miller clearned 2.01m and 2.06m on his first attempts before making it over the bar to secure the win. He took three shots at the 2.14m mark, but couldn’t clear.
A&M, meanwhile, continued to build a dominant lead on the women’s side in the 400m race, where Kennedy Wade and Jaydan Wood ran 53.42 and 53.52 seconds, respectively, to sweep the top two slots. Oregon sophomore Ella Clayton finished third, running 53.63 seconds behind the Aggies.
It was a top-two Aggie sweep on the men’s side, too, where seniors Hossam Hatib (46.71 seconds) and Cutler Zamzow (47.14 seconds) grabbed pole positions. Oregon sophomore Fuad Omer finished fourth, running 47.73 seconds.
Both the A&M athletes in the women’s 100m race took top positions; Camryn Dickson ran 11.27 seconds followed by Jasmine Montgomery (11.33 seconds). Ernest Campbell ran 10.57 seconds to earn maximum points in the men’s heat — Oregon athlete Rodrick Pleasant finished fifth running 10.66.
Oregon distance runner Silan Ayyildiz set a personal-best in the 800m race, where she stopped the clock in 2:03.11 (2025 NCAA Division I #20).
“I was kind of nervous today,” Ayyildiz said. “I’m still getting used to the speed, a little bit, but I got the PR, so I can’t complain.”
On the men’s side, it was the senior Duck, Erickson, who earned top spot ahead of the Oregon freshman Kidali. Erickson, the reigning Big Ten and NCAA indoor champion in the race, ran a 2025 Division I #35 1:47:39, while Kidali ran 1:48.14.
“Kadali is great,” Erickson said. “He is one of the best 800m runners in the world, and you see it in training. He is just a phenomenal talent. He and I work really well together.”
The Ducks clawed back some points in the women’s 5000m race, where Juliet Cherubet ran 15:28.86 (2025 Division I #12) ahead of a strong field that included a personal-best 15:54.95 time from Oregon sophomore Ella Thorsett.
The Oklahoma State University men, though, swept the top two places of their 5000m race. Fouad Messaoudi and Ryan Schoppe both ran personal-best times (13:28.17 and 13.28.88), good for 2025 Division I #15 and #18 slots nationally.
A&M took the final two events — the 4x400 men’s and women’s relays — with 3:06.02 (men’s) and 3:31.54 (women’s) times and closed the women’s victory. The Oregon women ran 3:38.80, while the men struggled with the final handoff and ran 3:20.87.
Schumacher hopes the Oregon women have the juice for an outdoor title run — less than a month removed from the indoor NCAA Championship.
“We won’t know until we get a little deeper into the season, but I sure hope so,” Schumacher said of Oregon’s chances. “That’s what we’re always planning, and when we’re looking ahead as coaches, that’s what we’re doing.”
Oregon returns to Hayward Field next for the Oregon Twilight, on May 9. The venue, though, will be back in action next weekend as the finish line for the 2025 Eugene Marathon, half-marathon and 5K.
