After winning three consecutive NCAA indoor track and field titles, it would be hard to believe that the Ducks won again. Head Coach Robert Johnson has now led his team to four consecutive NCAA indoor track and field titles and this year’s came in dramatic fashion.
Entering the 4×400 meter relay, the Ducks were “neck-and-neck” with Kansas in the points race, despite not having won an event that day. The Ducks would go on to break the school record with a 3:30.22 time, which eventually secured the title for the women’s track and field team.
This has been without a doubt the best four-year run the women’s track and field program has ever been a part of, and there is no reason why this success can’t continue moving forward.
20-loss Liberty reaches NCAA Tournament. For teams that don’t get national recognition, the one-way ticket to reaching the NCAA Tournament is through automatic bids, which are earned through conference titles. Every year there are teams that reach the tournament without having any other credential besides an automatic bid. But this year might mark one of the worst records in NCAA history to reach the tournament.
Liberty, who finished the season with a sub-500 record of 15-20, is headed to the “Big Dance” after defeating top seeded Charleston Southern. Coming into the Big South Tournament, Liberty was the 10th overall seed in a pool of 12 teams and in many ways epitomized what the NCAA Tournament is really about: underdogs.
Liberty will without a doubt be projected as an early exit type of team, but the mere fact that they made it to the tournament holds as a friendly reminder that every team has a chance to be a part of March Madness. It isn’t common for a sub-500 team to reach the tournament, but who knows, Liberty may have just enough momentum to make a crazy run as many teams have done before them.
Mercedes Russell era ends with Willamette state title victory. After falling to Springfield and top recruit Mercedes Russell 16-7 last year in the lowest scoring title game known to the state of Oregon, Willamette fired back this year with a win of their own.
Leading the way with 23 points, Lexi Bando of Willamette High School led her team past No. 1 ranked Springfield High School and more importantly, she led her school to an OSAA Class 5A girls basketball title. Bando gave just the edge her team needed to defeat Springfield 48-41, while also winning the match between heavily recruited Russell.
In many ways, this marks the end to the Russell era as she moves on to her collegiate career, and it couldn’t have finished in a better way. These two teams were meant to meet in the finals once more, and this time it was the losers’ turn to have their glory.
Chris Hansen of The Register-Guard has the full story.