Track & Field at the Big Ten Championships: Day 1
May 16, 2025 | Track & Field
EUGENE, Ore. โ Thrower Kris Emig earned a third-place result in the hammer and Sydney Johnson got off to a strong start in the women's heptathlon as UCLA opened up action at its first-ever Outdoor Big Ten Championships on Friday at Hayward Field on the campus of Oregon.
Emig became the first Bruin ever to score at Outdoor B1Gs with his standout effort in the hammer throw. Emig clinched a spot in the final rounds with his very-first attempt, and then hit a long mark of 70.04m (229-9) on his sixth and final throw to jump up into third place. Already the school record-holder in the hammer, Emig's throw was just the second to clear 70 meters in school history.
Johnson was the other big standout for the Bruins on Friday, as she put herself in third place in the heptathlon with 3,479 points over four events.
She opened the meet with a PR time in the 100m hurdles at 13.61, which was good for second-place. She followed up with a fifth-place showing in the high jump, and then later added another PR and runner-up result in the 200m at 23.86. Both of her PRs were significant improvements on her previous bests of 13.97 in the 100mH and 24.50 in the 200. Johnson trails leader Annika Williams of Oregon by 156 heading into Saturday's competition.
The Bruins continue action at the three-day Big Ten Championships on Saturday starting at 9:30 a.m.
Other results from Friday are detailed below.
TRACK EVENTS RECAP
The Bruins were able to qualify runners for finals on both the men's and women's side in the first track prelims of the weekend โ the 400m hurdles.
Zaire "Mystic" Waring was the Bruins' top finisher on the men's side, as his 50.87 was runner-up in his heat and sixth-place overall. Sonia Virk then clinched a finals spot on the women's side with a time of 58.16, which won her heat and was fourth place overall.
Taylor Snaer (22.97) and Naomi Johnson (23.29) each secured spots in the women's 200m final after placing second in their respective heats during prelims. The Bruins just missed out on having three qualifiers in that event, as Kaylen Fletcher's time of 23.382 was one-thousandth of a second behind Iowa's Lia Love, who grabbed the ninth and final spot in the final.
Ameen Tokhi (21.93) turned in his second-best time of the year to lead the Bruin men in the 200m.
Later on in the night, Andreas Dybdahl narrowly missed out on a final spots after finishing 11th in the men's 1,500m with a time of 3:46.78. Kaho Cichon was UCLA's lone entry on the women's side for that event, finishing that race in 4:28.88.
Annika Salz closed out the night for UCLA with a 10k time of 35:49.35.
FIELD EVENTS RECAP
Cade Sommers was the lone Bruin to compete in the men's pole vault, clearing 4.79m (15-08.50) on his very first attempt and ultimately placing No. 20.
Thrower Lyvante Su'emai was able to reach the final of the women's hammer, but narrowly missed out on scoring as her long mark of 60.50m (198-6) was good for ninth place, about a half-meter away from eighth.
Players Mentioned
