Around the League: Oregon sets track and field records, Utah gymnast thrives
UCLA downed USC by 15, but it was really a show between two players. UCLA junior forward Monique Billings dropped 28 points and added 11 rebounds while USC senior guard Courtney Jaco notched 27 points. (Daily Bruin file photo)
While Bruin athletes continue competing in Westwood, here’s a look at some of the biggest news from the rest of the Pac-12.
Track and field
Michael Hull, assistant Sports editor
Nike co-founder Phil Knight has donated hundreds of millions of dollars over the years to the University of Oregon athletics department, and the track and field program has reaped the benefits.
The school attracts some of the top athletes, and the men’s and women’s teams, which have placed in the top two a combined four times in the past three outdoor seasons, opened up the indoor season last weekend.
Junior Hannah Cunliffe and senior Sasha Wallace in their event finals ran national-leading times in the 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles, respectively, and the women’s team took first in seven events overall.
Western Kentucky transfer and redshirt senior Kyree King hit a mark of 6.65 seconds in the men’s 60-meter dash – the fastest in the nation at the time, and also the second-fastest 60 in school history.
Both the men’s and the women’s teams will travel to New York next weekend to participate in the Columbia East/West Challenge, at which the Bruins will open up their own season.
Men’s volleyball
Grant Sugimura, assistant Sports editor
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation holds onto seven of the top-10 spots in the American Volleyball Coaches Association with the highest spot falling to UCLA at No. 2.
However, despite this, none of the teams in the MPSF remain undefeated. The No. 5 Hawai’i was the last one to fall after a five-set loss to No. 4 Long Beach State.
LBSU fell behind early, dropping the first two sets. The 49ers were able to then win the next three sets in a row, including a 33-31 fourth-set victory, to seal the win at their home opener.
Further north, No. 12 UC Santa Barbara defeated unranked USC in five sets.
Women’s basketball
Grant Sugimura, assistant Sports editor
Only five teams remain over .500 in the conference play and all five are top-20 teams.
Washington leads the pack at No. 8 followed closely behind by No. 10 Stanford, No. 11 Oregon State, No. 13 UCLA and No. 18 Arizona State.
On the bottom of the conference pile lies USC. Recently, the Trojans lost to the Bruins by 15 points, but a bright spot for them was senior guard Courtney Jaco.
Jaco dropped a career-high 27 points on seven 3-pointers.
Washington’s senior guard Kelsey Plum became the first player in Pac-12 history to hit 3,000 points for her career. Plum now ranks seventh in NCAA history.
Gymnastics
Hanson Wang, assistant Sports editor
For all the hype surrounding UCLA’s Olympic freshman duo of Kyla Ross and Madison Kocian, neither of them have been named the Pac-12 Gymnast of the Week or the Freshman/Newcomer of the Week so far.
Those distinctions all belong to Utah’s MyKayla Skinner two weeks into the season.
Last summer, the freshman was fourth in the all-around at the USA Olympic Gymnastics Trials and was an alternate on the Olympic team. Skinner won the all-around in both of the No. 5 Utes’ wins – 196.625-195.525 over then-No. 7 Michigan and 196.900-194.175 over BYU – to go with recording the highest score in an individual event seven times.
Aside from Utah, two other schools are undefeated thus far. No. 14 Cal is 5-0 after defeating then-No. 24 Iowa 195.550-194.400 on Sunday, and No. 19 Oregon State is 2-0 after beating Auburn and Seattle Pacific.
