Top teams battle in Eugene 

Published by Adam Schneider/dyestatcollege.com on April 7th, 2016

There are many good events at the Pepsi Team Invitational and we will touch on a few here. 

Some of the events to touch on include:

Women's 400m Hurdles - Collegiate 400m leader Jaide Stepter of USC faces teammate Amelie Iuel, looking for her country's (Norway) Olympic qualifying time of 55.9, and former Texas Gatorade AOY, Alayha Johnson of Oregon. Iuel and Stepter ran in the NCAA final last year.

Women's 4x100m Relay - Oregon is expected to run their top relay team of Jasmine Todd, Hannah Cunliffe, Deejah Stevens, and Ariana Washington against USC's foursome of Alexis Faulknor, Deanna Hill, Destinee Brown, and Tynia Gaither. These are two teams expected to battle for the NCAA title. Last year USC was third at the NCAA meet and Oregon was DQ'd in the final

Women's 4x400m Relay - If it comes down to this relay it could be an incredible finish. At NCAA Indoors Oregon used Alaysha Johnson, Brooke Feldmeier, Deajah Stevens, and Raevyn Rogers. They finished third with this relay team at the NCAA meet in 3:29.97. USC came in as the second seed after running 3:28.82 using Kendall Ellis, Amalie Iuel, Deanna Hill and Jaide Stepter and finished fourth in 3:29.98 after running in a different heat. Cameron Pettigrew is expected to step in for Deanna Hill in this race. USC was second at the NCAA outdoor meet last year.

Women's 5000m - This will be an interesting race of redshirt freshman who had been high school national cross country champions and an all-American. Tessa Barrett won the 2013 Footlocher national champinships and won the New Balance indoor 5000m title in a high school record. Sarah Baxter was a two time Nike cross nationals champion. Both have struggled to regain their success in high school. Last year Molly Grabill of Oreon was 11th in the NCAA 5000m and finished fourth in the 10,000m

Women's Triple Jump - Junior Sasha Wallace has competed in the triple jump seven times since she joined Oregon and in her last competition at the Don Kirby Elite indoors she jumped a pr 13.00m, 42-8. She will be an equal favorite against Penn State's Danniell Gibson, who also jumped 13.00m. 42-8 outdoors this year.

Women's throws - Deep fields in the four throws (at least three from each event are ranked high enough currently to make the NCAA regionals) make for interesting group of competitions. USC's Tera Novy is ranked 1st in the Discus Throw with a best of 59.90m, 196-6, Rachel Fatherly of Penn State is ranked 7th in the shot put with a best this year of 16.96m, 55-7 3/4 . The most interesting is the shot put with Fathlerly and three-time Oregon all-American Brittany Mann as seven competitors have thrown over 50' this year either indoors or out. With the exception of the javelin throw competitors in each of the competitions with do at least double duty and Fatherly will do triple duty.

Men's 400m - USC has a  good, highly ranked pair of young 400m runners in 2nd ranked Ricky Morgan Jr (45.54) and 19th ranked Zyaire Clemes (46.68). Oregon counters with 2015 NCAA runner-up Marcus Chambers. 

Men's 800m - Penn State has a pair of NCAA indoor finalists in freshman Isaiah Harris and indoor 1000m NCAA record-holder Brannon Kidder, now ranked second and third nationally at 1:46.05 and 1:46.42, respectively. 2014 Pac-12 champion, Derek Daigre of Wahington and the runner of the fastest NCAA indoor championship 4000m distance medley relay 800m split, Grant Grosvenor of Oregon, and USC's Robert Ford will make for a great battle.

Men's 1500m - 2015 NCAA third place finisher, and indoor runner-up Blake Haney of Oregon will try to hold off 2015 Pac-12 champion Izaic Yorks of Washington, all-American Duck teammate Sam Prakel and all-american Robby Creese of Penn State. 

Men's 5000m - Edward Cheserek will have teammate all-Americans Jake Leingang and Jeramy Elkaim to try to hold of Husky all-American Colby Gilbert.

Men's Long Jump - Adoree Jackson of USC is ranked seventh nationally, 25-8, and he will face all-Americans Travonn White of Oregon and USC teammate Eric Sloan.

Men's Javelin Throw - Fifth-ranked Cody Danielson (251-9) of Oregon leads a deep and tough field as five competitors are currently qualified for the NCAA region meet. Carson Fuller of Washington is ranked 11th nationally at 241-0.