By Becky Hoag
When Oregon junior Deajah Stevens crossed the finish line in the women’s 200-meter dash at the Pac-12 championships and her time came up on the board, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Not only was it her personal best, but it was the fastest recorded time in the world for this year.
“When I looked up at that time, I was really excited because it didn’t feel that fast,” Stevens said.
Stevens won the 200 Sunday at Hayward Field with a time of 22.09 seconds, beating second-place USC junior Deanna Hill’s time by .32. In third was Oregon junior Hannah Cunliffe, the defending champion, in 22.60 seconds.
The Ducks ran strong in the women’s sprints this year with Stevens also winning the women’s 100 meters in 11.05 seconds, just ahead of teammate Ariana Washington, second in 11.10, and Cunliffe, third in 11.11. This was enough for the announcer to comment, “Now talk about getting your Ducks in a row!”
“We push each other,” Cunliffe said. “We know we are each other’s biggest competition, and we all have respect and great chemistry. So it all works out.”
Previously, Oregon was mostly known for its distance athletes, but this reputation is expanding to sprints.
“It was known for distance but we’ve got freshmen, transfers and me, Ari and Deajah,” Cunliffe said. “We all came together and put Oregon on the map as a sprint school.”
And if all of that wasn’t enough, Stevens, Washington and Cunliffe all ran the women’s 4×100 relay earlier that day with Oregon freshman Makenzie Dunmore, bringing home another win in 42.81 seconds.
“The 4×1 always gets the day going well, and then the one and two—you know, you just got to keep the momentum going,” Stevens said.
Even though Stevens enjoyed all the events, the 200 meters is her favorite, and this year, she felt it was her moment to win it. She equates it being her favorite partially because she ran it during the 2016 Rio Olympics, placing seventh in that event.
“I don’t really let any of that get to my head because anybody could come and beat you and you never know what might happen that day,” she said. “So you just have to try your best every time you go out there.”
