NCAA Track Championships To Separate Men and Women

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University of Oregon

The NCAA track and field championships take place this week at Hayward Field. For the first time ever, the men's and women's teams will compete on different days.

The coaches and administrators decided early this year to separate the competitions. Shortly after, ESPN announced plans to expand its TV coverage of the event, including airing Friday's men's championship on ESPN and Saturday's women's championship on ESPN 2. Some athletes are less than enthusiastic.

Bromell: "For me, I've gotta run three events all in one day. For our bodies to try to recover in this short amount of time is not good, and I feel like they didn't think about that."

That's Baylor's Trayvon Bromell, who will run the 100 and 200 meters and the 400 meter relay. U of O's Jenna Prandini will also compete in three events:

Prandini: "The girls and guys are completely separate, which is kind of weird, especially for a team like us, because we usually do everything together."

Both athletes say they'll make the best of the schedule, and focus on racing smart. The Duck men will defend their 2014 team title. The women's team is currently ranked second.

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Karen Richards joined KLCC as a volunteer reporter in 2012, and became a freelance reporter at the station in 2015. In addition to news reporting, she’s contributed to several feature series for the station, earning multiple awards for her reporting.