A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • MoNday, JUNE 14, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
WOMEN’S
TRACK & FIELD
Tennis | French Open
USC wins team title,
but Norris rules day
The Oregon athlete
with the best perfor-
mance on the final day of
the NCAA Outdoor Track
& Field Championships
doesn’t go to school in
Eugene.
Take a bow, Mahala
Norris, the Air Force Acad-
emy senior who prepped
at Roseburg High School.
She outkicked an all-star
field to win the steeple-
chase in 9 minutes, 31.79
seconds on Saturday at
Hayward Field.
Norris began seriously
competing in the event
only this year. She spent
much of Saturday’s race
in lane two because she
didn’t want to get tangled
up with other runners in-
side. She won anyway.
After scooting down
the home straight to vic-
tory, Norris looked at the
results board to make
sure she really had won.
When she saw her
name go up in first place,
she said, “It was like the
cherry on top.”
USC won the women’s
team title on a muggy
afternoon, scoring 74
points before a crowd
of 6,065. “They gave up
everything to be a cham-
pion,” USC coach Caryl
Smith Gilbert said of the
Women of Troy.
Texas A&M was sec-
ond with 63 points. The
Aggies were paced by
Athing Mu, who broke
her own collegiate re-
cord while winning the
400 in 49.57 and then
anchored Texas A&M to a
collegiate-record time of
3:22.34 in the 4x400.
The women ‘s 4x400
relay record had been
held by Oregon, which
clocked a time of 3:23.13
while winning the race at
the 2017 NCAA meet.
The Oregon Ducks
women, who finished
tied for 11th with 19
points, struggled all day.
The problems started
with the 4x100 relay, the
day’s first running event.
The Ducks, who had
the second-best time
in Thursday’s qualifying
heats, exited the event via
disqualification.
The men’s competition
wrapped up Friday.
— The Oregonian
NBA
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic
kisses the cup after defeating
Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece
during their final match of the
French Open at the Roland
Garros stadium Sunday.
Michel Euler/AP
NOVAK’S 19TH
Djokovic claims
another Slam with
5-set comeback
BY SAMUEL PETREQUIN
Associated Press
ARIS — Novak Djokovic
left the court to go the
locker room for a little chat
with himself after dropping the
first two sets of the French Open
final Sunday.
Part of him worried he was
too diminished and depleted to
overcome that deficit against his
younger, fresher foe, Stefanos
Tsitsipas. And another part of
Djokovic insisted he would.
Guess which side was right?
Aided by flawless serving down
the stretch, a determined Djokovic
summoned his imperious best and
came all the way back to beat Tsit-
sipas 6-7 (6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 for
his second championship at Ro-
P
Thibault Camus/AP
Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece falls on the clay at the French Open on Sunday.
land Garros and 19th Grand Slam
title overall — one away from the
men’s record shared by Roger Fed-
erer and Rafael Nadal.
“There’s always two voices in-
side: There is one telling you that
you can’t do it, that it’s done, it’s
finished. That voice was pretty
strong after that second set,”
Djokovic said. “So I felt that that
was a time for me to actually vo-
calize the other voice and try to
suppress the first one that was
saying I can’t make it. I told my-
self I can do it. Encouraged my-
self. I strongly started to repeat
that inside of my mind, tried to
live it with my entire being.”
After ending the match with
a leaping volley, Djokovic who
spread his arms, tapped his chest
and crouched to touch the red
clay at Court Philippe Chatrier.
When he went to the sideline, he
handed his racket to a boy in the
stands he said had been offering
advice throughout.
Once the third set was un-
derway, Djokovic felt better and
played better.
“After that,” he said, “there was
not much of a doubt for me.”
Yes, his triumph went from in
danger to inevitable: Djokovic did
not face a break point in any of
the last three sets.
Djokovic became one of three
men — alongside Rod Laver and
Roy Emerson — to have won
each major twice. As the reigning
champion at the Australian Open
and French Open, he heads to
Wimbledon, which starts June 28,
eyeing another rare achievement:
He is halfway to joining Laver
and Don Budge as the only men
with a calendar-year Grand Slam.
See French Open / A6
Bucks tie series
as Nets lose Irving
Giannis Antetokoun-
mpo and Khris Middleton
finally are getting a little
more help, while Kevin
Durant keeps seeing his
superstar cohorts get hurt.
And now a sec-
ond-round playoff series
that once looked like a
Brooklyn Nets runaway
suddenly is up for grabs.
Antetokounmpo
scored 34 points and the
Bucks rolled to a 107-96
Game 4 victory Sunday
to tie the series, while the
Nets lost Kyrie Irving to a
sprained right ankle.
The Bucks erased a 2-0
deficit by winning two
straight in Milwaukee.
Game 5 is Tuesday night
at Brooklyn.
“We’re very happy, but
we’ve got to keep getting
better, keep playing to-
gether and hopefully we
can go into Brooklyn and
take one,” Antetokoun-
mpo said.
Brooklyn’s immediate
concern is the health of
its superstar trio.
Irving was hurt mid-
way through the second
quarter and didn’t return.
The Nets already are miss-
ing nine-time All-Star and
2018 MVP James Harden.
That puts even more
pressure on Durant.
— Associated Press
COLLEGE FOOTBALL | OREGON DUCKS
U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMING | COMMENTARY
Phelps is gone;
others are ready
to fill the void
BY PAUL NEWBERRY
AP Sports Columnist
Rick Scuteri/AP file
Oregon safety Jamal Hill (19) at the Fiesta Bowl against Iowa State on Jan. 2 in Glendale, Arizona.
‘Huge year coming up’ for Hill
BY JAMES CREPEA
The Oregonian
The most critical position in most mod-
ern defenses, nickel is also where one of Or-
egon’s biggest rising stars is emerging.
Jamal Hill had a breakout 2020 in his first
year as a starter and closed the season par-
ticularly strong. He’s one of three returning
starters in the UO secondary and one of the
most important to the entire defense.
The nickel is asked to handle the greatest
variety of matchups in coverage and help
in run support and Hill was able to handle
that as a true sophomore.
Oregon also has experienced veterans in
Jordan Happle and Bennett Williams that
are capable of playing nickel and box safety
roles and Jeffrey Bassa is beginning his ca-
reer at the nickel spot.
Post-spring depth chart
Jamal Hill: 6-foot-1, 200 pounds,
sophomore
Jordan Happle: 5-foot-11, 205 pounds,
graduate-senior
Bennett Williams: 6-foot-1, 203 pounds,
junior
Jeffrey Bassa: 6-foot-2, 200 pounds,
freshman
See Hill / A6
OMAHA, Neb. — Not long
after rolling into town, Michael
Phelps would dutifully pop into
the interview room to muse
on his outlandish accomplish-
ments in the pool. There was al-
ways an extra bit of excitement
in the arena when he arrived,
even if he rarely revealed any-
thing of great importance.
Like Jordan and Ali and Biles
— any athlete who looms over
his or her sport like a supernova
— Phelps’ mere presence was
all that was needed to signal an
event was something special.
Now, he is gone.
For the first time since 1996,
the U.S. Olympic swimming
trials are being held without
the sport’s biggest star, the guy
who won a staggering 23 gold
medals and 28 medals overall.
“We were actually just tex-
ting about it …” said Bob
Bowman, who was Phelps’
longtime coach and is now at
the trials with a new group of
swimmers. “I was like, ‘It’s kind
of weird to be in here without
you.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, I know.
It’s going to be strange.’”
Change is always hard.
But it’s not necessarily a bad
thing. It’s time for others to
have their much-deserved time
in the spotlight.
“Everyone knew he wasn’t go-
ing to be here forever,” Bowman
said. “In basketball, Michael
Jordan left, they moved on, and
other sports have done the same
when their icons have finished
their careers. I think swimming
will do the same. We have some
very good young swimmers
here, a very good crop of young
people coming up. So I think in
the years to come, there will be
plenty of things for people to be
excited about.”
See Swimming / A6