ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. --

Phyllis Francis had two record-setting runs and Edward Cheserek swept the distance races to help Oregon win the team titles Saturday night in the NCAA indoor track and field championships.

Francis sprinted down the backstretch in the 1,600-meter relay to catch Texas' Ashley Spencer at the tape, giving the Ducks 44 points - a half-point better than the Longhorns for a fifth consecutive championship.

Francis and her teammates finished in 3 minutes, 27.40 seconds, just ahead of Texas at 3:27.42, for a college indoor mark. Earlier, Francis set the indoor record in the 400 at 50.46 seconds. She was even faster in the relay, finishing her leg in 50.44.

The Ducks won the men's title with 62 points, eight more than Arkansas. Cheserek's performance won the 5,000 on Friday night in 13:46.67, and took the 3,000 on Saturday in 8:11.59.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Freshman star Edward Cheserek and the Oregon men put it away early, and the UO women waited until the very last step.

But both left the Albuquerque Convention Center with national championships Saturday in a can-you-believe-this finish to the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships before a crowd of 1,272.

This never was on ice for the UO women, who arrived in New Mexico seeking a fifth consecutive NCAA indoor title, and were playing from behind almost from the moment their airplane touched down on the runway.

They dug a hole for themselves on Friday, and it got worse on Saturday when U.S. junior record-holder Sasha Wallace hit the fourth hurdle, crashed hard to the track and didn't finish the race.

Suddenly, the odds looked steep to everybody not wearing a black Oregon uniform.

"We had the best 400-meter runner in the country, the best 800-meter runner in the country, the best 4-by-4 in the country," Roesler said, treating the question contempt. "You can't count out a team with that much talent."

Still, the UO women were sitting in fourth place with one event to go, the 4x400-meter relay.

Georgia led with 40.5 points. Florida and Texas were tied for second with 35.5, followed by the Ducks with 34.

Florida, Texas and Oregon all had teams entered in the 4x400. Georgia did not. Texas had come to the meet with the indoor season's best 4x400 time this year.

 "I went back and told the girls, winner takes all," Johnson said of his last minute instructions to his 4x400 team of Chizoba Okodogbe, Roesler, and Phyllis Francis.

 Francis – who had set the U.S. indoor record while winning the 400 less than two hours earlier – got the baton in second place and spent most of her two-lap, anchor leg chasing Texas anchor Ashley Spencer.

 Spencer still had a lead of several meters coming off the curve and onto the home straight. Francis went wide, the crowd got loud and just before the finish line Francis pulled even. At the line she leaned.

"Coach told me we would be behind a little bit," Francis said of what she expected as she received the baton. "Then, on the home stretch, I was supposed to make a move. But I thought I was too late for a moment."

A hush fell over the crowd until, after a stage pause, Oregon's name went up on the official scoreboard with a time of 3 minutes, 27.40 seconds followed by Texas in 3:27.42. The UO time broke the college record of 3:27.66 set by the Longhorns in 2003.

Francis didn't see it at first. She didn't know the Ducks had pulled out both the race and the title until Roesler wrapped her in a bear hug.

Could it get any closer? Oregon finished with 44 points. Texas was second with 43.5.

It was the moment of the meet, but there were other memory-makers along the way:

-- Cheserek, who must have ice water in his veins to go with that killer kick, broke away on the final lap to win the men's 3,000 meters in 8 minutes, 11.59 seconds.

On Friday, the UO freshman dusted the supposedly unbeatable Lawi Lalang of Arizona in the 5,000. Lalang scratched out of the 3,000, and there wasn't anybody else in the field who had a chance of flagging down Cheserek when he opened it up in the final 150.

Cheserek now has run in three NCAA championship races, including the 2013 NCAA Cross Country Championships, and won them all. UO senior Trevor Dunbar slipped in for fifth place in the 3,000. Those 14 team points essentially locked away the UO men's first NCAA indoor title since 2009.

In the end, the Ducks had 62 points. Arkansas was second with 54. Pre-meet favorite Florida was a distant third with 35. Twenty Oregon points came from Cheserek.

"He's incredible," Dunbar said. "I wasn't surprised. I would have liked to see him take down Lawi Lalang again, because I know he would have."

-- Francis smashed the U.S. indoor record in the 400 meters with a runaway victory in 50.46 seconds.

Francena McCorory set the record of 50.54 in 2010, and held it until Francis left it in tatters. Her winning time would have claimed the World Indoor Championships earlier this month in Sopot, Poland.

"This is something we've been telling, preaching to Phyllis since she was a sophomore," Johnson said. "She's a special kid. It's great that she's finally starting to realize that."

-- Roesler broke wide with a decisive move on the last lap's back straight and won the 800 going away in 2:03.85.

She came across the finish line with a smile on her face, only to have the UO coaches hustle her out of the clerk's circle to get her ready for the 4x400.

"I walked to the back, changed uniforms and sat down and waited for the 4x4," Roesler said. "I honestly haven't had time to process or celebrate the 800."

The UO women were supposed to win, although perhaps not to turn the finish into such a cliffhanger. The Oregon men weren't even in the title discussion until they hung 24 first-day team points on the scoreboard.

The Ducks picked up where they left off on Saturday, with multi-events specialist Dakotah Keys going from sixth to fourth in the heptathlon standings in the last event of the seven-event competition, the 1,000 meters.

Keys clocked a time of 2:42.67 in the process to score in a national meet for the first time as a college athlete. It got the Ducks rolling.

"I could barely sleep because I was thinking about it," said Keys, who got a pre-competition pep talk from senior distance runner Parker Stinson.

"Parker said, 'Hey, keep the fire going, because it's hard to put out.' That's all I wanted to do today is just keep building the fire."

Mac Fleet came across third in the mile, Johnathan Cabral was fourth in the 60 hurdles and Mike Berry was fourth in the 400 as the Ducks kept rolling all the way to the title.

"We thought we were a little bit under-ranked," Johnson said. "We thought we were better than what the scoring tables and all the dope sheets had us."

So they were. The men won decisively. The women showed a flair for the dramatic.

And in the end, left with won titles.

-- Ken Goe