A threepeat for O'Brien
Notre Dame senior wins third consecutive pentathlon title in NCAA Indoor Champs
Jadin O’Brien of the University of Notre Dame won her third consecutive title in the women’s pentathlon in the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Indoor Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on Friday.
But for the first time during that streak, the senior was not battling injuries during the competition.
“I showed up mentally ready to go, physically ready to go,” she told John Anderson of ESPN. “This is the first time going into nationals, uninjured. Knock on wood.”
Her good bill of health no doubt helped her set her second personal best of the month as she totaled 4,596 points to top the 4,580 mark that she had produced in winning the Atlantic Coast Conference title 11 days earlier.
O’Brien’s score moved her to fifth on the all-time collegiate performer list and left her a healthy 184 points ahead of freshman Sofia Iakushina of Texas A&M, who placed second with 4,412.
She was followed by senior Pippi Lotta Enok of Oklahoma with 4,375 points, freshman Pauline Bikembo of Iowa with 4,331, and senior Angel Richmore of Oklahoma with 4,310.
Enok and Iakushina had totaled 4,593 points and 4,556, respectively, in finishing first and second in the Big 12 Conference championships on Feb. 27, but they were unable to match those scores on Friday.
O’Brien opened the competition by posting the fastest time in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.16 seconds.
But she was in third place after the high jump as Iakushina cleared 1.84 meters (6 feet ½ inch) in that event and Enok made 1.75 (5-8¾), while O’Brien got over 1.69 (5-6½). However, O’Brien took the lead for good in the shot put when her best of 14.50 (47-7) gave her 827 points in the event.
In contrast, Enok’s 12.18 (39-11½) effort was worth 673 points and Iakushina’s 11.69 (38-4¼) gave her 641.
O’Brien’s lead over second-place Iakushina grew to 153 points when she leaped 6.19 (20-3¾) in the long jump and her advantage increased another 31 points when she ran 2:12.65 in the 800 and Iakushina clocked 2:14.87.
O’Brien told Anderson that she didn’t know who was ranked where going into the meet and she didn’t care.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “You got to show up day of and I knew I was going to do that. The talent here was insane Shout out to all my competitors. You all were unbelievable and way to fight. You pushed me for sure.”
She added that she was focused on controlling the controllable.
“I didn’t need to look at my competition, because all that would do is add pressure.”
In addition to the pentathlon on Friday, finals were also contested in the women’s distance medley relay, 5,000 meters, pole vault, long jump, and 20-pound weight throw.
Illinois led the team standings with 21 points, followed by Oregon and Washington with 19, BYU with 18, and Wisconsin with 13.
The final 11 events of the women’s meet will be contested today.
BYU was awarded 10 points when the Cougars won the distance medley relay and they received an additional eight when senior Lexy Halladay-Lowry finished second in the 5,000.
BYU won its second consecutive title in the distance medley relay when junior Riley Chamberlain made up more than four seconds on Oregon’s Silan Ayyildiz on her 1,600-meter anchor leg.
Chamberlain’s 4:25.12 split gave BYU a final time of 10:45.34, followed by Oregon in 10:45.99, Providence in 10:46.28, LSU in 10:47.17, and Utah in 10:53.50.
The time by BYU was the sixth-fastest in collegiate history on a 200-meter track , while Oregon, Providence, and LSU posted the seventh-, eighth-, and 11th-best clockings.
BYU trailed Oregon and Providence after junior Jenna Hutchins ran 3:21.61 on her 1,200-meter first leg and the Cougars were in second place behind Oregon after senior Sami Oblad clocked 52.10 on her 400-meter carry.
BYU was behind Oregon, Providence, and Utah after freshman Tessa Buswell ran 2:06.52 on her 800-meter third leg. However, Chamberlain did not panic after receiving the baton nearly four seconds behind Ayyildiz, who had set a collegiate — and Turkish — record of 4:23.46 last month.
The Duck junior, who had easily qualified for the final of the mile a little less than two hours earlier, looked to be running very under control for the first three laps of her leg. But the chase group of Chamberlain, Kimberley May of Providence, and Lorena Rangel Batres of LSU began to cut into her lead with 900 meters to go and they caught her with 550 meters remaining.
Ayyildz was still in the lead with two laps to go, but Chamberlain had moved into first place with a lap left, and she repelled the Oregon runner’s surge down the backstretch before extending her lead by a little bit during the final 100 meters of the race.
“I kind of felt like when I caught Kimberley, she was moving really quick,” Chamberlain told Anderson. “It’s like, ‘Okay, I’ll let her drag me through for a little bit.’ And then, see how the space closed or gets bigger, or whatever. And then I thought I could catch her.”
Chamberlain added that it was “incredible” when Anderson asked her about the significance of BYU winning a second consecutive title.
“I knew it was gonna be really hard to do,” she said. “I knew it was possible, that we had a good lineup. I was confident the girls that were with me, and I’m just grateful to be here, happy and healthy.”
Doris Lemngole of Alabama won the 5,000 meters in 15:05.93 to pick up her third NCAA title during the past nine months.
Her first championship had come when she set a collegiate record of 9:15.24 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase during the outdoor track and field championships and she followed that with a victory in the NCAA cross country championships in November.
Halladay-Lowry timed 15:06.17 in the 5,000 on Friday and she was followed by Pamela Kosgei of New Mexico in 15:07.57, Elise Stearns of Northern Arizona in 15:08.07, and Sophia Kennedy of Stanford in 15:10.71.
Kennedy’s teammate, Amy Bunnage, had led the field through the first kilometer in 2:59.17, the second in 5:57.92, and the third in 9:02.46, but she dropped out of the race shortly after that with what looked to be a knee injury.
Kennedy then led most of the next kilometer before Lemngole was in first place when she passed 4,000 meters in 12:15.80.
The lead pack consisted of nine runners with four laps to go, and the front group still consisted of eight women when Halladay-Lowry came through 4,600 meters in 14:02.72.
However, that pack had been reduced to four shortly after Lemngole took the lead with 230 meters left in the race.
The battle for first place turned into duel between Lemngole and Halladay-Lowry down the final backstretch, and although the latter made a determined run at the Kenyan around the final turn, Lemngole pulled away from her in the home straightaway.
In the other three finals contested on Friday, sophomore twins Amanda and Hana Moll of Washington placed first and second in the pole vault, senior Lexi Brown of Baylor took the long jump, and junior Taylor Kesner of Wisconsin won the 20-pound weight throw.
The Molls each cleared 4.70 (15-5) in the pole vault, but Amanda was awarded the victory because she cleared that height on her first attempt, while Hana made it on her third try.
Olivia Lueking of Oklahoma finished third at 4.55 (14-11).
Brown won the long jump at 6.90 (22-7¾) to move into a tie for seventh on the all-time collegiate performer list.
She also had jumps of 6.84 (22-5¼) and 6.81 (22-4¼) after entering the meet with an indoor best of 6.80 (22-3¾).
Tacoria Humphrey of Illinois finished second at 6.75 (22-1¾) and Alyssa Jones of Stanford placed third at 6.71 (22-¼).
Anthaya Charlton of Florida also jumped 6.71, but Jones finished a place ahead of her because her second-best jump measured 6.69 (21-11½) and Charlton’s No. 2 mark was 6.62 (21-8¾).
Kesner jumped from sixth place to first on her final throw of the 20-pound weight event as her 23.50 (77-1¼) personal best was nearly a meter farther than her 22.60 (74-¾) effort in the fifth round.
Gudrun Hallgrimsdottir of Virginia Commonwealth placed second at 23.19 (76-1), followed by Phethisang Makhethe of Illinois at 23.08 (75-8¾).
Arkansas’ chances at winning a third consecutive team title appeared to have taken a big hit on Friday as Sanu Jallow and Kaylyn Brown did not qualify for the finals of the 800 and 400, respectively, and Paityn Noe only earned one point for her eighth-place finish in the 5,000.
Jallow was the leading entrant in the 800 with a best of 1:59.77, but she finished fifth in her heat in 2:02.57 after coming through the first 200 in 27.09 seconds and the opening 400 in 56.72.
Brown had the 10th-fastest overall time in the 400 with a 52.06 clocking.
She had run a personal best of 49.13 while finishing second in the 400 in the NCAA outdoor championships last year.
Juliette Whittaker of Stanford and Myreanna Bebe of Tennessee were other surprising non-qualifiers.
Defending 800 champion Whittaker had the ninth-fastest time in that event at 2:02.35.
Bebe entered the meet as the co-national leader in the 60 hurdles at 7.95 seconds, but she smacked the first of five hurdles in her heat and never fully recovered as her 8.18 clocking left her in 11th place.
The top eight advanced to the final.
The women’s meet will begin today at noon, Eastern Time, with the high jump.
Track events will kick off with the mile at 3 p.m.