Georgia sets itself up for team title
Bulldogs total 26 points in NCAA Champs on Thursday and could score 30 or more on Saturday
While there is no such thing as a guaranteed victory in the sport of track and field, the University of Georgia’s women’s team took a lot of important steps toward winning the program’s first outdoor title in the NCAA championships in Eugene, Oregon, on Thursday.
Georgia, Texas A&M, and USC were the top three-ranked teams in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll entering the meet at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field. But Georgia held a 26-16½ lead over second-place Illinois after the first six event finals on Thursday and the Bulldogs seemed very capable of adding another 30 or more points to that total when the women’s meet concludes on Saturday.
Texas A&M freshman Sofia Iakushina is the top-seeded entrant in the heptathlon, which starts at 2:45 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, today. And junior teammate Winny Bll is one of three entrants in the triple jump who have leaped a collegiate-leading 14.01 (45-11 ¾) this season.
USC could score its share of points in the 100 and 200 meters, as well as in the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relays. But the Trojans only had four points at the close of the meet on Thursday and Texas A&M had zero.
In addition, Georgia juniors Aaliyah Butler and Dejanea Oakley will be the top two-seeded entrants in the final of the 400 after winning their respective semifinals in 50.16 and 50.18 seconds.
Bulldog freshman Michelle Smith was also victorious in her semifinal of the 400 hurdles when she ran 55.65, the No. 3 time of the day, and Georgia won its semifinal of the 4 x 400 relay in 3:26.89, the No. 2 clocking.
Furthermore, Bulldog senior Elena Kulichenko will compete in the high jump after sharing the title last year.
Four athletes scored points in three different field events for Georgia on Thursday in the meet in which the top eight finishers in each event are awarded points on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
Georgia scored its first 10 points when senior Stephanie Ratcliffe won the hammer throw with a best mark of 71.37 meters (234 feet 2 inches) and the Bulldogs added another 13 to their total in the javelin when freshman Manuela Rotundo finished second with a throw of 60.35 (198-0) and senior Lianna Davidson placed fourth at 59.03 (193-8).
It was the second NCAA title for Ratcliffe in the hammer as she had also placed first in the 2023 meet when she was a sophomore at Harvard.
Rotundo and Davidson were sitting in first and third place after the first five rounds of the javelin, but junior Valentina Barrios Bornacelli of Missouri went from fifth to first place when she unleashed a personal best of 62.00 (203-5) on her sixth — and final — throw of the competition.
Barrios Bornacelli’s clutch effort improved upon her 57.31 (188-0) mark from the third round, topped her previous personal best of 58.20 (190-11) that she had set while finishing second to Davidson in the Southeastern Conference championships last month, and moved her to fifth on the all-time collegiate performer list.
It also made her the fourth-longest Colombian thrower in history.
“It takes a team effort around the program to allow any of our athletes the opportunity to achieve at the highest level, and Valentina is a product of that,” Missouri coach Brett Halter said in a mutigers.com post. “She deserves all the credit in the world. She believed in the plan, stuck to it, and trusted the work she had put into her craft over the last couple of years. I’m incredibly proud of her.”
Georgia picked up another three points when senior Kelsie Murrell-Ross placed sixth in the shot put with a best of 17.80 (58-4¾).
South Carolina is another team that could score a lot of points on Saturday as sophomore JaMessia Ford ran personal bests of 10.87 in the 100 and 21.98 in the 200 in her semifinal races, in addition to running the anchor legs on quartets that posted victorious times of 45.28 in the 4 x 100 relay and 3:27.95 in the 4 x 400 n their heats.
Ford’s time in 100 crushed her previous personal best of 11.06 and her 21.98 clocking in the 200 trimmed three hundredths of a second off her winning effort of 22.01 in the SEC championships.
Her time in the 200 strengthened her hold on fifth on the all-time collegiate performer list and her mark in the 100 tied her for sixth with Florida junior Anthaya Charlton, who had slashed her personal best from 11.01 to 10.87 while running in the first of three semifinals.
In addition to the victories by Georgia’s Ratcliffe in the hammer throw and Missouri’s Barrios Bornacelli in the javelin, four other women won event finals on Thursday.
They were freshman Pamela Kosgei of New Mexico in the 10,000 meters, sophomore Hana Moll of Washington in the pole vault, senior Synclair Savage of Louisville in the long jump, and senior Mya Lesnar of Colorado State in the shot put.
In addition, junior Peyton Bair of Mississippi State won the decathlon.
Kosgei, the runner-up in the NCAA cross country final last November, set a meet record of 31:17.82 in the 10,000 while finishing well ahead of junior Grace Hartman of North Carolina State, who clocked 31:32.15 to place second.
She was followed by freshman Joy Naukot of West Virginia, who finished third in 31:34.34, sophomore Paityn Noe of Arkansas, who placed fourth in 31:36.91, and senior Chloe Scrimgeour of Georgetown, who was fifth in 31:41.68.
While Kosgei’s time was the third fastest in collegiate history, the clockings by Hartman, Naukot, and Noe were the sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-quickest ever, with Scrimgeour at No. 12.
Hartman took the lead before the end of the first lap of the 25-lap race and she posted splits of 6:12.19 for 2,000 meters, 12:29.38 for 4,000, and 18:44.12 for 6,000.
Kosgei ran behind Hartman for the another lap before moving past her midway through the first curve of the 17th circuit of the race.
“We just maintained the pace until like eight laps remained,” Kosgei said when John Anderson of ESPN asked her about her big move. “I said, ‘Let me try my best to go in front.’ Maybe see if my body will move.”
Hana Moll had spent much of the year finishing behind her twin sister Amanda, but her winning height of 4.79 (15-8½) on Thursday broke the collegiate outdoor record of 4.78 (15-8¼) that Amanda had set in winning the Big Ten Conference championships at Hayward Field on May 17.
Senior Chloe Timberg of Rutgers and Amanda Moll each cleared 4.49 (14-8¾) on their third attempts, but Timberg was awarded second place because she had fewer total misses than Amanda Moll, who had cleared a collegiate indoor record — and yearly world-leading height — of 4.91 (16-1¼) on Feb. 28.
Hana Moll cleared her opening height of 4.24 (13-11) on her first attempt on Thursday, but she needed three tries to make 4.39. However, she took the lead when she made 4.49 (14-8¾) on her initial effort.
After all three vaulters passed at 4.54 (14-10¾), Hana cleared 4.59 (15-¾) on her first attempt, Amanda went out of the competition when she missed three times, and Timberg was unsuccessful on her initial effort before passing to the ensuing height of 4.64 (15-2¾).
Hana Moll made that height on her first attempt and when Timberg missed her two remaining vaults, Hana had won her first NCAA outdoor title to go with an indoor championship last year.
She then had the bar raised to 4.79 (15-8½) and cleared it on her third attempt before retiring from the competition.
“My 4.39 (meters) attempt was a third attempt, so I was not ‘on’ all day today,” Hana said in a gohuskies.com post. “It wasn't a perfect meet, it really never is. But I think I really cleaned it up at the end and focused on jumping and not winning, so I think that's what got me to clear that 4.79 bar. It gave me a big boost of adrenaline (to clear that early third-attempt) so that was a plus. I was just focused on not changing anything just because it’s a third attempt, and just giving it my all.
“It means a lot. First outdoor championship so I’m really happy for the win and to go home with the gold.”
Like Barrios Bornacelli in the javelin, Savage won the long jump with a personal best in the sixth round.
She was in fourth place after having jumped 6.59 (21-7½) in the fourth round, but she moved into first when she leaped 6.72 (22-¾) on her last attempt of the competition.
Junior Alyssa Jones of Stanford placed second at 6.70 (21-11¾) and senior Alexis Brown of Baylor finished third at 6.63 (21-9) after winning the indoor title in March.
Brown had been the pre-meet favorite after jumping a personal best of 7.03 (23-¾) in winning the Big 12 Conference championships last month.
Lesnar won her first outdoor title in the shot put after having placed first in the NCAA indoor championships last year.
She produced her top put of 19.01 (62-4½) in the first round and she also had an 18.87 (61-11) effort in the third round that would have been good enough to win the competition in which senior Abria Smith of Illinois placed second at 18.85 (61-10¼).
Sophomore Nina Ndubuisi of Texas finished third at 18.50 (60-8½).
Bair won his first title in the decathlon after having won his initial NCAA indoor championship in the men’s heptathlon in March.
His total of 8,323 points topped his previous personal best of 8,131 and gave him a large margin of victory over senior Brad Thomas of UC Santa Barbara, who totaled 7,888 points. Junior Emil Uhlin of Kansas State finished third with 7,859 points.
After beginning the day with a 287-point lead over second-place Thomas, Bair produced marks of 14.27 seconds in the 110-meter high hurdles, 41.59 (136-5) in the discus, 4.61 (15-1½) in the pole vault, 57.87 (189-10) in the javelin, and 4:35.69 in the 1,500.
Arkansas senior Marcus Weaver had moved into second place in the standings after producing the top mark of the competition in the discus at 47.22 (154-11), but he dropped out after being unable to clear his opening height of 4.31 (14-1¾) in the pole vault.
Weaver’s no height could turn out to be a huge loss for Arkansas as the Razorbacks are the No. 3-ranked men’s team behind USC and Texas A&M.
The meet is scheduled to begin at 2:45 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, today, with the running of the 100-meter hurdles in the heptathlon.
The first field event will be the men’s discus — featuring world record-holder Mykolas Alekna of Cal — at 5:15, with track events starting at 8:02 with final of the men’s 4 x 100 relay.
You can click here for an event schedule and results for the meet.
Do you use the race analysis and graphical files that the Diamond League provides? Based on some of your writing, I expect you do. Swiss Timing has been having a bad problem this year, with very poor performance of Live Results, and lack of many of the Reports. I contacted WA and DL after the Rabat meet, and got a response, saying they were working on it. Rome was fine, but now Oslo had almost no race analysis files. Have you contacted the DL? We should both keep the pressure on them, because these files are invaluable for reporting. Cheers,
Alan Shank
Al's Athletics Tidbits
mando.tenor@gmail.com