Texas women run away with NCAA title three months after disappointing indoor finish
Alfred and Adeleke combine for three individual victories, run legs for winning 400-meter relay team on final day of meet
The University of Texas women’s team, led by superb senior sprinter Julien Alfred, rolled to a runaway victory on the final day of the NCAA Track & Field Championships on Saturday night.
A night after Florida had come from behind to edge favored Arkansas for the men’s team title, Texas won four events and scored points in three others on its way to an 83-51 victory over defending champion Florida while competing in front of a vocal crowd on its home track and field facility at Mike A. Myers Stadium. NCAA indoor winner Arkansas placed third with 46 points, followed by Oregon with 44, and Texas A&M with 36.
Britton Wilson of Arkansas and Katelyn Tuohy of North Carolina State, who were both attempting to win a pair of individual titles, did not win a single race between them. But the biggest story of the night was Texas romping to the women’s title after having finished second in the NCAA indoor meet the past two years, as well as in the outdoor championships last year.
Texas had been a unanimous pick to win the team title in the indoor championships at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 10-11. But the Longhorns underperformed in enough areas that Arkansas defeated them, 64-60, for the team title.
“When we left the NCAA indoor [meet in] New Mexico, there was not one word said, but we were all on the same page,” Texas coach Edrick Floreal said to John Anderson of ESPN2 after the trophy presentation on Saturday night. “We understood each other. We knew what was going to happen here. We’ve been kind of gearing up for it here all year… So it’s kind of cool to watch it happen at home and in front of all of our alums and friends. This is an awesome moment.”
The 83 points scored by Texas were the most by a women’s team in the NCAA championships since 1993 when LSU totaled a record 94 points. The Longhorns’ 32-point margin of victory was the largest since 1994 when LSU — in the midst of winning 11 consecutive titles — defeated runner-up Texas by 43 points in an 86-43 victory.
Aside from the disqualification of its 1,600-meter relay team for an exchange zone violation in its semifinal during the first day of the women’s meet on Thursday, Texas did just about everything right in the competition in which the top eight finishers in each event were awarded points on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
The Longhorns began Saturday with 10 points, thanks to a victory by Ackelia Smith in the long jump on Thursday. They doubled that total in the first track event on Saturday night when a team of Alfred, grad student Ezinne Abba, and juniors Rhasidat Adeleke and Kevona Davis won the 400-meter relay in 41.60 after lowering their collegiate record to 41.55 in a semifinal on Thursday.
About 50 minutes later, Alfred, who was celebrating her 22nd birthday, won her second consecutive title in the 100 when she ran a wind-aided 10.72 to easily defeat second-place Kennedy Blackmon of Oklahoma (10.87). Davis placed fifth in 10.98 and Abba finished seventh in 11.07 to give Texas 16 points in the event and a 36-32 lead over second-place Oregon in the team standings.
The next race on the track was the 400 and it was in that contest that Adeleke lowered her own Irish record to 49.20 while pulling away from the favored Wilson in the home straightaway.
Wilson, who won the NCAA indoor title in an American record of 49.48, had lowered the collegiate record to 49.13 outdoors in the Southeastern Conference Championships four weeks earlier. But she was competing with what appeared to be a wrap or a taped area on her lower left leg and seem to lack to her usual drive in the homestretch while finishing second in 49.64, her sixth-fastest time of the outdoor season.
Nonetheless, Adeleke topped her previous national record of 49.54 while moving to third on the yearly world performer list and to ninth on the all-time European list.
“I’m not going to focus on the noise or anything like that,” Adeleke said when Anderson asked her how she had sized up her competition entering the race. “I can’t control anyone else so I have to trust myself. Trust God.”
Although Arkansas outscored Texas 19-10, in the 400, thanks to a 2-3-4 finish by Wilson, Nickisha Price (50.23) and Rosey Effiong (50.77), the Longhorns held a 46-34 lead over the second-place Razorbacks in the team standings after the event.
Texas added another three points to its team total in the 800 when senior Valery Tobias placed sixth in 2:02.39 in a race that LSU sophomore Michaela Rose won in 1:59.83 after leading the field through the first lap in 58.47.
Then came the 400 hurdles, in which defending champion Wilson was never in the hunt to win her second consecutive title. Running approximately 25 minutes after the conclusion of the 400, Wilson was in fourth place midway through the second turn. But her characteristic homestretch drive was missing as she placed seventh in 55.92 in a race that was won in a personal best of 54.45 by Michigan sophomore Savannah Sutherland.
Sutherland’s victory was no doubt regarded as a big upset, but it is interesting to note that Track & Field News had her winning the event in its pre-meet form chart, with Wilson tabbed for third. That prognostication was no doubt made on the assumption — which appeared to be correct — that there would not be enough time between the 400 and 400 hurdles for Wilson to recover properly.
Texas appeared to be on its way to its first outdoor team title since 2005 — and fifth in program history — at that point as Jamaican Smith had just finished second in the triple jump with a personal best of 14.54 (47-8½).
The Longhorns’ 57-42 lead over second-place Oregon then ballooned to 77-42 when Alfred won the 200 in a wind-aided 21.73, followed by McKenzie Long of Mississippi in 21.88.
Davis also finished third in 22.02 for Texas, with senior teammate Lanae Thomas fifth in 22.36.
Alfred, who ran a yearly world-leading time and St. Lucian record of 21.91 in April, ran a solid turn in the 200. But she was challenged by Jacious Sears of Tennessee and Long during the early part of the homestretch before her superior top-end speed enabled her to pull away for the victory.
“It means a lot,” Alfred told Anderson when it was obvious that Texas was going to win the team championship. “On our home track. Defending it. Leaving here with a team title… Thank God. I’m grateful.”
The Longhorns’ final six points of the meet came about 10 minutes after the 200 when the heptathlon wrapped up with the 800-meter run and Texas junior Kristine Blazevica placed third in the overall standings with a total of 6,058 points.
Oklahoma freshman Pippi Lotta Enok won the multi-event with a personal best of 6,165 points, followed by Vanderbilt senior Beatrice Juskeviciute with 6,117.
Enok, the World Athletics U20 (under 20) Championships gold medalist in 2021 for Estonia, was in fifth after the first day of the heptathlon. But she opened Saturday with a wind-aided jump of 6.30 (20-8) in the long jump before she took the overall lead in the standings by throwing the javelin 46.65 (153-0). She then finished her competition with a time of 2:17.36 in the 800.
Jenelle Rogers of Lousiville was in first place in the heptathlon after the long jump, but she could only manage a throw of 27.30 (89-7) in the javelin and ended up finishing fifth with 6,018 points.
Asked after the meet how Texas was finally able to get over the hump and win a title, Floreal said, ‘We have a bunch of great women who just made up their minds that they’re powerful, they’re strong, and they’re just not going to take second. That’s really what this is. This has less to do with coaching, more to do with athletes coming together and being unselfish, and the really cool thing is they’re the most unselfish group that I’ve ever coached.”
Team runner-up Florida was led by Jasmine Moore, who set a collegiate outdoor record of 14.78 (48-6) in winning the triple jump, and Parker Valby, who won the 5,000 in 15:30.57 after placing second last year.
Moore had been disappointed with her third-place performance of 6.66 (20-10¼) in the long jump on Thursday. But she won her second consecutive outdoor title in the triple jump with an effort that topped the previous collegiate record of 14.62 (47-11¾) set by Kenturah Orji of Georgia in 2018.
Moore entered the meet as the defending champion in the outdoor long jump and triple jump after winning both those events in the past two NCAA indoor championships.
She had performed brilliantly in the NCAA indoor meet in March when she won the long jump with a collegiate record of 7.03 (23-0¾) and the triple jump with a collegiate and American record of 15.12 (49-7¼).
Although Wilson fell short in her quest to become the first athlete to win the 400 and the 400 hurdles in the same meet in the NCAA championships, third-place Arkansas did post a pair of victories in the 100-meter hurdles and the 1,600 relay.
The 100 hurdles was the most talent-laden event of the women’s meet as it included defending champion Alia Armstrong of LSU, collegiate record-holder Masai Russell of Kentucky, and NCAA indoor champion Ackera Nugent of Arkansas.
Armstrong, who placed fourth in the World Championship in Eugene, Oregon last year, had defeated Nugent and Russell — in that order — for the SEC title four weeks earlier.
She led the rematch for the first five flights of hurdles before hitting the fifth barrier hard and losing much of her momentum. That left the door open for Nugent, who took the lead by the seventh barrier and crossed the finish line in a wind-aided 12.25. She was followed by Russell in 12.32 and Armstrong in 12.49.
Russell, a graduate student who set the collegiate record of 12.36 on the same track during the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays on April 1, was never in contention for the victory after she hit the second hurdle, just as she had done during her semifinal on Thursday. She also ran a leg on Kentucky’s second-place 400 relay team that clocked 42.26 and placed second in the 400 hurdles in a personal best of 54.66.
Wilson did not run on Arkansas’ 1,600 relay team, but the Razorbacks have so much depth in the 400 that they still won the race in 3:24.05, more than two seconds ahead of second-place Texas A&M at 3:26.12.
Tuohy had entered the meet with collegiate records in the indoor 1,500 and the outdoor 5,000. She was looking to win both those events in Austin, but finished seventh in 1,500 after leading the race around the final turn. She later withdrew from the 5,000, the race she had won in last year’s meet before winning the NCAA cross country title in November and the 3,000 and 5,000 in the NCAA indoor championships.
Tuohy, who had seemed irritated after placing fourth in her semifinal in 4:09.83 on Thursday, took a 10-meter lead part way through the final on Saturday. But a chase pack of five runners was closing in on her when she came through 1,100 meters in 3:03.95 and it was poised behind her as she headed into the final curve.
Harvard sophomore Maia Ramsden was the first runner to pass Tuohy heading into the home straightaway on her way to a personal best of 4:08.60. Izzy Thornton-Bott of Oregon finished second in 4:09.21 and Tuohy faded to seventh in 4:11.40.
In the other distance race contested on Saturday, Olivia Markezich of Notre Dame won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in a personal best of 9:25.03 after trailing Greta Karinauskaite of California Baptist for most of the race.
Markezich was 15 meters behind Karinauskaite with two laps left, but she was closing in on the junior from Lithuania with a lap left and took the lead shortly after entering the backstretch. Karinauskaite finished second in 9:30.85.
Jorinde van Klinken of fourth-place Oregon won her third consecutive title in the discus after winning her first two for Arizona State. The fourth-place finisher in the World Championships set a meet record of 65.55 (215-0) in the second round. She also had efforts of 65.34 (214-4) and 65.20 (213-11) as all six of her throws were better than the 61.13 (200-6) best of second-place Ashley Anumba of Virginia.
Charity Griffith of Louisville won the high jump with a personal best of 1.93 (6-4) as defending champion Lamara Distin of Texas A&M finished second at 1.87 (6-1½).
Distin, winner of the last two NCAA indoor titles, had cleared 1.95 (6-4¾) in last year’s meet, but she missed all three of her tries at 1.90 (6-2¾) on Saturday.
Griffith took the lead with her second-attempt clearance at 1.90 and then cleared 1.93 on her first attempt before missing three times at 1.97 (6-5½).
The next three editions of the NCAA championships are scheduled to be held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, with the 2024 meet set for June 5-8.
