AUSTIN, Texas — Julien Alfred added three more titles to her name after winning the 100m, 200m and 4x100m at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships in Austin.
Alfred won the 100 meters with a wind-aided time of 10.72 seconds to become just the sixth woman in NCAA history to win the event in back-to-back years and ran the fastest all-conditions mark in collegiate history to win the 200 in 21.73 and become the first woman since 2016 to win both the 100 and 200 and just the third in the last 25 years.
The track action on the final day of the championships began with Alfred leading her team to glory in the 4x100m, stopping the clock at 41.60 – just a fraction outside the collegiate record of 41.55 they had set in the semifinals two days prior.
Less than an hour later, Alfred was in the blocks for the 100m. The Commonwealth silver medallist powered away from the field to win in a marginally wind-assisted 10.72 with Kennedy Blackmon taking second place (10.87) and Jacious Sears placing third (10.94).
Just 45 minutes later, Alfred took on the 200m and won by the exact same margin, powering to victory in a wind-assisted 21.73 from Mackenzie Long (21.88). Alfred’s teammate Kevona Davis, who had been part of Texas’s triumphant 4x100m team, placed third in 22.02.
Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke completed a sprint sweep for Texas and caused one of the biggest upsets of the championships as she defeated one-lap star Britton Wilson in the 400m.
Wilson had the slight edge as the duo entered the home straight, but Adeleke pulled ahead in the final 50 metres to win in a national and championship record of 49.20 – the fastest time by a European athlete for 11 years.
Wilson’s ambitious one-lap double proved too big a task for the 22-year-old. Just 25 minutes after the 400m flat final, she returned to the track for the 400m hurdles – the event in which she was the defending champion and collegiate leader with 53.23. But she ultimately faded to seventh place in a race won by Michigan’s Savannah Sutherland in 54.45.
In the 100m hurdles, NCAA indoor champion Ackera Nugent powered to victory in a wind-assisted 12.25 (3.8m/s) to win from Masai Russell (12.32), who also finished runner-up in the 400m hurdles (54.66).
Florida’s Jasmine Moore set the collegiate record to win the triple jump with a leap of 48 feet, 6 inches and beat out Ackelia Smith, who had a personal best of 47 feet, 8 1/2 inches for the Longhorns.
Jorinde Van Klinken of Oregon won her third straight discus title and set a meet record with a throw of 215 feet.
Charity Griffith took first in the high jump with a personal best 6 feet, 4 inches to win Ball State’s first national title since 1999. No other participant cleared as high as 6-2.
Harvard’s Maia Ramsden went from fifth place to first on the final lap to win the 1500 meters in 4:08.60 and become just the third Ivy League athlete to win a title at the outdoor championships.
Freshman Pippi Lotta Enok of Oklahoma won the high jump (5 feet, 8 3/4 inches) and javelin (153 feet) to win the heptathlon title with a school record 6,165 points.
Ackera Nugent ran a 12.25 to win the 100 meter hurdles for Arkansas and edge out Kentucky’s Masai Russell 0.07 seconds.
Discussion about this post