NCAA Outdoor Championship Review

(Florida Gators 2017 NCAA Men's Outdoor Champions)

As predicted this past weekend was a spectacular display of track of field. The NCAA Outdoor Division 1 Championships never cease to amaze. There were new collegiate records, history made and shattered dreams. This year has been the year of breaking all-time records, that continued this past weekend. The 4x400 relay mattered in both team races making it exciting until the very end. In this recap, we are going to look at the most noteworthy performances from this weekend.

Women

Kyra Jefferson had perhaps the most noteworthy performance of the meet. We previewed that Dawn Sowell’s long standing 200-meter record was under serious threat. Perhaps we did not know that it would be Jefferson to do it. Deajah Stevens of Oregon entered this meet as the headlining sprinter in this event. She looked as though early in the race as if she was on record pace then with less than 50 meters to go with Jefferson now pulling a slight lead ahead her she took a tumble. She literally fell to the track. Jefferson continued the race clocking in at 22.02, a new NCAA record. Jefferson if the daughter ’84 Olympic Bronze medalist Thomas Jefferson. Clearly the apple has not fallen far.

Senior Chris Ann Gordon of Texas had the challenge of continuing the Texas legacy of champion 400 runners. In the way of that challenge was number one ranked senior Shakima Wimbley of Miami. Wimbley lead the NCAA with a time of 50.40 until Gordon ran a 50.39 in the semi-finals. Gordon withstood a cold final day to rocket around the track to the time of 50.51. She got out early on Wimbley and came off the turn with a pretty decent lead. She was able to hold that lead all the way until the finish line defeating Wimbley who clocked in at 50.68.

The 4x400 relay certainly lived up to the hype and expectation of the record falling. Texas established the record in 2004 at the Texas Relays, there time of 3:23.75 has stood since then. That team included Sheretta Jones, Raasin McIntosh, Jerricka Chapelle and Olympic Gold Medalist Sanya Richards. Oregon began talking of breaking the record soon after they broke the 4x100 NCAA record early in the season. They were certainly going to be pushed by a strong USC team. In fact USC Anchor Kendall Ellis surpassed Raevyn Rogers coming off the first curb. Rogers however used her superior endurance and hold off Ellis coming down the final stretch with a 49.7 split and stopping the clocking at 3:23.13. USC ran a NCAA record time too of 3:23.35, they just unfortunately finished 2^nd.

Georgia continued to impress in the field events, most notably the jumps. They claim titles in the Long Jump, Triple Jump and High Jump. Freshman Kate Hall claimed the title with a mark of 22-1, Keturah Orji defended her triple jump title with a mark of 46-10 ¾ and Madeline Fagan won the high jump with a height of 6-3 ¼. They scored a total of 46.20 points in those events alone plus the pole vault. What’s perhaps is most impressive is the fact that none of the ladies are seniors. The only senior was Kendell Williams who successfully defending her national title and now owns three NCAA heptathlon titles. She scored 6,265 points, although not her NCAA record it was still quite the impressive performance.

There were quite a few noteworthy performances for the wrong reasons. Aleia Hobbs of LSU with a personal best time of 10.85 not only did not win, she did not place in the top three. Her teammate Mikiah Brisco won clocking in at 10.96. LSU was also disqualified during the semi-finals of the 4x100 meter relay after the first exchange was made outside of the zone. This was astonishing turn of events since neither NCAA record holders from this season would compete. Texas A&M and Miami were also disqualified. Raven Saunders was also defeated in the women’s shot put unable to throw past 60 feet, Danniel Thomas of Kent State won with a mark of 62-10.

MEN

Christian Coleman has been the man all season long. He has been breaking records left and right, he continued his impressive season by dominating the competition. Coleman’s most impressive performance came in the semi-finals where he clocked in at 9.82, a new NCAA record while slightly shutting it down. It is also the number one time in the world so far. In the finals, he ran a time 10.04 into a strong headwind. He followed that up by running the 200 in a time of 20.25 also into a strong headwind. The weather certainly did not cooperate for the finals by either being cold, windy or rainy or all three at once. However, his times are still impressive and let us hope we hear more of him later this year at the IAAF World Championships.

Grant Fisher the talented sophomore runner at Stanford is from my home state of Michigan. He was a dominant force in high school most notably in the longer distances. He garnered All-American honors and arrived at Stanford with a lot of hype. This past weekend he proved he was worth it all, Fisher out kicked pre-race favorite Justyn Knight of Syracuse down the final stretch to win the 5,000-meter run in a time of 14:35.60. Although Knight still may possess the top time in the NCAA he was unable to seal the deal against Fisher from Stanford who certainly proved to have more in the tank.

Grant Holloway of Florida was recently named the SEC Freshman Runner of the Year. He has had quite the season. He was dominant indoors and won the 60-meter hurdle title. At the SEC Championships, it was a different story, he lost his first race of the outdoor season to Devon Williams of Georgia. It seemed as if he hit the freshman wall. He proved that theory wrong while dominating the field by winning the 110 hurdles in a time of 13.49. He ran that into a strong headwind, perhaps making it even more impressive. He followed that up with a 2^nd place finish in the long jump, an event he almost got disqualified in. He made his best jump on his 3^rd jump after two consecutive fouls. The jump had him in 1^st place for a short while.

KeAndre Bates of Florida is Holloway’s teammate that defeated him in the long jump. He leaped to the mark of 26-5 to complete the indoor and outdoor sweep of the long jump. He followed that up by leaping to a season’s best jump of 55-0 to win the NCAA title in the triple jump. Bates became the seventh athlete in NCAA history to complete the sweep of the jumps. He individually earned the Gators at total of 20 points.

The 4x400 Relay was a part of deciding whether Texas A&M or Florida would win. Florida only needed to finish 5^th or better. Texas A&M’s only option was to win it all. After running under 3 minutes in the semi-finals you did not expect them to do it again. That was unless you saw how relaxed Kerley was on the anchor leg. In the finals, they became the first university to run under 3 minutes in both the semi-finals and the finals. Their time of 2:59.98 will place them in the all-time top 10 as well. Florida was able to finish 4^th with a time of 3:02.16. It is quite disappointing that their sophomore stud Kunle Fasasi was unable to run due to injury they may have had a more impressive time.

What a season this was, multiple national records broken and great competition in every event. We will say good bye to quite a few senior champions that have made this sport special but we will also say hello to a new group that arrives next year and a group of talented champions that will return.