2023 NCAA Indoor Season Preview- Part 1 Sprints

 

(Micah Williams-Oregon)

The indoor season has officially arrived. This past weekend we were tribute to some special performances in non-traditional events and some special performances in traditional events. The 2022 season was quite special, we saw so many new stars and our theme of breaking long standing NCAA records continued, there are hardly any left. In this post we will begin the first of our indoor series, as usual starting with Sprints & Hurdles, followed by the Distance runners and then our field event athletes. In this post it will be the sprints preview.

Women

60-meter dash

Julien Alfred of Texas has been a headliner since arriving at Texas. Last season she set the NCAA record in the 60-meter dash at the Indoor National Championship during the preliminaries with a time of 7.04. Things did not quite go her way in the finals and finished in fifth place with a time of 7.15. Alfred redeemed herself by winning the outdoor 100-meter title. She returns this season with the goal of adding the indoor title to her trophy case and with Melissa Jefferson gone to the professional level there will be a new champion. Jadyn Mays of Oregon clocked a time of 7.09 last indoor season and will look to challenge Alfred for the crown. Mays will have to match the amazing start that Alfred is known for.

200-meter dash

Favour Ofili of LSU had a prolific sophomore season last year. She is on the all-time top five list for both indoors and outdoors. With all those accolades you would expect her to have a national title to her credit, but she does not. Abby Steiner of Kentucky set an indoor and outdoor record in this event taking it to new heights and claimed both titles for herself. Ofili has run sub 22 seconds outdoors with her personal record of 21.96 and will likely challenge Steiner’s records this season. Challenging her will be Kevona Davis of Texas. Davis came on strong last outdoor season and lived up to the hype she built up after an impressive high school career at Edwin Allen High School of Jamaica. The topic of many discussions on social media, she is now a major factor and threat to win.

400-meter dash

Florida returns this best 400-meter runner in the country with Talitha Diggs. Diggs is the defending indoor and outdoor champion and the only athlete to have run under 50 seconds. Diggs is the daughter of Olympian Joetta Clark Diggs and niece to Olympian Hazel Clark. This season not only will Diggs look t defend her crown she is likely chasing the NCAA records for both indoors and outdoors. Expect for Coach Holloway to have her prepped and ready. Kennedy Simon of Texas will be her strongest competitor as she was last season. Simon and Diggs went toe to toe last season with Diggs coming out on top.

60-meter hurdles

Grace Stark of Florida wowed us last season. She was a top 10 60-meter sprinter and that translated well in the hurdles. She is the defending champion in the event having run a stellar time of 7.78. Her time ties the NCAA record, and she will look to defeat the record this indoor season. Stark also would like to redeem herself after a disappointing outdoor season that ended prematurely due to injury. Alia Armstrong had the impressive outdoor season and won the outdoor title along with making team USA in the 100 hurdles. Armstrong like Stark is a top 10 60-meter sprinter and that will likely continue for this season. Expecting for one of these two ladies to break the NCAA record.

Men

60-meter dash

Davonte Burnett of USC is the defending champion in the event. Having to run the race twice due to a timing malfunction he won both times getting faster the second race. USC has developed quite the impressive short sprints crew to match their impressive 400-meter crew. Burnett will be challenged by Micah Williams of Oregon. Williams is the only athlete in the field to run under 6.5. He unfortunately false started in the preliminary round and never made it to the finals. I expect for him to redeem himself and fully challenge Burnett for his title. A dark horse could be Favour Ashe formerly of Tennessee and now of Auburn being coached by Leroy Burrell.

200-meter dash

Javonte Harding of North Carolina A&T returns at the defending champion. He followed his coach Duane Ross to Tennessee along with a host of other teammates. Harding chased Matthew Boling of Georgia all indoor season last year and claimed the crown at Indoor Nationals. That did not carry over to outdoors thanks Joe Fahnbulleh of Florida who claimed the title. Boling had a disappointing end to his indoor season with a disqualification. Harding is now competing in the SEC and will get more chances to go against Boling. I think Boling may finally get a NCAA title, but Harding will be tough to defeat.

400-meter dash

Both the indoor and outdoor champions have moved on leaving us to crown a new champion. Jenoah McKiver of Iowa is the top returnee. Iowa has become a national power in the sprints and taken the title as the sprint kings of the Big Ten from Ohio State. McKiver finished second last indoor season and had a strong regular outdoor season clocking in at 44.74. Jonathan Jones of Texas is quite the versatile runner and should be McKiver’s main threat. Last indoor season he stepped up running the 800 indoors and finished second at the indoor championships. He was fourth overall last outdoor season but had a personal best of 44.4. Jones is primed to claim the title, but McKiver has earned the right to be the favorite.

60-meter hurdles

Trey Cunningham of Florida State has graduated and moved onto to the professional ranks. That makes things much easier for the returning athletes because Cunningham was a dominant hurdler. Leonard Mustari now of Tennessee by way of North Carolina A&T, had an impressive freshman campaign. He returns this season to prove it was not a fluke. He clocked a top returning top of 7.55. Joshua Zeller had a solid indoor season, but his outdoor season is where he came alive. Clocking in at 13.19, he competed at the World Championships last summer and is the top returning outdoor hurdler. I expect for both Zeller and Mustari to take the next step in their indoor technique, and we could be in for a special season. Keep an eye out for Jamar Marshall of Arizona State.

Closing 

No 4x400 relay previews this early. I still need to see what depth each team has but for the record I think Texas women and Florida men. In my next post I will preview what should be a spectacular season for distance runners.