2021 NCAA Outdoor Recap Week 6

 42.63!

(USC 4x100 Relay) 

May is officially here. The arrival of the beginning of May has become synonymous with being the last week of the regular season. We are now entering the post season. We were still treated to some impressive marks, 10 new number one performances in total. As we prepare for the postseason this post will not only include our weekly recap but also where we stand currently with the team battle.

 

SPRINTS/HURDLES        

Very light action in the sprints in hurdles in terms of new number one performances, there were still some great times. All new number one performances came on the women’s side.

Kaelin Roberts of USC is having perhaps her best outdoor season as a Trojan. The often-injured junior has two NCAA Indoor titles under her belt but no outdoor championship hardware. This past weekend in the annual USC-UCLA Battle for LA dual Roberts went wire to wire UCLA’s Shae Anderson coming out on top with a winning time of 51.14.

At the same meet hurdler Anna Cockrell of USC continued her strong senior season and improved upon her number one ranking with a time of 55.59 in the 400 hurdles. Cockrell is the defending champion in the event having last won in 2019 and is currently the only sub 56 athlete in the field. Cockrell is clearly the easy favorite and has done nothing to suggest otherwise.

LSU has dominated the 4x100 relay conversation the entire season. They held the number one ranking for majority of the regular season. USC took over the lead at the dual meet this past weekend with their mark of 42.63. Their time is the fastest in dual meet history and even broke the stadium record that was recently set by a professional quartet that included Allyson Felix. USC made a huge statement with that time and it is clear the race will not be a runaway by LSU.

DISTANCE

On the men’s side there was one last number one performance at the USC-UCLA dual meet. It happened in the men’s 800 and it was Isaiah Jewett. Jewett ran a dominant race winning in a time of 1:45.80. He won the race by more than 2 seconds and he currently is the only athlete in the country to have run under 1:46.

Northern Arizona continues to develop and produce high quality talent. Although they are not a power five school, they regularly perform like on in the distance events. In the 10,000 it was their true freshman Abdihamid Nur who clocked in at 27:47.27 to win at the West Coast Relays with his teammate Blaise Ferro finishing second. There are now four athletes to have run under 28 minutes.

In the steeplechase, which seems to have a new leader every week, Ahmed Jaziri of Eastern Kentucky took over the number one ranking. His winning time of 8:32.92 at the Kansas City Qualifier over Ryan Smeeton of Oklahoma State puts him atop the leaderboard. Jaziri is another example of a small school athlete performing well against big school athletes. This event has had so much flux throughout the season it is hard to nail down a favorite. We will however consider Jaziri a contender.

On the women’s side the lone number one performance came in the steeplechase and had a familiar name. BYU’s Courtney Wayment took the national lead with her time of 9:31.37. Not only did she gain a six second lead on the number two ranked runner in the nation, Joyce Kimeli of Auburn but she made a statement against previous number one Hannah Steele of NC State who finished second in the race with a time of 9:48.38. Wayment is having a great 2021 season. She claimed the indoor national title in the 3,000 and is carrying over that success to the outdoors.

FIELD EVENTS

In the high jump there are two new number one performances. On the men’s side it is the familiar name of JuVaughn Harrison of LSU. The talented senior who completed the rare double indoors winning the high jump and long jump, now has the number one ranking in both outdoors. He leaped to a national leading mark of 7 feet 6 ½ inches (2.30m). 

On the women’s side it was talented newcomer Rachel Glenn of South Carolina. The true freshman wowed the competition at the North Florida invite with her leap of 6 feet 3 ¼ inches (1.91m). That mark surpasses Tyra Gittens of Texas A&M. There are now five women who can leap of six feet in the SEC, making the conference championships that will happen in two weeks all the most interesting.

Khayla Dawson of Indiana has never been mentioned here before, but it is time we learn her name. On her home field Dawson launched the shot put 62 feet and a ½ inch (18.91m). She has given herself a 2-foot lead on the performance list and looks to be the latest contender in the event with quite a few talented champions.

TEAM COMPETITON

LSU seems to be unbeatable on both sides. They have such depth in the sprints, hurdles, jumps, relays and even contenders to score in the throws and distance events. This is perhaps Dennis Shaver’s best coaching job, after being second or third numerous times here is a group that seems to have the makeup of a champion.

On the men’s side defending Champion Florida does not have the talent that their championship teams did and looks to be on the outside looking in. Texas A&M always shows up at the national meet and the home team Oregon who will have a strong contingent that looks to be rounding into shape just before the post season.

On the women’s side Arkansas and Texas pose the biggest threat. Both teams are fully loaded and capable of scoring in multiple events. Arkansas will still of course lean on their vaunted distance core but like indoors you cannot ignore that capabilities in the sprints. This will make for an interesting show down come Nationals.