NCAA Outdoor Recap 7

 8,720!!

(Kyle Garland-Georgia)

The regular season has officially ended. I set the expectation last weekend that is may potentially be quiet, there maybe no new number one performances. Well, I was wrong, there were three new number one performances and two NCAA records. Outside of those performances there was no new number one performance but a few performances of note. In this post we will look at the new number one marks and discuss Conference Championship Weekend.

NCAA Records

Kyle Garland of Georgia decided to stay behind and continue his education and athletic development after previous coach Petros Kyprianou was not retained. While many athletes in the program left to find greener pastures Garland chose to stay which makes his performance more special. He was a highly sought-after recruit and has consistently performed at a championship level.

This past weekend at the USATF Multi’s Championship that will qualify for the World Championships in Eugene later this summer, Garland scored a total of 8,720 points. That mark is a new NCAA record and in that very competition he had four personal bests in individual events (100 meters, long jump, javelin and 1,500 meters). He finished second overall and will not only be at the NCAA Championships in June but also at the World Championships.

Abdihamid Nur of Northern Arizona had quite the weekend. He competed at the Sound Running Track Meet against top tier professional athletes and was able to hold his own. Nur ran a time of 13:06.32 to finish fourth overall but as the top collegian. His time was also a new NCAA record breaking the 44-year-old record held by Henry Rono. After an incredible indoor championship where he won the 3,000 ad 5,000 he is having one of the best individual seasons ever.

ALL-TIME GREAT

Anna Hall of Florida continues to climb up the all-time list. Like Garland she competed at the USATF Multi’s Championship this weekend. She scored a total of 6,458 points which is second all-time and claimed the event title. She had another 2:03 800-meter performance along with personal best marks in the 200, LJ and 100 hurdles. Hall is quite the season and maybe the transfer was the best thing for her because she has consistently stood out throughout the entire season.

UPCOMING WEEKEND

This will be a busy weekend. We are headed for what should be an exciting Conference Championship weekend. All Power 5 conferences will be competing along with the mid major conferences that pack quite the punch. In the SEC we will get another chance to see Joe Fahnbulleh of Florida against Matthew Boling of Georgia in the 200. They are currently tied for the number one ranking in the nation with a time of 19.92 but the last match up Fahnbulleh came out on top.

We will also see the full might of the Texas women. They are expected to dominate the Big 12 Championships it will be interesting to see what they can do in terms of point total. Especially what Julian Alfred does in the 100 will be a time to watch. On the men’s side we have perhaps the strongest Texas team ever formed. This has gotten the attention of the instate talent as they have nabbed a few high school All-Americans for next season.

There will be such a high level of competition throughout the weekend the national performance list will certainly shake up after this weekend. I would like to guarantee that at least one national record will fall this weekend and that there will be a different team rankings list come Monday.