WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEK: NCAA Outdoor Championships | Athletes, Storylines to Follow

Your guide to this weekend's NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship action in Eugene, Oregon.

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The Summer of Hayward continues with the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships this weekend. Unfortunately, I will not be in Eugene this weekend as Mac Fleet and I are working on a video project in Tampa these next few days. CITIUS MAG contributor David Melly and I have decided to pull together this guide with some of the best athletes and storylines to watch for this weekend.

The men will compete on Wednesday and Friday. The women will compete on Thursday and Saturday. Here are the men’s start lists and the women’s start lists. Follow this link for live results and a full schedule.

HOW TO WATCH: You will be able to watch the meet on ESPNU on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. ET and Thursday at 8:30 p.m. ET. Friday’s action will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 9 p.m. Et. Saturday’s competition will air on ESPN at 5:30 p.m. ET. All multi-events, jumps and throws will be streamed live on ESPN3.

WOMEN’S EVENTS TO WATCH

Texas Sprints In The Spotlight

Texas-based sprinters have a chance at two major victories with Longhorn Julien Alfred in the 100m and Aggie Charokee Young in the 400m.

Alfred won the Big 12 Championships with a 10.81 (national record for St. Lucia) on May 14 to become the third-fastest woman in NCAA history behind Sha’Carri Richardson and Dawn Sowell. The performance also puts her at No. 3 in the world for 2022 behind Olympic medalists Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (19.67A SB) and Elaine Thompson-Herah  (10.79 SB). Her biggest challengers will be Coastal Carolina’s Melissa Jefferson (10.88 PB), USC’s Celera Barnes (10.82 wind-aided SB) and LSU’s Favour Ofili (10.93 PB).

Young pulled off an incredible double at the Big 12 Championships by winning the 400m title in a 50.05 personal best. Young is also the only collegian to get under 50 seconds this season, and as she’s only running the 400m and the 4x400m at NCAAs, she has to be considered the favorite. The only woman to beat her outright in a 400m this year, Britton Wilson of Arkansas, is running the 400m hurdles, but the indoor NCAA champ Talitha Diggs easily advanced out of the East region and should put up a good challenge in the final.

Favour Ofili vs. Abby Steiner

LSU’s Favour Ofili and Kentucky’s Abby Steiner are two of the biggest sprint stars of the year and we’ve already been treated to a fantastic appetizer before this weekend’s main course. Heading into the SEC Championships last month, Ofili had never beaten Steiner in their six previous head-to-head races. However, Ofili was able to claim the SEC 100 (10.93 sec) and 200m (22.04 sec) titles. Ofili owns the collegiate record in this event with her 21.96 performance from April in Gainesville. Ofili is looking for her first NCAA title.

The sleeper pick here is Ohio State’s Anavia Battle, who has run 22.38 on the year, but she could put up an all-time great performance and still get third because of how stacked this event is up top.

Women’s 800m Wide Open

With Athing Mu completing a one-and-done NCAA career and the top 2 at last year’s NCAAs graduating, the women’s 800m title is up for grabs. The top returner, Gabrielle Wilkinson of Florida, finished third last year and easily won her East preliminary round heat, but she may not even be the fastest 800m runner on her own team as Imogen Barrett took the SEC crown this season. The two Gators will line up with serious team points implications alongside BYU’s Clare Seymour, the top returner from NCAA indoors. The two fastest seasons’ bests in the field belong to Katy-Ann McDonald of LSU and Sarah Hendrick of Kennesaw State, who’ve both run 2:00.98, but neither is a particularly proven championship runner so it’s anyone’s guess to see who emerges victorious from the famously-unpredictable event.

Katelyn Tuohy Is All-In For The 5000m

May was an awesome month for Tuohy as she ran a 4:06.84 personal best to win the 1500m and clocked a 15:50.02 behind her teammate Samantha Bush to finish second in the 5000m at the ACC Championships. The best moment may have been her 15:27.14 to win the 5000m at the NCAA East Prelim where the top seven women all ran under the previous meet record. She left the NCAA Indoor Championships with a pair of runner-up finishes in the 3000m (lost by .25 seconds) and 5000m (lost by .46 seconds) but her time is coming. The sophomore has the fastest season’s best in the field, but studs like Taylor Roe of OSU (NCAA indoor 3000m champ) and Abby Nichols of Colorado (Pac-12 champ) could play spoiler.

The 5000m will also have big team score implications for Laurie Henes’s Wolfpack women, as they turned heads by advancing five women to the championship in one heat of the East regional preliminary round. It’s traditionally tough for a distance-heavy squad to put up big point totals at NCAAs, but scoring three or four women in one event could put a huge chunk of change up on the board for NC State.

Courtney Wayment Statement Ahead of USAs

BYU’s Courtney Wayment looks to cap her collegiate career with her first NCAA outdoor title.  She enters with the fastest time of the year with a 9:26.88 at the Mt. SAC Relays, which put her at No. 3 on the all-time collegiate list behind Courtney Frerichs and Jenny Simpson (née Barringer). She finished fourth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships last year. She’s the favorite for this race and also likely a contender to crack the top three at the U.S. Outdoor Championships.

Auburn’s Joyce Kimeli, last year’s runner-up, enters with the fourth-fastest time of the year with a 9:41.15 from April. West Virginia’s Ceili McCabe (6th last year) enters with the second-fastest seed time with a 9:32.14.

Mercy Chelangat’s Moment

Last year, Oregon’s Carmela Cardama upset Alabama’s Mercy Chelangat (the 2021 NCAA cross country champion) to win the 10,000 meter title. Chelangat is doubling with the 5000 meters and 10,000 meters this weekend but this should be her best shot to claim her first NCAA track title. She notched a 15:17.28 personal best for 5000 meters in April but hasn’t gone all-out in the 10,000 yet. She won the SEC title by almost a full minute in ​​33:15.66 and then looked good winning the NCAA East Prelim in 34:17.49.

Look Out For National-Caliber Jumps

The NCAA has more than nation-leading talent in the women’s long jump, high jump, and triple jump this year: they have true world-class contenders. Lamara Distin of Texas A&M has won 12 of her 14 high jump competitions this year, including the indoor NCAA title and the indoor and outdoor SEC titles. Her SB of 1.97m puts her at No. 2 on the world list right now behind only world indoor champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine. Over at Texas Tech, Monae’ Nichols has the No. 2 jump in the world at 6.97m, but her rival, Jasmine Moore of Florida, is sitting at No. 5 and took the crown indoors. Speaking of Moore - she’s got a chance at the LJ/TJ double as she enters with the longest wind-legal and wind-aided jumps in the field (14.07m and 14.46m, respectively). She and her teammate Natricia Hooper are the only women over 14 meters in any conditions this season.

MEN’S EVENTS TO WATCH

Micah Williams Looks To End A 58-Year Drought

At the NCAA West Prelim, Williams ran the second-fastest NCAA 100m time in history with a 9.86 sec victory. It’s also the second-fastest wind-legal performance of the 2022 outdoor season. Williams, who was part of last summer’s Olympic team relay pool, owns the Oregon school record and now looks to become the first Duck to win the men’s 100m at the NCAA Championships since Harry Jerome won in 1964. 

It won’t be easy as he has last year’s runner-up Houston’s Shaun Maswanganyi (a South African Olympian) and Florida’s Joseph Fahnbulleh (Liberia Olympian who finished fifth at the Tokyo Games) in the race. 

Will Matthew Boling Finally Win?

Georgia’s Matthew Boling came out of high school with tons of hype and attention. He’s progressed well throughout his collegiate career under coach Caryl Smith Gilbert and captured the NCAA indoor 200m title in March. He ran his personal best of 19.92 in April, won the SEC Championships last month and then simply took care of business at the East prelim. 

Similar to Ofili vs. Steiner, we’ve been treated to some fun duels between him and Fahnbulleh. At the Florida Relays, Fahnbulleh won. At the SEC Championships, Boling won. Now we get the tiebreaker as Fahnbulleh looks to defend his title. 

Mario Garcia Romo or Eliud Kipsang?

The men’s 1500m will likely become a battle between tactical mastery and pure speed as Eliud Kipsang of Alabama and Mario Garcia Romo of Ole Miss face off for the third time in a month. Romo is the reigning NCAA mile champion and got the better of Kipsang at SECs this spring – so in an unpaced, possibly slow, tactical race, he’s proven himself to be the one to beat. Kipsang’s PB, however, is three full seconds faster than the next-best seed and happens to be the collegiate record, so if he tries to run away with the title, it’s possible no one can keep up.

If you’re looking to bet on a dark horse in this race, keep an eye on Adam Spencer, the freshman from Wisconsin. He won the Big-10 title with a big kick in a pedestrian 3:52.43, so if it’s a slow, messy race in the final 100 meters, he could be the one to capitalize.

We Didn’t Forget About Morgan Beadlescomb

The 26-year-old super senior and friend of the pod is all-in on the 5000m in his last NCAA championship, but he’ll have a tough path to victory. Beadlescomb is facing off against fellow veterans Adriaan Wildschutt of FSU (who ran 13:09 indoors), Brian Fay of Washington (Pac-12 steeplechase champion), and Olin Hacker of Wisconsin (Big-10 5000m champ). Oh yeah, and a youngster from Northern Arizona named Nico Young, who’s run 13:11.03 this year, which would have been the American collegiate record had his teammate, Abdihamid Nur, not broken it in the same race.

Beadlescomb has been winning a lot lately: four of his five regular-season have been victories at distances ranging from 800m to 10,000m. His only loss was to Fay over 5000m at the Brian Clay Invitational, the site of both their seasons’ bests, so their rematch will be one to watch.

Ready for Another Abdihamid Nur Masterclass

Although he would surely be the favorite for the double title in the 5000m and 10,000m, Nur has opted only to contest the longer event at this year’s NCAAs, which means he’s an even heavier favorite. It’s not often that an NCAA 10,000m runner also boasts 3:36 1500m speed, so he should be well-equipped to handle a hammerfest or a tactical race. NAU coach Mike Smith’s decision to only enter his distance stars in one event each likely means we’ll be seeing both Nur and Young in the 5000m at USAs.

Trey Cunningham’s Crowning Moment To Come

I can’t wait to see Trey Cunningham compete in the U.S. Championships later this month because of how dominant he’s been at the collegiate level. He clocked a 13.07 into a 1.5 m/s headwind in the 110m hurdles at the NCAA East Regional. That’s the world-leading time right now, and the mark is worth 12.91 in still conditions, which would put him well under Grant Holloway’s collegiate record of 12.98. Will we see the second sub-13 in collegiate history?

For The Big Throws Guys

Cal freshman Mykolas Alekna (who competes for Lithuania internationally) set the NCAA discus record in the discus with a 67.68m heave last month at Stanford, only to better it two weeks later at the Pac-12 Championships, so Hayward Field has treated him well so far. His only loss this season came when he went up against Olympic champion Daniel Ståhl at the USATF Golden Games last month so he’s a heavy favorite here.

THE TITLE CHASE

On the women’s side, It will likely come down to a battle between Texas and Florida, the No. 2 and No. 1 teams from the indoor edition of the meet. Texas will look to rack up big points in the short sprints on the backs of Julien Alfred and XX, and Florida will hope to stack up big points in the field events, particularly the jumps. The Gators’ title hopes may come down to workhorse Anna Hall, who’s entered in the heptathlon (she won the U.S. title already), the 400-meter hurdles, and the 4x400m. If Favour Ofili cleans up in the short sprints, LSU could play spoiler alongside one of the other major Texas teams (A&M and Texas Tech).

In the men’s competition, the Longhorns will look to complete the double-victory they narrowly missed indoors, winning the men’s indoor title and finishing second on the women’s side. The men’s 400m will be critical for Texas as they have three entrants in the top 10. The top-ranked team, however, is Georgia, which is traditionally a field-event powerhouse but could pick up big points in the sprints thanks to Matthew Boling. In addition to Trey Cunningham’s near-certain victory in the hurdles, a big 5000m/10,000m double from Adriaan Wildschutt could put FSU in contention as well.

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