No. 1 Texas women and No. 4 Florida men win outdoor track and field national championships
The GIST: The national championships — all 44 of ’em! — are in the books. This weekend saw four new NCAA records and more dominance from big names like No. 2 Florida triple jumper Jasmine Moore, No. 4 Oregon discus thrower Jorinde Van Klinken, and No. 7 Stanford distance runner Ky Robinson. Is it just us, or did it go by, ahem, really fast?
The women: No. 1 Texas finally closed the deal on their home track, destroying the rest of the field to clinch their fifth natty on Saturday. While the Longhorns earned points in a mind-boggling 12 events, it was Texas’ sprinters who brought home the bacon: Birthday girl Julien Alfred took the 100m and 200m, and Rhasidat Adeleke upset No. 3 Arkansas’ Britton Wilson in the 400m.
- And with the team natty already in hand, Alfred and Adeleke expanded the Longhorns’ lead by breaking their own NCAA 4x100m record for the third time in under a month. Unreal.
- Notably, two of the sport’s brightest stars — Wilson and No. 13 NC State’s Katelyn Tuohy — left Austin without any hardware. Both fell short of what would have been record-breaking double-victories, a testament to the parity on the national stage.
The men: To take their second straight ’ship and sixth in the last 11 seasons, No. 4 Florida ran it back in the most dramatic way on Friday. With the team title teetering until the day’s final event, the 4x400m relay, Florida set a new NCAA record to take the race and the natty. Talk about a photo finish.
- The Gators’ victory proves how crucial it is for teams to have lots of entries — Florida didn’t win the most events, but Top-10 finishes from nine athletes and relay teams pushed them over the edge, point by point. Quantity and quality, boys.
