NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships 2023 Day 4 - Julien Alfred sweeps 100m and 200m, leading Texas to women's team title
The Longhorn junior excelled on a night that was otherwise full of upsets, including host Texas thumping the field. Jasmine Moore set a new collegiate record in the triple jump.
Athletics
It was a night for upsets on Satuday (10 June) at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
The meet's host, the University of Texas Longhorns, wowed the home crowd in Austin with a runaway women's team title, easily beating defending champion Florida, 83 points to 51. Junior Julien Alfred - who hails from St. Lucia - swept the 100m and 200m, after helping UT to victory in the 4x100m relay, the first event of the night.
It was an extra special night for Alfred, who was celebrating her 22nd birthday. Texas had finished runner-up in the previous three outdoor championships.
Alfred's Texas teammate Rhasidat Adeleke stunned favourite Britton Wilson (Arkansas) in the 400m, too, helping the hosts to the win. Arkansas finished third with 46 points.
The fourth and final day of the top collegiate athletics meet in the U.S. saw 16 national titles handed out in total, and it was a night to expect the unexpected, as collegiate record holder Masai Russell (Kentucky) was shocked in the 100m hurdles, as well, as Ackera Nugent of Arkansas claimed the win.
Nugent's 12.25 was wind-aided (+3.8w), but it's the fastest all-conditions 100m hurdle time in the world this season.
Upsets abound: Russell, Wilson shocked in favoured races
Wilson, who was going after a never-done-before sweep of the 400m flat and the 400m hurdles, sunk to seventh in the hurdles afer her runner-up in the flat, with Michigan's Savannah Sutherland capturing the hurdles.
Wilson had had her left shin/calf taped all week, something she said Thursday (8 June) that she and her team had been managing.
Just like the semi-finals, Russell, who set a collegiate record of 12.36 last month in the 100m hurdles, hit the second barrier and couldn't fully recover in the final. Nugent took advantage, the Jamaica native maintaining her lead across the finish line.
Russell finished second at 12.32.
"It was phenomenal, that's the fastest I've ever felt my little tiny legs go," a beaming Nugent told reporters after. "It feels very good. I feel very pleased. I just needed to stay in my lane, stay focused and not listen to the crowd or anything going on around me and just keep going."
Russell finished with two silvers on the night: She finished second in the 400m hurdles, as well.
It was Florida's Jasmine Moore who was a favourite on the night who not only delivered but soared: The Gator set a new collegiate record in the triple jump, her 14.78m (48ft. 6in.) securing gold. That's the second-best triple jump this season internationally.
In the men's finals on Friday (9 June) night, Florida won its second consecutive national team title outdoors, needing a first-place finish in the final event, the 4x400m relay, to seal victory.
The NCAA Championships have featured a fistful of athletes that are proving to be ones to watch at next year’s Olympic Games Paris 2024.
You can find a full list of complete results here.
Birthday girl goes golden: Julien Alfred
The Texas women opened strong in front of the home crowd, soaring around the track for a victory in the 4x100 relay with a 41.60, just shy of the collegiate record of 41.55 that the team had set on Thursday (8 June).
The 1500m saw a stunning upset as Maia Ramsden of Harvard finished first with a 4:08.60 thanks to a spectacular kick in the final 150 metres. Katelyn Tuohy of North Carolina State was favoured coming in and led for much of the race, but faded towards the finish. She ended up in seventh place.
After Nugent held off Russell and third-place Alia Armstrong (LSU), who was the defending champion, in the 100m hurdles, Alfred successfully defended her 100m title with a wind-aided 10.72, the fastest all-conditions time in collegiate history.
Kennedy Blackmon (Oklahoma - 10.87) and Jacious Sears (Tennessee - 10.94) went two-three in the 100m, while Alfred won with a 21.73 in the 200m, edging past McKenzie Long (Mississippi - 21.88) and Kevona Davis (Texas - 22.02).
Alfred matched Cambrea Sturgis' feat from just two years ago, when the North Carolina A&T sprinter won both the 100m and 200m in 2021.