USTFCCCA News & Notes
NCAA DI Women’s Events & Athletes to Watch on Conference Championships Weekend
NEW ORLEANS – This is it: The last weekend of competition in NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field until the NCAA Championships March 13-14 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
What better way to lead into the national championships than with the always-exciting conference championship weekend? It’s the weekend during which athletes compete for more than just qualifying standards and personal bests. Team glory is on the line.
So much is happening this weekend that we’ve split our overview of the action into men’s and women’s articles – the latter of which you’re reading right now.
The women’s team battles will be fantastic across the country. In the SEC, No. 1 Arkansas will do battle with No.2 Georgia, No. 3 Florida, No. 7 Texas A&M and No. 9 Kentucky. In the Big 12, it’ll be No. 4 Texas against No. 6 Kansas State and No. 8 Baylor.
For a full breakdown of where teams are ranked nationally entering the conference championships, check out the National Team Computer Rankings released earlier this week.
Below, we break some of the most intriguing events that will play crucial roles in those conference championship meets, in chronological order. Plus, we add some more individuals to watch who may not have the strongest match-ups but are attractions in their own right.
We can’t get to everything, so be sure to check out USTFCCCA’s Conference Championships Central for the low-down on all the conference meets this weekend.
The best part? Nearly all of it will be streamed live on the internet. Check out our weekend broadcast schedule breakdown for the list of what’s going on this weekend, and each individual event below includes the time and a link to its live broadcast, if available. Not all events will be streamed.
SEC Women’s Pentathlon
Friday starting at 10:15am ET (Scheduled to conclude at 5:20pm)
LIVE VIDEO | LIVE RESULTS | Start Lists
Georgia’s Kendell Williams is the collegiate record holder, defending national champion and world junior record holder in this event, but there’s one line missing from her resume: an SEC indoor title. That honor last year went to Mississippi State’s Erica Bougard, the 2013 national champion in this event.
Williams, who has set PRs in the hurdles, shot put and long jump components this season, may lead the descending order list with 4609 to Bougard’s 4419, that gap could be deceiving. Scoring the career-bests in each of the five components, the two are virtually equal (4709 for Williams, 4712 for Bougard), so it will come down to this: who can string together the better five-event performance on Friday?
SEC Women’s Pole Vault
Friday starting at 1pm ET
LIVE VIDEO | LIVE RESULTS | Start Lists
What would a weekend preview be without mention of the Year of the Vault? The women’s vault at Kentucky features four of the top nine women in the country, but the big story will be if the latter three can step up and join Arkansas’ Sandi Morris (and Stephen F. Austin’s Demi Payne, more on her in a bit) as the nation’s elite vaulters. Georgia’s No. 4 Morgann Leleux, Arkansas’ No. 7 Desiree Freier and Alabama’s No. 9 Lakan Taylor will try to hang with Morris as she undoubtedly takes more attempts at the collegiate record.
Morris has momentum on her side after a head-to-head win over collegiate record holder Payne this past weekend, while Freier could have extra motivation after watching her high school indoor record fall this past weekend.
Big Ten Women’s 3000 Meters
Friday at 5:50pm ET
LIVE RESULTS | Start Lists
Sarah Disanza of Wisconsin has been full of surprises this academic year. First she shocked the running world when she finished runner-up at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in November, and then added to the shock a few weekends later with a 15:20.57 performance over 5000 meters at the Boston U Opener for the No. 3 time in collegiate history. Then, just as the track community was itching for another performance, she surprisingly disappeared for the entire indoor season save for a DMR appearance at the Armory in late January.
In her second individual race of the season, she’ll be up against NCAA XC fourth-place finisher Rachele Schulist of Michigan State. Disanza has yet to run a 3000 this season (or in her college career, for that matter), while Schulist ran a 9:07.58 in a decisive 12-second win in a dual against rival Michigan.
SEC Women’s Weight Throw
Saturday starting at 11:30am ET
LIVE VIDEO | LIVE RESULTS | Start Lists
Michael Lihrman vs. Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (see our men’s preview here) isn’t the only historic weight throw battle going down on Saturday. Collegiate leader and No. 7 all-time performer Kearsten Peoples of Missouri will square off with former collegiate leader, defending national champion and No. 11 all-time performer Brea Garrett of Texas A&M Saturday in Kentucky.
The last time these two met? That’d be two weekends ago at Arkansas when Garrett took the win by more than half a meter with a pair of throws farther than 22 meters. Peoples still only has one throw farther than 22 meters this season, but it was a monster 22.84m heave at home that propelled her to No. 1.
SEC Women’s Triple Jump
Saturday starting at 11:30am ET
LIVE VIDEO | LIVE RESULTS | Start Lists
Of all the events at all the conference championship meets this weekend, none will have more top-25 talent than the women’s triple jump at the SEC Championships with 13 ranked that high. Even so – even with six of the top eight jumpers in the country and 10 of the top 20 – the headline will be the head-to-head match-up between collegiate leader and U.S. Junior Record-holder Keturah Orji of Georgia and 2014 outdoor third-place finisher Ciarra Brewer of Florida.
The two are more than a foot ahead of the rest of the country, and dueled to a 1-2 finish on this very track in late January. The two met again two weekends ago at Arkansas, with Orji again coming out on top. Will the frosh make it three in a row against the senior? Can a loaded field that includes No. 3 Tamara Myers of Arkansas, No. 5 LeAnna Morrison of South Carolina and last year’s national indoor runner-up No. 18 Marshay Ryan of Auburn crack that top two?
MAC Women’s High Jump
Saturday starting at 2pm ET
LIVE RESULTS | Start Lists
Akron’s Claudia Garcia Jou is tied for the top high jumper honors in NCAA Division I this season after a tie-break loss to defending indoor/outdoor NCAA DI champion Leontia Kallenou a couple weekends ago at Arkansas, but she’ll have her hands full again this weekend in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, at the MAC Championships. The senior will have to contend with sophomore Dior Delophont of Kent State, who is No. 11 this year but finished third at NCAA indoors a year ago. Just four centimeters separate the two, with Garcia Jou at 1.88m and Delophont at 1.84m.
Also of note in women’s high jumping this weekend in the Great Lakes region is the Big Ten Championships matchup between two women tied at No. 3 this year in Marusa Cernjul of Nebraska and Amber Melville of Maryland. The two have both cleared 1.86m this season, and both are part of the new era in the Big Ten as recent additions to the conference.
Big 12 Women’s 60-Meter Hurdles
Saturday at 2:30pmET/1:30pm CT – Finals (Prelims Friday at 4:50pm ET/3:50pm CT)
LIVE VIDEO | LIVE RESULTS | Start Lists
The best hurdles race of the weekend might just be this Big 12 final on Saturday, as three of the top seven hurdles in the country are slated to line up against one another in a rematch of the Tyson Invitational final two weekends ago. Morgan Snow of Texas was runner-up in that race in 8.07 and Texas Tech’s Le’Tristan Pledger was third in 8.12. One runner who didn’t contest the final but ran the semifinals’ second-fastest time was Kansas State’s Akela Jones, who crossed the line in 8.17.
Snow is No. 2 in the country, Pledger is No. 5 and Jones is No. 7.
MPSF Women’s 800 Meters
Saturday at 4:15pm ET/1:15pm PT
LIVE VIDEO | LIVE RESULTS | Start List
Defending outdoor national 1500 meters champion Shelby Houlihan of Arizona State is the most decorated middle-distance runner in the collegiate ranks at present (along with Natoya Goule of Clemson). With qualifying performances in the mile and 3000 meters all but sewn up, she’s stepping down a distance to try her hand at 800 meters, an event in which she finished seventh at USA Outdoors a year ago.
She’ll be doing it against a field of underclassmen all looking to make their mark as the “next” collegiate middle distance star. Stanford’s Elise Cranny is the premier match-up, as the two have similar outdoor 1500-meter PRs of 4:10 and indoor 800 PRs of 2:06 (the latter of which are very likely to be reset on Saturday). Her teammate Claudia Saunders has an outdoor PR of 2:02.68 but has yet to click in 2015, and BYU’s Shea Martinez and Washington’s Baylee Mires are ranked No. 6 and No. 11 this year, respectively.
From the second section, watch for first-year collegians Raevyn Rogers of Oregon and Anna Laman of Stanford, who have outdoor PRs of 2:03.32 and 2:05.27, respectively.
SEC Women’s 200 Meters
Saturday at 4:25pm ET – Finals (Prelims Friday at 7:25pm ET)
LIVE VIDEO | LIVE RESULTS | Start Lists
Someone who’s very fast will be left out of the final in this event. Six of the ten fastest women in the country and 10 of the top 25 will battle for just eight spots in the final. That field includes both defending indoor national champion Dezerea Bryant of host Kentucky (back after injury problems earlier this season) and outdoor national and reigning SEC indoor champ Kamaria Brown of Texas A&M, as well as defending outdoor SEC champ Olivia Ekpone of A&M. Not to mention collegiate leader Kyra Jefferson of Florida and her top-10 teammates No. 7 Robin Reynolds and No. 8 Destinee Gause.
So far this season, Jefferson has run nearly two-tenths of a second faster than anyone else in the conference at 22.81. Brown ran 22.97 at that same Tyson Invitational and she blazed to a 22.50 just last year to win the conference.
More Individuals to Watch This Weekend
These women may not have the strongest head-to-head competition that would have put them among those top-10 events, but they are attractions in their own right.
Demi Payne, Stephen F. Austin – USATF Indoor Championships Women’s Pole Vault
After flying high to a trio of collegiate records earlier this season, Payne has found herself struggling of late with a mere 4.28m clearance in a win at the Southland Conference and a head-to-head loss against rival Sandi Morris of Arkansas last weekend. She’ll make her first East-Coast trip of the season to Boston to face off against such professionals as indoor world record holder Jenn Suhr, No. 6 American all-time Mary Saxer, and Olympian April Steiner-Bennett (the latter of whom defeated Payne this past weekend).
Texas Trio of Courtney Okolo, Ashley Spencer and Kendall Baisden – Big 12 Women’s 400 Meters
How fast will they go, and in what order will they finish? Top-ranked Okolo is a returning finalist for The Bowerman, the collegiate outdoor record holder and the defending outdoor champ in this event. No. 10 Spencer is a two-time national outdoor champion. Baisden is the No. 3 collegian this year as one of just five under 52 seconds. Can No. 12 Raena Rhone of Baylor crack that top three? Related: how fast will the Texas 4×400 relay go?
Natoya Goule, Clemson – ACC Women’s 800 Meters
Though it’s already conference championship weekend for Goule at Virginia Tech, the former NCAA indoor/outdoor champion has yet to race another collegian at her signature distance in a Clemson uniform. She’s only ran 800 meters once this year at the Armory Collegiate Invitational’s elite section, in which she set an ACC record at 2:02.78. She will face her first collegiate competition this weekend, with her top challenge coming from No. 7 Hannah Green of Virginia tech, who is seeded a full two seconds back.
Raven Saunders, Southern Illinois – Missouri Valley Women’s Shot Put
Just a frosh, Saunders has broken the U.S. Junior shot put record in each of her past two competitions, including a huge collegiate-leading heave of 17.99m two weekends ago that put her within 10 centimeters of the all-time collegiate top-10 performers list. How far will she go this weekend?
Erin Teschuk, North Dakota State – Summit League Distance Events
It could be a very busy weekend for Teschuk, who is ranked No. 4 in the mile, No. 5 at 3000 meters and has a distance medley relay team in contention for qualification to NCAAs. The preliminary start lists have her entered in four events: 800 meters, the mile, 5000 meters and the DMR. Whether she contests all four is yet to be seen, but she could accumulate a lot of points and titles this weekend.