Which Collegiate Indoor Records are in Danger in 2016?

NEW ORLEANS – Any Star Wars fans out there?

News broke this morning that the recent mega-blockbuster film Star Wars: The Force Awakens has officially become the highest-grossing movie in North American history with $764.4 million, surpassing 2009’s Avatar.

The sci-fi spectacle has shattered record after record since its release in the three-plus weeks it’s been in cinemas – not unlike the stars of last year’s collegiate indoor track & field season.

RELATED: USTFCCCA Indoor Record Book

Not so long ago (in this galaxy), eight athletes and a relay team combined to break collegiate records in their respective events a total of 14 times in track events ranging from 60 meters to 5000, and field events horizontal and vertical.

Bowerman Finalist pole vaulters Shawn Barber of Akron and Demi Payne of Stephen F. Austin topped their genders’ records four times and three times, respectively.

Omar McLeod of Arkansas (60H), Michael Lihrman of Wisconsin (weight throw), the Texas A&M 4×400 relay, Remona Burchell of Alabama (60), Emily Sisson of Providence (5000), Sandi Morris of Arkansas (pole vault), and Kendell Williams of Georgia (pentathlon) also etched (temporarily, in some cases) their names atop the record books.

With the calendar flipped to 2016 and the indoor season set to begin in earnest, which events are now officially on collegiate record watch? We’ve got a list of 10 below.

VOTE FOR WHICH RECORDS YOU THINK WILL BE BROKEN

Men’s and Women’s 60 Meters

Current Men’s Record: 6.45A – Leonard Myles-Mills, BYU (1999)
Current Low-Altitude Record – 6.48 – Leonard Scott, Tennessee (2001)

Current Women’s Record: 7.08 – Remona Burchell, Alabama (2015)

Yes, we know that IAAF World Championships co-bronze medalists Andre De Grasse of Southern California and Trayvon Bromell of Baylor have moved on to the pro ranks, but 2016 still has the potential for some very fast times.

Last year’s final was the fastest in meet history with six of the eight finalists running at least a share of the fastest time for their respective finishing places (fastest-ever runner-up, for example). Five of those six are back, as is defending national champion Ronnie Baker of TCU.

With a winning time of 6.52, Baker is part of a six-way tie for the No. 9 spot on the all-time college performers list along with last year’s runner-up John Teeters of Oklahoma State. Additionally, last year’s third-place finisher, Jalen Miller, has joined forces with Baker after transferring from Ole Miss to TCU.

Currently part of a six-way tie at No. 10 on the all-time women’s college performers list is Jasmine Todd of Oregon, with a 7.15 at altitude in New Mexico last February and at sea level in Washington in January. Todd – who incidentally is the fastest-ever third-place NCAA finisher with her 7.16A on that same track in 2014 – was third overall at the USATF Outdoor 100 meters final in 10.92 to earn a bid to the IAAF World Championships.

 The Duck junior has run between 7.15 and 7.18 five times in her young career, and her breakout summer could translate into Todd breaking well beyond the 7.15 barrier toward Burchell’s 7.08 from just a year ago.

Women’s 400 Meters

Current Record: 50.46A – Phyllis Francis, Oregon (2014)
Current Low-Altitude Record:  50.54 – Francena McCorory, Hampton (2010)

Courtney Okolo of Texas is the current collegiate-record holder in the outdoor edition of the 400 meters, and we’re sure she’d love to complete the collection with the fastest all-time indoor performance. The reigning indoor champion is currently less than a tenth of a second outside the all-time top-10 at 51.12 from last year’s NCAAs, but has dipped below 51 seconds in each of the past two outdoor seasons – including 50.03 in 2014.

A calf injury kept her out of the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2015, but she will look to bounce back in a big way in 2016.

Women’s 800 Meters

Current Record: 2:00.75 – Nicole Cook, Tennessee (2005)

Just looking at indoor PRs against the all-time top-10 list, it wouldn’t appear sophomore Raevyn Rogers of Oregon should be a part of this conversation. After all, 2:06.50 is a long way from 2:00.75. Even most of her 2015 outdoor resume would garner consideration with five performances of 2:05 or higher.

But there at the top of her TFRRS profile is her crowning achievement: 1:59.71 to win the NCAA Outdoor Championships title. The future is indeed bright for the young Rogers, who became just the fourth woman in college history to break the two-minute barrier during the NCAA season and the first frosh to do so.

We’ll now wait and see if she can realize that same potential indoors.

Men’s Mile

Current Record: 3:52.88 – Lawi Lalang, Arizona (2014)

Tony Waldrop of North Carolina ran a hand-timed 3:55.0 in 1975, and then the top of the all-time mile list remained dormant for the next three-and-a-half decades. A new standard-bearer emerged in 2009 when German Fernandez broke the record with a superior 3:55.02. Since then the record has fallen three more times in the same race –the Millrose Games’ Wanamaker Mile – in three successive years. First it was BYU’s Miles Batty at 3:54.54 in 2012, then Tulsa’s Chris O’Hare at 3:52.98 in 2013 and finally Arizona’s Lawi Lalang at 3:52.88 in 2014.

Oregon’s Edward Cheserek tried to make it four years in a row a year ago, but ultimately fell short at 3:56.43. He did, however, accomplish what none of those three could: winning the NCAA mile title in the same season they finished as the top collegian at the Millrose Games.

Interestingly enough, all three also won NCAA mile titles the year before their record-setting Wanamaker runs. Should Cheserek elect to once again run the Millrose Games mile – the meet is currently on UO’s schedule – he could look to continue that trend.

Men’s 4×400 Relay

Current Record: 3:02.86 – Texas A&M (2015)

This is another record that could be torn down just one year after it was built. Florida – rivals of the record-holding Aggies – could one-up their SEC foes with a talented group of quarter milers. The Gators have a duo of national title contenders in Najee Glass and Arman Hall to go along with All-America hopeful Nick Uruburu.

Hall and Glass have been close to the top of the mountain before, coming up just .3 shy of Texas A&M at the 2014 SEC Championships in what was then the second-fastest time in collegiate history.

Men’s Long Jump

Current Record: 8.59m (28-2¼) – Miguel Pate, Alabama (2002)

Marquis Dendy of Florida may have grabbed the jumps headlines last year with four NCAA titles in the long/triple jumps and ultimately The Bowerman Trophy as college’s top male athlete, but did you know he didn’t hold the farthest indoor long jump PR among active athletes?

That belonged and still belongs to 2014 NCAA Champion Jarrion Lawson of Arkansas, who jumped 8.39m (27-6½) at altitude in New Mexico to win the title the year before last. He came within centimeters from making it two titles in a row last year against Dendy, but came up just shy.

There’s currently a 20 centimeter gap between Lawson, the No. 4 performer in collegiate history, and record-holder Pate – a gap filled with such icons as Carl Lewis and Eric Walder.

Women’s Triple Jump

Current Record: 14.25m (46-9) – Suzette Lee, LSU (1997)

Currently at No. 10 on the indoor all-time college list after just one season at the NCAA level, Georgia’s Keturah Orji could avoid the sophomore slump in a big way. After jumping 13.98m (45-10½) during the indoor season, she followed that up outdoors with a 14.15m (46-5¼) leap at NCAAs that moved her to No. 4 on the all-time outdoor list.

With a full year of training under her belt, another such improvement isn’t out of the question for the young Bulldog.

Women’s Shot Put

Current Record: 19.22m (63-¾) – Tia Brooks, Oklahoma (2013)

At first glance, the sophomore Raven Saunders of Ole Miss – although No. 4 on the all-time college indoor performers list – is 60 centimeters (nearly two feet) from Brooks’ historic mark.

However, consider this: Saunders started her frosh campaign at Southern Illinois in 2015 with a heave of 17.16m (56-3¾). This year – her first at Ole Miss – she has already thrown 17.89m (58-8½), 73 centimeters farther, in her debut. That’s a distance she didn’t reach until within a month of the NCAA Championships a year ago.

That’s some very if-this-then-that speculation that doesn’t always pan out in reality, but it’s certainly an indication that Saunders could be in for a very special season.

Men’s Weight Throw

Current Record: 25.58m (83-11¼) – Michael Lihrman, Wisconsin (2015)

One of the most exciting events in 2015 was the chase for the weight throw record between Lihrman, Southern California’s Conor McCullough and Purdue’s Chukwuebuka Enekwechi. That trio ended up Nos. 1, 3 and 4 in collegiate history, respectively, but only Enekwechi returns in 2016 for one final season.

At 24.39m (80-¼), he has some work to do to get to Lihrman’s all-time mark, but he has a history of drastic improvements. He improved by three-quarters of a meter between his sophomore and junior seasons and nearly two meters the year before that.

Women’s Pentathlon

Current Record: 4678 points – Kendell Williams, Georgia (2015)

Last but absolutely not least, we finish with the lone indoor event in which the collegiate record holder is still active. Kendell Williams, just a junior, actually owns each of the three best scores in NCAA history – all of which are north of 4600 points. That threshold is one that she alone has surpassed.

Is it crazy, then, to say that she might not even be the biggest threat to her own record?

Williams, the outdoor heptathlon, was topped this past spring by NCAA newcomer Akela Jones of Kansas State with a performance that moved her to No. 4 on the all-time outdoor heptathlon college list. Jones posted a 4402 during the 2015 indoor regular season, but elected to compete in multiple individual events at the NCAA Championships (hurdles, long jump, high jump) instead of the pentathlon.

Based on combining career PRs in each of the five components (hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump, 800) – which we acknowledge is rarely ever how the pentathlon plays out in reality, but it’s a fun exercise on paper – it’s Jones who has the advantage in “potential” with a total score of 4923 to Williams’ 4779.

Track & field isn’t contested on paper – and combined events especially not – so it will be very interesting to see how the rivalry between these two plays out (assuming both do the pentathlon at NCAAs, which isn’t a given with both teams also in the national title hunt and hungry for any points they can get).