Alfred, Nugent, Moore, Van Klinken Leave With 'Best Ever' Credentials

By David Woods for DyeStat

Photos by BERT RICHARDSON | JAMISON MICHAEL

AUSTIN, Texas – DyeStat’s top 10 performances from the women’s windup of the NCAA Championships on Saturday night:

1, Julien Alfred: Greatest college sprinter ever?

In the aftermath of Texas’ team championship, coach Edrick Floreal declared Julien Alfred is the greatest college women’s sprinter ever. There is evidence.

“I knew that this was my last year,” the Saint Lucia native said. “I wanted to go out with a bang.”

It was no theory. There was a big bang.

On her 22nd birthday, Alfred was effectively a quadruple champion in her home stadium: 100 and 200 meters, 4x100 relay, team. Her times of 10.72 and 21.73 seconds in the sprints, albeit wind-aided, are best in college history. She led off a relay team that set a collegiate record of 41.55 Thursday and won in 41.60 Saturday.

Indoors, she lowered the collegiate record five times in the 60 meters, broke the record in the 200, and ended the winter as No. 2 ever in both. She missed tying the 60-meter world record by .02.

Others to match Alfred’s quadruple were Florida State’s Randy Givens, 1984; LSU’s Dawn Sowell, 1989; LSU’s Esther Jones, 1990. Texas’ Carlette Guidry won a 100/200/4x100 triple in 1991, but the Longhorns finished second to LSU.

2, Ackera Nugent: Fastest college hurdler ever.

Ackera Nugent loses a hurdles race now and then. Lost at Texas Relays. Lost in SEC. Lost in an NCAA prelim. Lost in SEC indoors.

But in the season’s climactic 100-meter hurdles race, she was first in 12.25. Not only is it the fastest all-conditions time in college history, only five women have ever run faster. 

Nugent, a 21-year-old Jamaican, transferred to Arkansas from Baylor after last season. She did not qualify for 2022 NCAAs. Nugent was the World U20 champion in 2021.

“The main thing that really matters is a championship,” she said. “You’ve got to make sure you stay healthy between every meet and work on the important things you need to work on to get to that championship.”

Nugent had set a collegiate record 7.72 in the semifinals en route to winning the indoor 60-meter hurdles in 7.73 in Albuquerque, N.M.

3, Masai Russell a 4-time All-American.

If the Kentucky Wildcats had a couple of more Masai Russells, they would be NCAA team champions.

The 5-foot-3 sprinter/hurdler contributed to 27 of 28 points by Kentucky, which was sixth in team standings. Russell was the only athlete with four top-six finishes, and all of them were Saturday.

“I’m still standing after a long, long, long day,” she said. “But I’m glad to be finished and glad to finish where I finished. Still more work to do and things to clean up.”

Given the quality of times – 12.32 in the 100 hurdles, 54.66 in the 400 hurdles, 42.46 in 4x100 relay – Russell easily could have been a triple winner. Instead, she was second in all three, in addition to running third leg of a sixth-place 4x400 relay.

The 100 hurdles were wind-aided, leaving Russell No. 3 on the all-time, all-conditions list. Russell set a collegiate record of 12.36 in this stadium April 1 at the Texas Relays.

She is the only woman in Division 1 history to be All-America in both hurdles over three successive years.

LSU’s Alia Armstrong, who ran a windy 12.31 to beat Nugent and Russell in the SEC, was third in 12.49.

4, Jasmine Moore jumps to another collegiate record.

Disappointed not to win the long jump, Florida’s Jasmine Moore traveled 48 feet, 6 inches (14.78 meters) to repeat in the triple jump. STORY

She needed a distance that far because Texas sophomore Ackelia Smith went 47-8.50 (14.54m). Only Moore and former record-holder Keturah Orji of Georgia (47-11.75/14.62m) have jumped farther in college.

Smith defeated Moore in the long jump Thursday.

5, Jorinde Van Klinken breaks own discus record.

Dutch thrower Jorinde Van Klinken closed a tremendous college career by breaking her own discus meet record with a distance of 215 feet (65.55m). Van Klinken, who transferred to Oregon, set the previous record of 213-2 (65.01m) while at Arizona State in 2021.

“It’s really just icing on the cake of all of these years of hard work, and it’s amazing to me to end my collegiate career this way,” she said.

She is the first to three-peat since UCLA’s Seilala Sua won four in a row (1997-2000).

Van Klinken, who traveled back and forth to Florence, Italy for a Diamond League meet within the past week,  finished second in Thursday’s shot put.

In the discus, Ashley Anumba (Nigeria) of Virginia was second at 200-6 (61.13m) and Alida Van Daalen (Netherlands) of Florida third at 196-9 (59.96). Foreign throwers occupied the top six places.

6, Chirp, chirp! Ball State’s Charity Griffith and Jenelle Rogers deliver stunners.

It wasn’t Late Night with David Letterman, a Ball State graduate. It was Late Night with the where-did-they-come-from Cardinals.

After winning its first Mid-American Conference title since 2001, Ball State finished 17th at NCAAs with 14 points. 

Charity Griffith jumped three PBs, topped out at 6-4 (1.93), to win the high jump. That is 10 inches higher than she ever jumped in high school. Griffith, of Rushville, Ind., never scored in a state meet and raced from 200 to 3,200 meters.

“I’ve always had the drive to win an NCAA championship since my high school years, even though I was always such a mediocre athlete in high school,” she said. “I’ve always told myself I was going to do it.”

Similarly outrageous was teammate Jenelle Rogers of Oswego, Ill. Rogers, seeded 21st of 24 in the heptathlon, had a 351-point PB and finished fifth with 6,018 points. She led through five events before an 89-foot javelin throw, scoring about 300 points fewer than the other contenders.

7, Rhasidat Adeleke overtakes Britton Wilson in 400.

Home-track magic persisted for Texas in the 400 meters, in which Rhasidat Adeleke upset Arkansas’ Britton Wilson. Wilson held a slight lead at the beginning of the home stretch before Adeleke overtook her and pulled away.

Adeleke’s time of 49.20 was a meet record and nearly equaled Britton’s collegiate record of 49.13. Wilson, after a 49.36 in the heats, clocked 49.64.

“It was kind of a blur,” Adeleke said. “I just went out trusting myself.”

Adeleke was also on Texas’ winning 4x100 relay team. The 20-year old, who was born in Dublin to Nigerian parents, set an Irish national record. She ranks No. 3 in the world this year behind the Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino (48.98) and Wilson.

No school had won the 100, 200 and 400 in the same year since Florida State in 1984.

8, Olivia Markezich in runaway steeple victory.

Notre Dame’s Olivia Markezich allowed Greta Karinauskaite to set the early pace in the 3,000-meter steeplechase before storming to victory in 9:25.03, a 10-second PB despite the 90-degree temperature and 50% humidity.

Karinauskaite, a Lithuanian representing California Baptist, was second in 9:30.85. West Virginia’s Ceili McCabe, a Canadian, was third in 9:41.32.

Markezich climbed to No. 3 on the all-time collegiate list behind 2022 winner Courtney Wayment (9:16.00) and Olympic silver medalist Courtney Frerichs (9:24.41). Markezich is also the year’s fifth-fastest American.

She capped a momentous trio of NCAA meets, having run to eighth in cross country and second in the indoor 3,000 meters. She is the daughter of former Microsoft executive Ron Markezich, a Notre Dame runner who was 10th in NCAA cross country in 1988.

Father and daughter are All-Americans.

“That is something I have been dreaming of, and my dad is my biggest role model,” Markezich said.

Only other Notre Dame woman to be an NCAA outdoor champion was Molly Seidel, an Olympic marathon bronze medalist.

9, Michaela Rose dominates 800 meters.

LSU’s Michaela Rose had spoken about challenging the collegiate record in the 800 meters, but a pesky backstretch wind might have put a stop to that.

It did not stop Rose, who charged to the front through a 58.47 first lap. The time of 1:59.83 broke her own stadium record.

Gabija Galvydyte of Oklahoma State, representing Lithuania, was second in 2:00.47 and Claire Seymour of BYU third in 2:00.55.

Stanford freshman Roisin Willis, last year’s World U20 champion, held second until the closing 50 meters and finished fourth in 2:00.91.

Rose is the only collegian ever to run three sub-2:00 times in a year (excluding summer races).

10, McKenzie Long caps comeback with 21.88 in 200.

One year ago, this would have been unfathomable: Mississippi’s McKenzie Long becoming the third-fastest collegian ever at 200 meters.

That’s why afterward, the tears came as fast as the feet.

“I just want to enjoy this moment,” she said.

Behind Alfred, Long finished second in 21.88, with a +2.5 wind. Only collegians faster are Alfred and Kentucky’s Abby Steiner, who set a collegiate record of 21.80 last year.

On this year’s all-conditions world list, Long is also No. 2.

After last season, Long transferred from North Carolina State, where she had been for four years. She said it took 12 months to recover from May 2020 surgery for an injury so severe she was evaluated for a hip replacement. She missed the 2021 outdoor season and 2022 indoors.

Because of soreness, she nearly pulled out of the 200 here. She was ninth in the 100 in 11.13.

“Before even the 100, I was in tremendous pain,” Long said. “The whole meet was just a question.”

Long is No. 5 on the all-time, all-conditions collegiate list in the 100. She clocked 10.80 (+3.5) in this stadium at the Texas Relays.

Honorable mention

>> After North Carolina State’s Katelyn Tuohy couldn’t hold on to a lead she built, Harvard sophomore Maia Ramsden swept to victory in the 1,500 in 4:08.60. Ramsden, born in Ethiopia, has been a New Zealand junior champion. Tuohy finished seventh in 4:11.40, and indoor mile champion Olivia Howell of Illinois was eighth in 4:11.54.

>> Florida’s Parker Valby, second to Tuohy in NCAA cross country, ran to a nine-second victory in the 5,000 and clocked 15:30.57, a stadium record. Utah Valley’s Everlyn Kemboi, the 10,000 champion, was second in 15:39.57. Tuohy, the collegiate record-holder, did not start.

>> Michigan’s Savannah Sutherland beat Russell and Wilson to win the 400 hurdles in 54.45. Sutherland, a 19-year-old Canadian, was the World U20 bronze medalist in 2021. Wilson, after finishing the 400 meters just 24 minutes before, was seventh in 55.92.

>> In the heptathlon, freshman Pippi Lotta Enok scored 6,165 points to become Oklahoma’s first women’s’ NCAA champion since shot putter Tia Brooks in 2013. Another Estonian, BYU’s Anu Kaljurand, won the heptathlon in 1992, also at Austin. Vanderbilt’s Beatrice Juskeviciute, of Lithuania, was second with 6,117.

Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.