Washington State's Maribel Caicedo, Micaela De Mello Advance To Women's 100-Meter Hurdles Final 

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Photos by Logan Hannigan-Downs and Kirby Lee/Image of Sport

EUGENE, Ore. -- Parker Valby of Florida secured the first half of her anticipated distance double Thursday night at Hayward Field, breaking a meet record in the process as she won the 10,000 meters.

And Arkansas moved into position to possibly sweep the top four spots in the women's 400 meters, which would be unprecedented, when the women's NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Championships resume Saturday. 

But the feel-good moment of Thursday's second day of college track and field's biggest show was delivered by Maribel Caicedo and Micaela De Mello of Washington State. 

The Cougars' duo advanced to the finals of the women's 100-meter hurdles. That could be a poignant moment come Saturday and it's a final bold statement for a Washington State program that has been left in the lurch by realignment and the demise of the Pac-12 Conference. 

Caicedo ran 12.53 seconds for the second-fastest semifinal time behind the 12.52 effort achieved by Florida's Grace Stark. De Mello ran 12.71w for the fourth-fastest time. 

"It's exciting and we have a great team," De Mello said. "It's awesome to work with coach (Wayne) Phipps and coach Gabe (Mvumvure) together."

Caicedo, from Ecuador, and De Mello, from Brazil, will give Washington State two women in a track final at NCAAs for the first time in school history. 

In Thursday's lone track final, Valby became the first American-born woman to win the 10,000 since Molly Seidel of Notre Dame did it in 2015. She's also the first, male or female, to win the event for the Gators. 

She went to the lead with seven laps to go and pulled away from Oklahoma State's Taylor Roe and Alabama's Hilda Olemomoi to win in 31:46.09. There was some attention given to her footwear. She wore Nike Vaporfly 3 road racing shoes with spikes in them. 

It was only Valby's third 10,000 meters. In her first attempt at the distance, back in April at the Bryan Clay Invitational, she ran a collegiate record time of 30:50.43. 

Valby will try to defend her 5,000 meters title on Saturday and a victory would give her an unprecedented six NCAA victories in 12 months, including a cross country and indoor track. No one has ever swept the 3,000 and 5,000 indoors and the 5,000 and 10,000 outdoors in the same year. 

She is a potential Olympian this summer, but says she is focused on "taking life day by day right now."

"I'm focusing on today, 25 laps; Saturday, 12 and a half laps," Valby said. "And then focus on each day after that."

Olemomoi finished second in 31:51.89 and Roe was third in 32:17.45. 

An Arkansas quartet of Kaylyn Brown (49.82), Nickisha Pryce (49.87), Rosey Effiong (50.42) and Amber Anning (50.67) ran the fastest times in the semifinals and are at the heart of the Razorbacks' effort to win the team championship. 

A 1-4 sweep of the event would be worth 29 points and those four could also contribute to a heavily favored 4x400 relay for 10 more.

Ole Miss sprinter McKenzie Long seems poised to go after a sprint double after a dominating performance in the semifinals. She ran 10.91 to win her semifinal in the 100 and then enjoyed a breakthrough in the 200 meters with a 21.95 clocking that made her the third-fastest woman in collegiate history. 

The competition to reach the final of the women's 800 meters went to new levels of excellence as it required a sub-2:01 time to advance to Saturday's final. Leading the way was LSU's Michaela Rose, the defending champion, who ran 1:59.90. Indoor champion Juliette Whittaker of Stanford was the next fastest at 2:00.09.

The women's 400-meter hurdles is also shaping up to be a highlight. Rachel Glenn of Arkansas (53.80), Savannah Sutherland of Michigan (54.04) and Jasmine Jones of USC (54.20), plus Texas freshman Akala Garrett (54.44) ran the fastest times in the semifinals. Sutherland eclipsed the 2019 Canadian record of 54.32 achieved by Sage Watson at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Shannon Flockhart of Providence (4:05.99) and Maia Ramsden from Harvard (4:06.00) were the semifinal winners in the 1,500 meters. 

Notre Dame's Olivia Markezich earned a trip back to the finals of the 3,000-meter steeplechase to try and defend her title. She'll face Alabama's Doris Lemngole, who ran the fastest time of the semifinal round, 9:38.69.