NCAA Championships: Christopher Morales Williams Headlines Sprints
NCAA Championships: Christopher Morales Williams Headlines Sprints
The NCAA Outdoor Championships arrive next week at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. Here, we examine the top storylines leading into the sprint events.
We're a little over a week out from the epic finale of the college track and field season.
Are you ready?
The NCAA Outdoor Championships, set to be held from June 5-8 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, are jam-packed with superstars in all disciplines. Whether it's the four men under 10 seconds in the 100m, or the four Arkansas women under 50 seconds over 400m, there is a little bit of everything for everyone.
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We will be breaking down all the disciplines over the next few days.
Here are three women and men in the sprints that are going to make some noise next weekend at NCAAs.
Brianna Lyston, Louisiana State University
Events: 100m/200m/4x100m
The defending NCAA champion at 60 meters has had a successful past couple of weeks, winning her first SEC outdoor title, as well as clocking a pair of lifetime bests in the 100m and 200m.
Last weekend, she punched her ticket to Eugene in three events, including the 100m and 200m and the 4x100m.
Lyston is clearly one of the top sprint names to watch, as she's one of only two women to run a wind-legal time in the 100m that's under 10.85; she's also one of the few to break 22.4 over 200m.
LSU is the third-fastest 4x100m team this spring, so it's very well possible Lyston heads back to Baton Rouge with three pieces of hardware.
McKenzie Long, University of Mississippi (Ole Miss)
Events: 100m/200m/4x100m
Since making the transfer from North Carolina State to Ole Miss, McKenzie Long has collected three All-American honors, her most impressive being the runner-up finish in the 200m last June.
Lyston will have her hands full, as Long will square up against the LSU star in each of her three events.
This year, Long matched her runner-up finish on the indoor oval. She's also run 22.03 for 200m and 10.92 in the 100m this month alone, making her the top collegian in the former discipline and the fourth-fastest among all collegians.
She'll also run a leg of the 4x100m next weekend at Hayward Field.
Jadyn Mays, University of Oregon
Events: 100m/200m/4x100m
If there was ever a track and field venue to truly have home field advantage, Hayward Field would be the one.
The junior from Oregon has come incredibly close to earning individual All-American honors, but over the years she has come up just short.
This time around, Mays has reached a whole new level of confidence and has solidified her spot amongst the top sprinters in the country.
In March, she finished third in both the 60m and 200m at NCAAs and most recently won SEC and NCAA West Regional titles in the 100m and 200m.
She ranks inside the top 10 nationally and with the hometown crowd behind her, the sky's the limit for Mays.
Shaun Maswanganyi, Universityof Houston
Events: 100m/200m/4x100m
Throughout his time as a Houston Cougar, Maswanganyi has tallied six individual first-team All-American honors, with half of those being top-three finishes.
He's also been apart of two All-American 4x100m relay squads as well.
It's safe to say the senior has already had a storybook career while wearing the red and white, but a national title has eluded him.
In a collegiate sprint landscape with a lot of talented underclassmen -- including his own teammate, Louie Hinchcliffe -- Maswanganyi has something in spades that most others do not: experience at the NCAA Championships.
That alone could be the deciding factor for the senior's final outdoor championships.
Christopher Morales Williams, University of Georgia
Events: 400m/4x400m
After running an unofficial world record in the indoor 400m (44.49) in February, Morales Williams has been untouchable.
Whenever there is a lot on the line, the sophomore doesn't miss a beat.
Since his world-leading time, he's won an SEC 400m title, as well as the NCAA Indoor national 400m title.
He heads into NCAAs as the sixth-fastest collegian of all time and if he can shave off just six-hundredths of a second, he'll be the fifth-fastest collegian in history, as well as the fifth ever to ever break 45 seconds.
For a guy that has perfected the art of championship racing, don't be surprised if the clock reads 43 as he breaks the tape.
Tarsis Orogot, University of Alabama
Events: 200m/4x100m
The Ugandan sprinter is not only the fastest collegian over 200m in 2024, but he's also the fourth-fastest man in the world this year.
Tarsis Orogot ran a wind-legal time of 19.75 seconds at the SEC Outdoor Championships in Gainesville, which was the third-fastest time in collegiate history.
Needless to say, he's pretty darn good.
In Eugene, he'll be solely focused on the 200m and 4x100m.
With four consecutive All-American finishes in the 200m over the last four NCAA championships and the confidence of being the top seed in the field, Orogot's dream of winning gold could finally become a reality.
FloTrack Will Be Live On The Ground In Eugene For NCAAs
Make sure to keep it locked on FloTrack throughout the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, as FloTrack will have in-depth coverage of the meet, including live and social media updates, interviews, commentary and more.
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FloTrack Archived Footage
Video footage from each event will be archived and stored in a video library for FloTrack subscribers to watch for the duration of their subscriptions.
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