Abby Steiner celebrates her 200m win at the NCAA Championships (© Getty Images)
Abby Steiner ran a world-leading collegiate record of 21.80 to win the 200m – one of four medals claimed by the University of Kentucky sprinter on the fourth and final day of NCAA Championships action in Eugene on Saturday (11).
University of Florida secured the women’s team title, completing a double following the men’s team success the day before. The women’s team performances were led by Anna Hall, who contested a unique double and won the heptathlon alongside securing a second-place finish in the 400m hurdles, and Jasmine Moore, who took the triple jump to go with her long jump win from Thursday.
For Steiner, her 200m win came 45 minutes after a third-place finish in the 100m, won by Julien Alfred of Texas in a photo finish from Oregon’s Kemba Nelson as they both clocked 11.02 (0.2m/s). Steiner was third in 11.08. Six women, led by Alfred and Steiner with 10.90, had broken 11 seconds in Thursday’s semifinals.
After equalling the NCAA Championships 200m record with a PB of 22.02 to win her semifinal on Thursday, Steiner next lined up for the 200m final and took another 0.22 off that lifetime best. Narrowly ahead off the bend, she continued to pull away from her rivals and raised her arms to the air as she glanced at the finish line clock. Her 21.80 (1.3m/s) improved the collegiate record of 21.96 that had been set by Favour Ofili in April and running in the lane next to her, LSU’s Ofili finished second in 22.05.
Around another 45 minutes later, Steiner was back on the track, helping her 4x400m squad to victory. Running a 48.92 split, she moved her University of Kentucky team from fourth to first and the quartet won the final track event on the programme in 3:22.55. Steiner had also formed part of her university’s silver-medal winning 4x100m team earlier on in the afternoon as the quartet clocked 42.55 behind the winning Texas team’s 42.42.
"I don't think it's sunk in yet," Steiner told Kentucky Track and Field. "Just looking back on the meet from last year, I was watching it from my couch, and so much has gone into just being at this meet in the first place.”
Hall was another multiple medallist. The 21-year-old, who won the US heptathlon title in May and became the NCAA pentathlon champion in March, now has two more medals to go with her collection as she claimed 400m hurdles silver midway through her campaign to become the NCAA heptathlon champion.
Anna Hall celebrates her NCAA heptathlon win (© Getty Images)
After leading the 400m hurdles semifinals with a 54.48 PB on Thursday, Hall started her heptathlon on Friday with a 100m hurdles PB of 13.15 and went on to clear 1.81m in the high jump, throw a 13.54m PB in the shot and clock a 23.13 PB in the 200m, scoring 3922 points at the end of day one.
On Saturday, she resumed with a 6.27m long jump and 42.87m javelin before lining up for the individual 400m hurdles final. There she clocked 54.76 behind Britton Wilson of Arkansas, who won in 53.86.
Sixteen minutes after that hurdles final, Hall took on the last event in the heptathlon – the 800m. Running 2:21.23, she scored a total of 6385 to win by 446 points ahead of Washington’s Ida Eikeng with a PB of 5939.
Hall's teammate Moore, meanwhile, completed a double double. After winning both NCAA long and triple jump titles indoors in March, she repeated the feat outdoors – following her 6.72m long jump win on Thursday by claiming another triple jump crown on Saturday with a 14.32m leap.
Talitha Diggs was another winner for Florida, the 19-year old breaking 50 seconds for the first time with 49.99, having earlier run a PB of 50.08 to take her semifinal. She adds that to her indoor 400m win.
Courtney Wayment moved to fifth on the US all-time list with her 3000m steeplechase performance, her 9:16.00 smashing the collegiate record of 9:24.41 set by the now Olympic silver medallist Courtney Frerichs in 2016.
Courtney Wayment wins the NCAA 3000m steeplechase title in a collegiate record (© Getty Images)
BYU's Wayment took more than seven seconds off the PB she set when finishing fourth at last year’s US Olympic Trials to win the NCAA title by more than nine seconds, Yale’s Kayley DeLay taking the runner-up spot in 9:25.08 in a race where 10 of the 12 athletes set PBs.
Katelyn Tuohy won the 5000m in 15:18.39, while Sintayehu Vissa won the 1500m in 4:09.42 and Kristie Schoffield took the 800m in a 2:01.09 PB.
Alia Armstrong followed her 12.55 PB in the 100m hurdles semifinals with 12.57 to win the final, while Jorinde van Klinken won the discus with a 62.16m throw and Lamara Distin topped the high jump with 1.95m.
