Savannah Sutherland in the 400m hurdles at the NCAA Championships (© Kirby Lee)
Michigan’s Savannah Sutherland and Alabama’s Doris Lemngole made history on the final day of competition at the NCAA Championships in Eugene on Saturday (14).
Kenya’s 23-year-old Lemngole set a personal best and world lead of 8:58.15 to win the 3000m steeplechase and smash her own collegiate record of 9:10.13 set earlier this year. This makes her not only the first NCAA athlete to break the nine-minute barrier, but she also becomes the 11th fastest athlete in the history of the event.
Racing against one of the fastest fields in collegiate history, Lemngole quickly took the lead from the start with only Lexy Halladay-Lowry of BYU able to keep pace in the first half of the race. Lemngole began to pull away with around four laps remaining and never looked back, running a 67.98 final lap. Halladay-Lowry held on for second place in a PB of 9:08.68, also dipping under the previous NCAA record. Third place finisher Angelina Napoleon moved up to fifth on the NCAA all-time list with her 9:16.66.
By retaining her steeplechase crown, Lemngole captured the fourth NCAA title of her career after winning the cross country title in 2024 as well as the 5000m title indoors earlier this year.
Sutherland made history of her own by breaking the collegiate and Canadian records in the 400m hurdles with 52.46. This mark also moves her up to ninth place on the world all-time list.
With a performance that returned her to the top of the podium after winning the title in 2023, Sutherland went out hard and maintained her lead throughout, seeming to pull away from the field after each hurdle touchdown. Her time takes almost three tenths of a second off Olympic champion and world record-holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s collegiate record (52.75). She also moves to equal No.2 in the world this year, behind only McLaughlin-Levrone and tied with world champion Femke Bol, two women who have pushed the event to new heights in recent years.
Sutherland finished seventh at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, but will surely now look to improve on that at the World Championships in Tokyo in September.
Pre-race favorite Aaliyah Butler left no doubt about the winner in the 400m as she comfortably secured her first NCAA title in a PB of 49.26. Her Georgia teammate Dejanea Oakley finished in second place and broke the 50-second barrier for the first time in her career (49.65).
Both Butler and Oakley contributed valuable points for Georgia as they went on to capture the overall women’s team title with 73 points. Though decided before the final event, they also won the 4x400m relay with Butler producing a 48.79 anchor leg split to seal the deal for Georgia.
The closest finish of the day came in the 100m where just three thousandths of a second decided the winner. USC’s Samirah Moody ran 11.14 to upset the favourite JaMeesia Ford of South Carolina, who came up for second place with the same time.
Ford earned her moment at the top later in the evening though, by taking the 200m title in 22.21 despite a strong challenge from second place finisher Madison Whyte (22.23).
After setting a championship record in the 10,000m on Thursday (12), New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei completed the distance double by winning the 5000m in 15:33.96 ahead of Vera Sjoberg (15:34.77), while the 800m saw Stanford’s Roisin Willis run a PB of 1:58.13 as she kicked her way from fourth to first place in the final metres of the race.
Washington’s Sophie O’Sullivan, daughter of 1995 world champion Sonia O’Sullivan, won the 1500m a full second ahead of the rest of the field. After leading a tightly packed race at the bell, she pulled away and gained a sizable lead as she entered the home straight. Her winning time of 4:07.94 is a PB, while Margot Appleton came up for second (4:08.99).
Another championship record fell in the discus with Fresno State’s Cierra Jackson throwing a personal best of 65.82m, while Elena Kulichenko retained her title in the high jump with a mark of 1.96m.
The pentathlon title was decided by just a few points as 2023 winner Pippi Lotta Enok of Oklahoma set a PB of 6285 to return to the top of the podium, finishing just 29 points ahead of Jadin O'Brien (6256).
Anderson Emerole for World Athletics
