Courtney Okolo won three events at the 2015 Outdoor Big 12 Championship before her season came to a halt. She suffered an injury and could not compete at the NCAA West Regional meet, forcing her to sit out at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. As a two-time 400m national champion, this was a big loss for the Longhorns.



But Okolo is back in 2016 and will try and help the Texas women win their third straight Big 12 Championship this weekend in Ames, Iowa. The outdoor collegiate record holder over 400m and 4x NCAA Champion is the current world leader in her signature event, a blazing 51.16 set on February 6th. For Texas to complete the indoor three-peat, Okolo will need to deliver across multiple events.

Not only is her 51.16 over a full second better than the second-ranked NCAA contender, it’s THE WORLD LEAD PEOPLE. And it’s exactly the kind of performance the Longhorn senior needed to have this season after missing the 2015 post season. As a crucial member of the Longhorn 4x400m relay (she’s on three NCAA all time top 10 squads), Okolo is leading a new crop of quarter milers after losing Ashley Spencer to graduation and Kendall Baisden to a professional adidas contract. Chrisann Gordon is ranked #11 in the NCAA (52.64) in her first year at Texas and was a multiple time NJCAA Champion at South Plains College.

Watch Okolo beat Olympic Gold Medalist Sanya Richards-Ross at the 2015 Michael Johnson Classic


Though Okolo is expected to perform at the highest level for the team this weekend, her indoor season has been light thus far. She has competed in three 4x4s, a distance medley relay (with a 2:07 800m split!) and that oh so fast world lead in the 400m. This weekend she will contest in the 400m, 200m and 4x4. As the reigning 600y Champion, why make the switch from the 600y to the 200m?

Perhaps the schedule. Okolo will contest the 400m prelim at 5:10pm Friday and the 200m prelim at 7:10pm Friday. Seems fine. Saturday, however, the 400m final is at 3pm and the 200m final is 4pm, a much quicker turn-around. Last year, Okolo won the 600y (in a Big 12 record of 1:18.24) at 2:30pm and finished fourth in the 400m in 53.23… just 30 minutes later!

This year there’s more of a chance for Okolo to bring home the 400m title. And even though the 200m is not her primary event, seven other Longhorns will toe the line in the prelims with her (That is not a typo — they loaded up the 200!). And while it will be nearly impossible for the final to feature all eight Longhorns with NCAA #7 Daye Shon Roberson of Oklahoma coming in with the fastest time, Texas will be in good hands with All American Morolake Akinosun and freshman Teahna Daniels leading the charge.

With the 400m being Okolo's focus this weekend and a team title on the line, will the world lead go down on Saturday? Tune into FloTrack to find out!

Okolo's indoor PB of 51.12 comes from her 2015 NCAA Championship victory