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Katelyn Tuohy, Britton Wilson Take On Bold Doubles At NCAA Champs

Katelyn Tuohy, Britton Wilson Take On Bold Doubles At NCAA Champs

Britton Wilson can become the first woman to win the 400m & 400m hurdles at the NCAA Championships, while Katelyn Tuohy goes for the 1500m/5000m double.

Jun 6, 2023 by FloTrack Staff
Katelyn Tuohy, Britton Wilson Take On Bold Doubles At NCAA Champs

Earlier we previewed the men’s competition at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Austin Texas. Next, the women where the fields are filled with superstars like Katelyn Tuohy, Britton Wilson, Jasmine Moore, and Julien Alfred across a variety of events. .

In the team competition, Texas is the huge favorite to take the top spot on their home track. 

FloTrack will have on-site coverage from the meet and a special Saturday morning edition of the FloTrack Podcast. 

Let’s dig deeper into the women’s competition with some important numbers to watch over the next few days in Austin.

100 points

The Texas women have a realistic shot to hit the century mark in the team score. The Longhorns are projected to get 95, well ahead of Arkansas’ projected 52. Texas is sprint heavy (three projected scorers in the 100m and three in the 200m), but they are not sprint exclusive. Look for them to also get points in the heptathlon, both horizontal jumps, the 800m and potentially the shot put. 

The battle for the podium will be much tighter. After Arkansas, Florida (49 points) and Oregon (43 points) round out the top four, but NC State (35 points), Nebraska (32 points) and USC (32 points) aren’t far behind. 

10.75 seconds

Julien Alfred has looked ready to break this mark since indoor season when she broke her collegiate record in the 60m week after week. It would be fitting for it to take place on Alfred’s home track and at the site of Sha’Carri Richardson’s record run in 2019. 

Alfred’s personal best of 10.81 comes from last year’s Big 12 Championship. This outdoor season she’s run 10.72 and 10.74, but both were wind-aided. The best indication that she’s ready is her run a West Prelims when she went 10.83, the fastest wind-legal time in the nation. 

Since Alfred is the overwhelming favorite the focus will be on the time, particularly because a mark in the 10.7s means you are in the hunt for global medals. 

Alfred is also the top seed in the 200m and her 21.91 is not too far off Abby Steiner’s collegiate record of 21.80. If one record goes on Saturday night, they both might go.

8 national titles

Florida jumper Jasmine Moore will try to win her seventh and eighth national championships this weekend. Moore is a perfect six-for-six since transferring to Florida, sweeping the long jump and triple jump at the last two indoor championships and last year’s outdoor championships. 

Though she lost this year in the triple jump, she’s still the prohibitive favorite in that event. The long jump is where she will be pushed. Ackelia Smith of Texas has jumped over seven meters this year (7.08m) and has looked impressive all season. Moore has the second best jump of the season, a 6.98m leap from the middle of April. Obviously, she has championship experience in droves and it will take something great to beat. 

These two women battling on the runway will be one of the highlights of the action on Friday night. 

25 minutes

Britton Wilson’s history-making double comes with an extra degree of difficulty. There’s only 25 minutes between the women’s 400m and the women’s 400m hurdles. That’s the bad news. 

The good news is Wilson is so good that she is still the favorite to win both races. 

The 400m comes first, an event where she holds the collegiate record (49.13) and has broken 50 seconds four times this outdoor season. This is also the event that features the hardest competition. Rhasidat Adeleke (Texas) finished second to Wilson indoors and is coming off her lifetime best of 49.54. 

In an ideal situation, Wilson wouldn’t want to empty the tank in this event, but it is the NCAA Championships so she’s likely prepared to go hard to the line. She’s had many attempts at this double in 2023, though none with this little amount of rest and, of course, none on a stage this big. 

She has room for error in the 400m hurdles with a season best almost two seconds better than the next fastest competitor. The challenging part will be to get to the line recovered enough to run a 400m hurdle race in 54 seconds. That would be slower than her lifetime best of 53.08, but likely enough to win unless someone comes out of nowhere with a massive personal best. 

8,000 meters

Katelyn Tuohy of NC State will try to navigate the 1500m and 5000m on her way to winning two more national titles. Tuohy is on a nice win streak–she’s won the last four NCAA Championship races she’s been in. That dates back to last year’s NCAA Outdoor Championships when she won the 5000m, the first NCAA title of her career. 

She’s upped the difficulty level for this year, adding in the 1500m, which comes with a prelim on Thursday and a final on Saturday. Add it all up and it’s 8,000 meters of running over three days. 

On Saturday, she will have around 100 minutes between the finals of the 1500m and the 5000m. In the 1500m, she’s the top seed with her 4:08.29 from this spring. However, she did split a 4:06 on the way to her NCAA record in the mile indoors in February. She’s not listed as the top seed in the 5000m, but that’s only because her 15:03.12 at the Track Fest didn’t count toward NCAA qualifying. 

Similar to Wilson, Tuohy’s more challenging event should come first. The West Prelim had five women run 4:08 in Sophie O’Sullivan (Washington) Mia Barnett (UCLA), Klaudia Kazimierska (Oregon), Simone Plourde (Utah) and Maddy Elmore (Oregon). Indoor champion Olivia Howell (Illinois) and Oregon’s Izzy Thornton-Bott will also be in the mix. 

The 5000m looks to be a bit more straightforward. Florida’s Parker Valby was second to Tuohy at the NCAA Cross Country Championships and won the SEC title. Those two combined for a memorable race on the grass in Stillwater and might do something similar under the lights in Austin. 

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