2018 DI NCAA Indoor Championships

Who Are The NCAA's Next Christian Coleman & Raevyn Rogers?

Who Are The NCAA's Next Christian Coleman & Raevyn Rogers?

Bowerman Award winners Christian Coleman and Raevyn Rogers left a void in the NCAA by choosing to go pro early

Jan 17, 2018 by Johanna Gretschel
Who Are The NCAA's Next Christian Coleman & Raevyn Rogers?

We're not asking the question "who's going to win the Bowerman Award next year?"

We mean, who the heck is supposed to win the men's short sprints and women's 800m this year at NCAAs? Who's going to deliver all the thrills on the anchor leg of the 4x400m?

Last year's Bowerman Award winners were special, once-in-a-lifetime talents: Christian Coleman of the University of Tennessee broke the collegiate record for 100m, tied the record for the 60m, clocked the second-fastest times in NCAA history in the indoor and outdoor 200m, plus picked up four NCAA titles as a junior.

Raevyn Rogers won five straight NCAA titles in the 800m, broke the 27-year-old collegiate record in the event, and anchored Oregon to an NCAA record-setting and team title-winning win in the 4x400m relay to clinch the first-ever program sweep of NCAA XC, indoor, and outdoor team titles.

TLDR — Coleman and Rogers were so dominant on the track that no one else had a chance to win an NCAA title in their chosen events last year. With both athletes opting out of their final year of collegiate eligibility to sign professional contracts with Nike, there's a big void to fill in this NCAA this year. 

Who might take over those top spots? 

Below, we make our best guesses with some help from the 2018 FloTrack Pre-Season NCAA Indoor Rankings.

EVENT: Men's 60m
LAST YEAR: Christian Coleman tied the collegiate record of 6.45 en route to winning the NCAA title.
2018 FloTrack Rankings
2018 TOP CONTENDERS: Jaylen Bacon, Kendal Williams, Keitavious Walter
ANALYSIS: Jaylen Bacon and Kendal Williams both return from last year's 60m final, where Bacon was third and Williams fifth. The latter, a junior for Georgia this year, is the fastest NCAA returner with a PB of 6.51. A wildcard is Alabama's transfer Keitavious Walter, who won the NJCAA title last year and owns a PB of 6.59.

EVENT: Men's 100m
LAST YEAR: At NCAAs, Christian Coleman broke the collegiate record in the prelims in 9.82, then won the final in 10.04.
2018 TOP CONTENDER: Cameron Burrell
ANALYSIS: Houston's Cameron Burrell looks like the heir apparent to Coleman after finishing runner-up to the Tennessee Vol at the NCAA outdoor 100m final in 9.93, which ties for the fifth-fastest time in collegiate history. He is the son of Houston head coach Leroy Burrell, who twice set the world record for 100m with a top time of 9.85 in 1994. 

Don't expect to see him on the collegiate scene until the spring, as he only has outdoor eligibility left, though he could potentially enter the USATF indoor championships for a chance at making the world indoor team.

Watch Christian Coleman run 9.82 to break the collegiate record in the NCAA 100m prelims:

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EVENT: Men's 200m
2018 FloTrack Rankings
LAST YEAR: Christian Coleman swept the NCAA indoor and outdoor titles; he also clocked the second-fastest times in collegiate history both indoors (20.11) and outdoors (19.85).
2018 TOP CONTENDER: Eli Hall
ANALYSIS: Houston's Eli Hall had some bad luck last year and was injured during both the indoor and outdoor seasons and has thus never competed at the NCAA championships. But a miraculous recovery saw the junior place third in the 200m at USAs and snag a spot to the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London, which he later had to concede due to, yes, injury. Maybe 2018 could be his year.

EVENT: Women's 800m
2018 FloTrack Rankings
LAST YEAR: Raevyn Rogers swept the NCAA indoor and outdoor titles for 800m and broke the 27-year-old collegiate record by one second in 1:59.10.
2018 TOP CONTENDERS: Brooke Feldmeier, Jazmine Fray, Sammy Watson, Danae Rivers, Olivia Baker, Ruby Stauber, Aaliyah Miller
ANALYSIS: The women's 800m is impossibly wide open. Oregon could easily retain the title with the likes of Brooke Feldmeier, who placed third in the outdoor final in 2:01.54, or even superstar transfer Ruby Stauber, who was fifth in the indoor final for LSU as a true freshman in 2:03.01. The only school that has two athletes with a better pedigree is Texas A&M, which boasts Jazmine Fray, who set the collegiate indoor record last year in 2:00.69 and placed fourth at NCAA Indoors, and Sammy Watson, a true freshman who enters college with a 2:00.65 best. 

Stanford senior Olivia Baker has the most experience of this crew, having made the past five NCAA 800m finals with one runner-up finish at the 2016 outdoor championship. Baylor's Aaliyah Miller looked like a lock for top three as a true freshman last year before getting injured. If she is back in form, the 2:02 performer is a dark horse for the crown. 

EVENT: Women's 4x400m
2018 FloTrack Rankings
LAST YEAR: USC won the NCAA indoor crown ahead of Oregon, 3:27.03 to 3:27.07, as both teams dipped under the collegiate record; the Ducks returned the favor outdoors with a 3:23.13 win and a 49.77 split from Rogers.
2018 TOP CONTENDERS: Texas A&M, Oregon, Florida, Miami, USC, Kentucky, Ohio State, Purdue
ANALYSIS: Relays are always tough to predict, and despite losing several key members Oregon and USC will likely be at the top of the pack again. We could see another epic anchor leg battle happening between the Trojans' Kendall Ellis and Oregon freshman Shae Anderson, who ran 51.99 in high school. 

But if we're thinking who is most likely to replace Rogers as a pure magic-maker in the 4x400m, look no further than true freshman and Olympian Sydney McLaughlin for the University of Kentucky, who split sub-50 on relays while in high school. McLaughlin has shown time and time again an ability to dig her team out of the hole for the win, although we must remember that that tactic doesn't work as well at the NCAA Division I level as it did for high school. 

Watch Raevyn Rogers anchor the Oregon Ducks to a collegiate record at the 2017 NCAA 4x400m relay final in a nail-biter vs. USC:

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