Texas standout and St. Lucian 100m and 200m national record holder Julien Alfred opened her 2023 indoor collegiate season with a 23.10 effort to win the 200m at the University of Louisville Cardinal Classic at the Norton Healthcare Sports and Learning Centre.
Jamaica's Kevona Davis, also of Texas, was second in 23.57 while their teammate Lanae Thomas ran 23.65 for third.
The time was also a new facility record for the St. Lucian who is coming off a phenomenal 2022 season in which she won 100m titles at the Caribbean Games and NCAA Championships.
She also took 100m silver at the Commonwealth Games and became the NCAA record holder in the indoor 60m.
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Record-breaking Jaydon Hibbert wins SEC Freshman Field Athlete of the Year and Field Athlete of the Year awards
Jaydon Hibbert continues to rack up accolades in only his first year at the University of Arkansas. On Wednesday, the record-breaking Jamaican was named SEC Outdoor Freshman Field Athlete of the Year and Field Athlete of the Year.
He becomes the first freshman to claim both field event honors since Mondo Duplantis of LSU in 2019.
The previous Razorback to sweep both awards was pole vaulter Andrew Irwin in 2009.
Other Arkansas Freshman Field Athlete of the Year include jumpers Nkosina Balumbu in 2006 and Tarik Batchelor in 2009. Razorbacks named Field Athlete of the Year include jumper Alain Bailey in 2009 and decathlete Ayden Owens-Delerme in 2022.
Hibbert, who also claimed the SEC Indoor Freshman of the Year accolade, broke the triple jump collegiate record by nearly 0.3m in winning the SEC Outdoor title on his second attempt in the competition.
The former Kingston College athlete’s mark of 17.87m bettered the field by more than a metre while his opening round effort of 17.02m would also have claimed the victory. In addition to breaking multiple records, four of which were set in the 1980s, Hibbert moves to equal 13th on the all-time world list, matching the career best mark by Olympic gold medallist Mike Conley from 1987.
Hibbert is the Number 2 performer with the Number 2 performance on the Jamaican all-time list, trailing only the 17.92m by James Beckford from the 1995 NJCAA Championships in Odessa, Texas.
On the Arkansas all-time list, Hibbert surpassed two of Conley’s marks that were both set in winning the 1985 NCAA title in Austin, Texas. A wind-assisted 17.71m and a wind-legal 17.54m.
His awards were among five titles won by the University of Arkansas.
Coach of the Year went to Chis Bucknam, Jaydon Hibbert collected a pair of awards – Field Athlete of the Year and Freshman Field Athlete of the Year – while Ben Shearer was named co-Freshman Runner of the Year.
Coach of the Year went to Chis Bucknam, Ben Shearer was named co-Freshman Runner of the Year and Ayden Owens-Delerme was named Co-Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Texas's Julien Alfred (10.83) secures spot in 100m field at NCAA Championships; Arkansas's Ackera Nugent (12.69), Texas Tech's Roswell (12.77) advance in the sprint hurdles
Texas’s Julien Alfred will have a chance to defend her NCAA Outdoor 100m title after securing her spot in the field on the final day of the NCAA West Regionals in Sacramento on Saturday.
The 21-year-old St. Lucian, who won the NCAA Indoor 60m and 200m double earlier this season, sped to a meet record and collegiate leading time of 10.83 to comfortably be the fastest qualifier to the Championships set for June 7-10 on her home track at the University of Texas's Mike A. Myers stadium.
Her Jamaican teammate, Kevona Davis, also made it through the preliminaries with an 11.06 effort.
The Texas duo also made it through in the 200m with Davis running a season’s best 22.33 and Alfred running 22.45.
Arkansas’s Ackera Nugent, a two-time NCAA Indoor Champion, ran 12.69, a new meet record to advance fastest in the sprint hurdles. Her countrywoman, Texas Tech’s Demisha Roswell, also made it through with a season’s best 12.77.
Arkansas’s Nickisha Price and Joanne Reid both advanced in the one-lap event with personal best times of 50.49 and 51.49, respectively.
In the field, defending NCAA high jump champion, Lamara Distin of Texas A&M, easily cleared 1.85m to secure her opportunity to defend her title. Texas’s Ackelia Smith, world leader in the long jump, also booked her spot in the field for the triple jump with 13.96m.
Meanwhile, at the East Regionals in Jacksonville, Ohio State’s Yanique Dayle and Kentucky’s Anthaya Charlton made it through in the 100m.
Dayle, the Jamaican Senior, produced a big personal best 11.05 while Charlton, the Bahamian Freshman, produced 11.08 (2.3 m/s) to advance.
Dayle also advanced in the 200m with a season’s best 22.58 while LSU’s Brianna Lyston also made it through with 22.92.
In the field, Georgia’s Vincentian Junior, Mikeisha Welcome, jumped 13.50m to make it through in the triple jump.
Hibbert named USTFCCCA National Male Athlete of the Week after mammoth 17.87m winning effort at SEC Championships
Arkansas superstar freshman Jaydon Hibbert has been named as the US Track and Field and Cross- Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Male National Athlete of the Week.
The 18-year-old Jamaican demolished the World U20 record as well as the collegiate outdoor record in the triple jump this past weekend at the SEC Outdoor Championships when he produced a wind-legal 17.87m on his second attempt.
That added nearly one foot to the previous collegiate record of 17.57m, set by Keith Connor of SMU back in 1982.
Hibbert is now the holder of both the indoor and outdoor collegiate triple jump records. He shattered the collegiate indoor record in a winning effort at the NCAA Indoor Championships back in March when he jumped 17.54m.
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