The 21-year-old defending champion ran a new personal best and championship record 6.96, the joint-fourth fastest time ever, to win heat one and advance to Saturday’s final as the fastest qualifier.
The Commonwealth Games 100m silver-medallist entered the championships as a massive favorite to retain her title as she is unbeaten in the event this season with winning times of 7.05, 7.02, 7.05, 7.00, 7.03 and 6.97.
Alfred, now the joint-fastest Caribbean woman of all time in the event alongside Jamaican legend Merlene Ottey, will be joined in the final by Jamaican Clemson senior Kiara Grant who wan 7.14 for third in the first heat.
Later, Alfred also ran 22.38 to advance to the final of the 200m. LSU's Favor Ofili was the fastest qualifier with a spectacular 22.11, the third fastest time ever behind Merlene Ottey's 21.87 and Abby Steiner's 22.09.
Elsewhere, Jamaican Arkansas sophomore Joanne Reid ran 51.98 to advance to the final of the Women’s 400m.
The 22-year-old former Alpha standout’s time was also a new ACC record, shattering Tonya Carter’s record of 7.15 seconds, which had stood for 23 years. She is also now the joint eighth-fastest Jamaican in the event.
American Marybeth Sant-Price, the World Indoor bronze medalist from last year, was second in 7.18 with Sedrickia Wynn of Texas State taking third place with a time of 7.35.
Elsewhere, Jamaican Texas Tech sprint hurdler Demisha Roswell produced a time of 7.98 seconds to finish second in the 60m hurdles.
The 25-year-old Vere Technical alum, who lowered her 100m hurdles personal best to 12.44 last season, was beaten by Kentucky’s Masai Russell who ran a collegiate record 7.75 for victory.
LSU’s Leah Phillips was third in 8.14.
Based on how well she has been training, “there is no reason why I shouldn’t break 11 seconds,” she said.
The 20-year-old Grant, a junior at Norfolk State University, ran 11.29 for second place in the 100m and 23.25 to win the 200m at the Gamecock Invitational at Gregger Park on Saturday.
“This was my opener. I could have been better but they’re okay times for an opener,” she said, “so I know what I need to fix in practice. It’s to see how I can lower my times before regionals asap.”
She has about two weeks to those regionals and she believes that is more than enough time to get the required work in. “I have two meets to get those times down. I am a lot stronger and I have been putting the background work, so with the right competition I can get my times down,” she said confidently.
Grant, who has a personal best of 11.04, said she was expecting to run 11.1 or 11.0x on Saturday and around 22.9, said running her intent to go faster is not just for regionals but for the much bigger event this summer.
“That’s the biggest goal right now. I am up for the Olympics. It doesn’t get better than that. That’s why I am working on getting my times down,” she said.
“Sha’ Carri Richardson ran 10.7, we have to do something over these next two weeks. We have to apply some kind of pressure,” she declared.
Grant, a junior at Norfolk State, a former Jamaican U20 100m record holder, clocked 7.20s in a comfortable victory over Virginia’s Halle Hazzard who clocked 7.29. The Grenadian’s teammate Jada Seaman was third in 7.37.
The final was expected to be a closer affair as the two women advanced with the two fastest times – Grant with 7.36 and Hazzard 0.01. However, Grant produced a personal-best performance to put the matter beyond doubt.
Meanwhile, Virginia’s Owayne Owens won the men’s long jump with a personal-best 7.58m, the same distance as North Carolina’s Ja’Von Douglas, who was second on the countback. Chris Alexander, also from North Carolina, was third with a mark of 7.03m.
Also among those delivering outstanding performances was Trishauna Hemmings of Clemson University and Owayne Owens of the University of Virginia.
The 20-year-old junior, who boasts a personal best of 7.20s over 60m, raced to a facility record 7.35 while winning the final at the Gamecock Opener in South Carolina on Saturday.
The former Jamaica national 100m junior record holder, beat back the challenge of Melissa Jefferson of South Carolina (7.49) and Mia D’Ambrosio of North Carolina State (7.70).
Meanwhile, Nugent, who holds the 100m hurdles World U18 record, got her collegiate career off to a winning start when she took gold in the 60m hurdles in 8.22s at the Corky Classic in Texas. Her teammate Kennedy Bailey was second in 8.33 while her compatriot Gabrielle McDonald, a senior at Texas Tech was third in 8.52.
At the Clemson Invitational, Hemmings, a senior at Clemson, ran a personal best 8.18 seconds to win her heat in the 60mh. However, she did not start in the finals.
Owens, who attends the University of Virginia, set a personal best 16.35m while winning the triple jump, at the Virginia Tech Invitational in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Together, the three Jamaicans scored 36 points that went a long way to putting the Tigers' women into the top three schools in the conference.
Grant, a senior at Clemson, won the 60m dash in 7.19 in a blanket finish with FSU’s Dajaz Defrand. The two women crossed the line together but the Jamaica was deemed to have 0.005s faster.
Georgia’s Sheleah Harris was third in 7.35.
Myrie was fifth in 7.38.
The winning time was outside Grant’s conference record of 7.11 but earned 10 points for her school. Myrie’s fifth-place finish earned two points for Clemson that finished third in the women’s championship.
Grant would add an additional four points finishing fourth in the 200m in a personal best 23.43. Her placing meant Clemson picked up 14 points from the race won by Ockera Myrie.
Myrie clocked a personal best 23.08, which broke Savannah Sutherland’s facility record of 23.66 set earlier in the season.
Dafrand won her second silver medal running 23.10 for the runner-up spot.
Halle Bieber won the bronze medal in 23.31.
Oneka Wilson, meanwhile, a freshman at Clemson, won the 60m hurdles in 8.12, a personal best that broke the facilities record of 8.20 set by Michigan’s Aasia Laurencin earlier this season.
Her teammate Antoinette Van De Merwe made it a Tigers 1-2 finishing second in 8.23s, a personal best.
Alexandra Webster of Florida State University came in third in 8.26.
In a final where three Caribbean nations – Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda and Grenada – were represented, Nelson stormed to victory, pulling away from the stacked field to produce a massive personal best that is both a meet and championship record, eclipsing the 7.07 held jointly by Oregon’s Hannah Cunliffe and LSU Aleia Hobbs.
The time, a school record, was also just 0.03 off the 7.02 facility record set by Tiana Madison (Bartoletta) in 2012.
It was also the second-fastest time in the world this year behind the 7.03 set by Switzerland’s AJla Del Ponte at the recent European Indoor Championships in Torun.
USC’s Twanisha Terry, the pre-race favourite, who went into the final with the fastest time, 7.09, won the silver medal in 7.14s.
It was a Jamaican 1-3 as former Jamaica national junior record holder Kiara Grant took third in 7.16.
Antigua’s Joella Lloyd, who two weeks ago set a new national record of 7.15 was sixth in 7.23 while Grenada’s Halle Hazzard, a senior at Virginia, was eighth on 7.27.
Nelson, 21, attended Mt Alvernia High School in Montego Bay, Jamaica and transferred to Oregon in October 2020, having spent her first three years of college at the University of Technology in Kingston.
In doing so, she became the first Jamaican-born female athlete to attend the University of Oregon, having expressed a desire to compete in NCAA-level athletics.
Having fulfilled her desire, she expressed her delight on Instagram afterwards saying, “What a way to close out the indoor season.”
