The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Women’s Track and Field ties for seventh at NCAA Outdoor Championships
06.12.2021 | Track & Field / Cross Country
The Longhorns scored 28 points to post their highest NCAA Outdoor finish since 2016.
EUGENE, Ore. – The Texas Women's Track and Field team tied for seventh place at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships, scoring 28 points as a team at historic Hayward Field. It marks the highest finish, and scoring output, for the UT women since a fourth-place, 36-point effort in 2016.
The Longhorns opened the day in impressive fashion on the track, tallying four points in the 4x100-meter relay. Texas ran out the same quartet it has on several occasions this season, with Chanel Brissett leading off, followed by Kevona Davis and Rhasidat Adeleke, and Kynnedy Flannel anchoring the group. They clocked 43.20 – tied for the 14th-fastest time in school history – en route to a fifth-place scoring finish.
Davis returned to the track later to score one point as an individual. She did so with an eighth-place finish in the 200-meter dash, clocking a personal-best 22.78. That time leaves her just outside of Texas' top-10 performers list in the event.
Stacey Ann Williams added three more points in the 400-meter final, clocking 51.34 in the quarter-mile race. Williams also helped the Longhorns score their final four points in sprints action, as she anchored the team's 4x400-meter relay squad in the meet's last event. That group, made up by Serenity Douglas, Kennedy Simon, Adeleke and Williams, finished in 3:26.72. Their time is the eighth-fastest on UT record, and a season-best in the event.
In the women's heptathlon, Kristine Blazevica scored six points for Texas' team total with a third-place finish. Blazevica scored 5,984 points in the heptathlon, the best performance of her young collegiate career and third-best ever by a Longhorn.
The Latvian international began day two of the heptathlon on Saturday with a strong showing in the long jump, soaring 6.08m/19-11.5 to score 874 points. She added another 695 points with a big javelin toss of 41.46m/136-0. Her morning performances moved her into fourth place heading into the 800-meter run, where she ran the two-lap race in 2:13.51 to finish the seven-event competition. Her time in the 800-meter run scored 914 points and secured Blazevica's first scoring effort at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
She opened the competition on Friday by scoring 987 points with a time of 13.94 in the 100-meter hurdles before personal-best marks in the high jump and shot put competitions. Blazevica first cleared the high jump bar at 1.75m/5-8.75 to register 916 points, then launched the three longest throws of her career in the shot put. Her best mark of 13.21m/43-4.25 scored 741 points. In the 200-meter dash, the day's final event, she clocked 25.33 running into a headwind and scored 857 points.
Tara Davis provided the remaining 10 points of Texas' 28-point output with a victory in the long jump on Thursday. The Agoura Hills, Calif. native overcame her toughest test of the outdoor season to win her second NCAA title. She trailed Georgia's Jasmine Moore entering the fifth round, where Davis would jump her title-winning mark of 6.70m/21-11.75. Davis held onto her lead and won the title despite a fifth-round improvement to 6.65m/21-10 for Moore and a 6.68m/21-11 jump from Texas A&M's Tyra Gittens in the sixth and final round.
Davis' victory marked the ninth time a Texas woman or relay team swept the NCAA's indoor and outdoor titles in an event. Destinee Hooker was the last to do so, sweeping the NCAA high jump titles in 2009. The triumphant performance also caps a historic season for Davis, as she concludes the campaign with 12 of the 20 longest outdoor jumps in school history, and four the six longest in collegiate history. Her 2021 campaign saw her break both the indoor and outdoor collegiate long jump records, doing so at the NCAA Indoor Championships (6.93m/22-9) and at the Texas Relays (7.14m/23-5.25).
In her series on Thursday, Davis recorded four of the top-20 jumps on Texas record. She soared a winning 6.70m/21-11.75 (T-No. 9), 6.69m/21-11.5 (No. 11), 6.52m/21-4.75 (No. 17) and 6.51m/21-4.24 (No. 18).
This year marks the first time since 2006 that both the Texas men and women placed in the top seven at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
NCAA Outdoor National Champions
Women's Long Jump: Tara Davis
NCAA Outdoor Championships Scorers
Women's 200m: Kevona Davis (1 pt / 8th place)
Women's 400m: Stacey Ann Williams (3 pts / 6th place)
Women's 4x100m: Brissett-K.Davis-Adeleke-Flannel (4 pts / 5th place)
Women's 4x400m: Douglas-Simon-Adeleke-Williams (4 pts / 5th place)
Women's Long Jump: Tara Davis (10 pts / 1st place)
Women's Heptathlon: Kristine Blazevica (6 pts / 3rd place)
Men's 200m: Micaiah Harris (5 pts / 4th place)
Men's 800m: Yusuf Bizimana (2 pts / 7th place)
Men's 400mH: Charles Brockman III (1 pt / 8th place)
Men's 4x100m: Wasome-McCarter-Hulbin-Harris (3 pts / 6th place)
Men's Long Jump: Steffin McCarter (4 pts / 5th place)
Men's Triple Jump: O'Brien Wasome (1 pt / 8th place)
Men's Shot Put: Tripp Piperi (8 pts / 2nd place)
Men's Decathlon: Leo Neugebauer (5 pts / 4th place)
Players Mentioned
