The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Women's Track and Field finishes third at NCAA Outdoor Championships
06.09.2024 | Track & Field / Cross Country
The Longhorns recorded their third-straight top-three performance at the NCAA Outdoor Championship.
EUGENE, Ore. – The No. 3 women's track and field program finished third in the team standings after scoring 41 points giving the Longhorns its fifth-straight season finishing in the top-10.
Saturday's finish also made it three-straight seasons the women posted a top-three finish at the outdoor meet - having won last season at home and finishing as the runner-up in 2022. In 10 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships and six seasons with coach Edrick Floréal, Texas has won two National Championships (women outdoor 2023, men indoor 2022). Texas has posted six runner-up finishes, seven top-3 performances and 13 top-10 (8 women/5 men).
The Longhorns entered the final day of the championships with 11 points after Ackelia Smith won the long jump for 10 points and Nina Ndubuisi finished eighth in shot put for one.
Smith swept the horizontal jumps, winning the triple jump with a collegiate-leading jump of 14.52m (47-7.25). She missed the NCAA Championship meet record by two centimeters but recorded the fifth-best jump in NCAA history. Her double victory made her the first Longhorn in Texas history to win both at the same championship meet and first to win the triple jump since Terri Turner in 1986. Smith has now scored 38 team points in the last two outdoor championships.
Senior Kristine Blazevica earned her fourth third-place finish at the NCAA Championship meet after finishing with the bronze medal in the heptathlon. She entered the second day of competition in sixth but climbed three spots after a season-best mark in the long jump (6.07m/19-11), a personal-best throw in javelin (43.82m/143-9) and ran the 800-meter in 2:14.01.
Freshman Akala Garrett later scored five points after finishing fourth in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 54.84 seconds to earn USTFCCCA First Team All-America honors.
The two-time defending 4x100-meter relay champions finished the season in seventh with their time of 43.06. Carleta Bernard, Kevona Davis, Kenondra Davis and Dejanea Oakley earned First Team All-America honors after scoring two team points for the Longhorns.
Olivia Howell later finished eighth in the 1500-meter run with her time of 4:10.05 to score one team point and earned first team honors for the fourth time in her career, first with Texas.
Texas finished the competition with a third-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay and a time of 3:23.68 – a season best and the fourth-fastest time in school history by Lauren Lewis, Ziyah Holman, Garrett and Kenondra Davis.
Longhorn Scorers:
Ackelia Smith – long jump, triple jump – 20 pts
Kristine Blazevica – heptathlon – 6 pts
Lewis, Holman, Garrett, Kenondra Davis – 4x400 – 6 pts
Akala Garrett – 400mH – 5 pts
Bernard, Kevona Davis, Kenondra Davis, Dejanea Oakley – 4x400 – 2 pts
Olivia Howell – 1500m – 1 pt
Nina Ndubuisi – Shot put – 1 pt
Players Mentioned
