Day Two:

Women’s Long Jump: Not Easy for Jasmine Moore! | Thursday @ 9:00 p.m. CT

The long jump is getting spicy! The heavyweight champ, Jasmine Moore, will have some great competition amid her triple jump on Day Two. She is coming in with a combined 14 NCAA and SEC titles to her name. Can Jasmine defend her NCAA title and become Ms. 15-for-15?! Ackelia Smith, a sophomore at the University of Texas, comes in ranked #1 in the NCAA with a massive 7.08m jump so she might have a word. – Jasmine Todd

Day Three:

Men’s 1500m: Joe Waskom’s Tough Title Defense | Friday @ 8:12 p.m. CT

We’ve got three different scenarios with three different winners – and excuse me for being an Andy Powell Homer, but he knows how to get it done.

If it’s fast – we’re talking 3:35.5 or below – OK State’s Fouad Messaoudi has the best finishing speed at that pace. But he’ll have to control the race from the front over the final 600m to stay out of trouble. This has me particularly interested because he’ll have to fight University of Washington’s Indoor Mile Champion Luke Houser for pole position, and he won’t give it up easily. That’s how he won NCAAs after all. Unfortunately for these two, the forecast predicts 97-degree weather in Austin for the weekend and I don’t think anyone is committing to that type of pace when the track is giving off heat shimmers, especially after a prelim.

If we get a kick-fest from a 3:40 and slower race, it has to be the University of Washington’s Joe Waskom. That’s how he won the 2022 Outdoor NCAA title and he’ll be right at home if everyone walks off the start line. I am a little concerned about his Pac-12 performance, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he was recovering from an Andy Powell six-week training block. There was never a week where I felt more like garbage than at Pac-12s (my best finish ever was third) but that was all by design because NCAAs was the only thing that mattered. [Editor’s note: Mac’s highest ever finish at NCAAs was first – twice.]

Now if anything in between those two scenarios plays out, I think that’s University of Washington standout Nathan Green's Goldilocks zone. He’ll commit to any pace and has the wheels to pass people over the final straightaway. He made some tactical errors at NCAA Indoors but seems to have learned from them, as demonstrated by his convincing wins at Pac-12s and West Regionals. Maybe most importantly, Green has momentum and confidence right now, two things that are a necessity on the starting line.

One last thing to note: most of these guys have similar 400m ability and that means whoever runs the shortest distance while kicking is most likely to win. Line-to-line, lane one is 400m, lane two 407m – that could be the difference between finishing first or sixth. – Mac Fleet

Men’s 800m: Incredible Depth | Friday @ 9:14 p.m. CT

There’s a lot of depth in the 800m and no clear favorite, but there are a few guys who stand out.

Yusuf Bizimana enters with the fastest seed time of 1:45.82 and will be looking to defend his indoor national title in the 800m. He also picked up a win at the Big 12 Championship over an impressive field. Momentum is on his side and if the race goes fast from the gun, it could favor Bizimana.

Another guy to watch is Navasky Anderson. Anderson was second at NCAAs last year and finished first at Indoors before a DQ. He has been fairly quiet this outdoor season and skipped his conference meet, but with that kind of experience and national meet success, it’s easy to see him factoring in.

And finally, you all know that I have to mention Will Sumner in this preview. The Georgia freshman has found his groove over his past few races and looked especially good at the SEC Championship where he picked up a PR of 1:46.20 and a win over multiple NCAA qualifiers. He may be young and lack the championship experience of his competitors, but Sumner has shown he can compete with the best.

I also feel that EKU’s Ahmed Kadri deserves a shoutout for somehow attempting the incredible 800m and 3000m steeplechase double. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone even race that combo in one meet before, much less qualify for nationals in both! No matter what happens in his races, Kadri is already my winner of the weekend. – Gary Martin

Men’s 5,000m: Three 13:11 Runners Will Battle | Friday @ 9:55 p.m. CT

There isn’t a clear favorite for the men’s 5,000m either – while Washington's Brian Fay has been one of the most consistent runners this season and currently holds the collegiate lead for the outdoor 5000m, many others have individual NCAA titles and faster personal bests for the distance. Stanford’s Ky Robinson, NAU’s Nico Young, and Tennessee’s Dylan Jacobs have all run 13:11 for the 5,000m, and are likely to challenge for the win.

Brian Fay’s closing speed as a 3:52 miler makes him a compelling favorite to win the 5,000m, but Ky Robinson has the momentum of winning his heat at West Regionals in his favor, plus international race experience to bolster his confidence. And Dylan Jacobs, who won the NCAA Indoor 5,000m earlier this year, has to like his chances heading into the race, too. A tactical race would be an ideal scenario for Fay, but if the race goes out hot, we might see a battle between Robinson, Jacobs, and Young. – Jasmine Fehr

Men’s 4x400m: Title and Record Watch | Friday @ 10:21 p.m. CT

The men’s 4x400m relay is a completely different event than it was a few years ago. Five of the eight fastest times in collegiate history have been run in 2022 or 2023, with Florida’s NCAA record of 2:57.76 and the #2 (Alabama) and #4 (Georgia) marks coming this spring. Sub-three minutes used to be a rarity, but these days you could run in the two-minute range and not even crack the podium. We’ve never seen a sub-2:57 on the collegiate level, but this weekend could change that.

The final event of the meet also stands to have serious implications for the team title. Georgia and Florida finished 2nd and 3rd indoors and with Florida attempting to defend its 2022 outdoor title, the championship could very well come down to who gets the stick around four laps of the track the fastest. And with USAs around the corner, it’s also a second peek at potential Worlds team contenders like Florida’s Ryan Willie and Georgia’s Matt Boling and Elijah Godwin. – David Melly

Day Four:

Women’s 1500m: Tuohy vs. the Field | Saturday @ 8:12 p.m. CT

Katelyn Tuohy is the heavy favorite (and rightfully so) in the 1500m, but this season has shown that there are a number of women who can challenge her and maybe even steal the title. The eight fastest women in the field all enter with season’s best times of 4:08 and all rank within the NCAA’s top 25 all-time at the distance. Eight of the top 25 all-time running in the same field! That’s not even including Olivia Howell, this year’s NCAA Indoor mile champion, who has run 4:10. Although Tuohy may be the headliner, the rest of this field is just as worthy of your attention; there are multiple women due for big breakouts, and perhaps no distance runner in recent NCAA history has had a bigger target on their back than Tuohy. – Gary Martin

Women’s Steeplechase: A Wide-Open Race? | Saturday @ 8:24 p.m. CT

It’s been a rarity over the last few years that there isn’t a heavy favorite in the women’s steeple. Between Courtney Wayment, Allie Ostrander, and Courtney Frerichs, since 2015 there has usually been little ambiguity about who will win this particular race. The major exception was Mahala Norris’s 2021 surprise victory via a late kick, with 1.1 seconds separating 1st and 4th place.

This year, there’s no clear favorite, although the NCAA regional meet may have changed the odds somewhat. California Baptist University’s Greta Karinauskaite (also of Lithuania) ran 9:26.88 at the West Regionals, knocking eight-plus seconds off her prior NCAA-leading time and landing her at #5 on the NCAA all-time list. But one race does not guarantee a championship. Behind her, there are four women who have run between 9:39 and 9:40 this season. And that’s not counting the top returner from last year, Kayley Delay (formerly of Yale and now a grad transfer at Washington) or last year’s third-placer, Ceili McCabe of West Virginia.

It’s possible that Karinauskaite runs away with it and this preview ends up looking very silly, but I’m hoping for a close, competitive race with a serious battle over the final laps, if for no other reason than it’s a bit of a rarity on the NCAA level these days. – David Melly

Women’s 100m hurdles: Clash of the Titans | Saturday @ 8:42 p.m. CT

In this event, we’re fortunate to be watching not one, but two all-time greats in the event. SEC champ Alia Armstrong is coming to the meet with a 12.40 personal best (12.31 wind-aided), which puts her at #3 on the NCAA all-time list, and any other year she’d be the heavy, heavy favorite. But she has to go through NCAA record holder Masai Russell of Kentucky first.

Russell has a busier weekend on tap, as she’s entered in both the 100m hurdles and the 400m hurdles, as well as the 4x100m relay (Armstrong is running just the high hurdles and the relay). Russell handled the same substantial workload in the preliminary round and still beat Armstrong, albeit not head-to-head. Over their careers, Armstrong has the head-to-head advantage in finals, four to one, but it’s anyone’s guess who will come out on top. Either way, it feels like Russell’s two-month-old NCAA record is living on borrowed time. – David Melly

Women’s 100m: A 10.8 Winning Time? | Saturday @ 8:52 p.m. CT

This event is going to be HOT. I think the winning time will be 10.8, but if the wind picks up to +3 or faster, we could see a 10.7. One thing Texas’s track is known for is producing fast sprint times. Windy or not, the times should not disappoint. Eleven women have gone sub-11 this season. I believe the favorite coming in is Julien Alfred, who ran 10.83 at the NCAA West Regional. However, her Texas teammate Ezinne Abba (10.98 PB) is the person I could see taking her down. My dark horse pick? Watch for Ole Miss’s Mackenzie Long, who has been flirting with a sub-11 all season long. – Jasmine Todd

Women’s 400m: 48 Seconds To Win | Saturday @ 9:02 p.m. CT

To win the women's 400, you MUST go 48! You tell me a field made up of two American record holders, along with the Irish record holder, is not about to result in the fastest 400m race this season? Crazy if you think that! I call Arkansas star Britton Wilson winning this one, but Florida’s Talitha Diggs and Texas’ Rashidat Adeleke are gonna apply pressure on her early in that race. – Katelyn Hutchison