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Saturday NCAA Viewer’s Guide: Women’s Championship Finals

By Jesse Squire

June 10, 2017

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Today is the final day of men’s competition at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Below is everything you need to know about who, what, when, why, and how to watch the meet.

Key links
Live results
ESPN3 coverage
Live twitter coverage via yours truly

The Schedule
Here is today’s meet schedule in visual form (click for larger version). Pink indicates that it’s all women’s competition today.

Video coverage is via ESPN3 from 2:30pm until 6:30pm (EDT), and the evening finals will be shown live on ESPN.

Who is going to win the team competition?
Oregon is going to win this unless they suffer an implosion of historic standards. They have not yet scored but have fourteen qualifiers today, eleven of which are guaranteed to score as long as they reach the finish line. It’s essentially inevitable.

First place is not the only one that matters, though. The top four teams win trophies, and who will win the other three is very much up in the air. USC, Arkansas, and Georgia are the leading candidates but there are others who could make a run at it. Below is a chart of those teams and their entries (click for larger version). Colorado is one more team that could win a trophy if they have a strong series of results in the distance races.

EVENT PREVIEWS

Heptathlon
Start lists and live results
Barring injury, Georgia’s Kendell Williams will win her third NCAA heptathlon championship. Second place looks like it could be close. While Kansas State freshman Nina Schultz is currently in fifth place, her strengths lie in today’s events and she could move up to second. Arkansas has a strong trio in Payton Stumbaugh, Taliyah Brooks, and Leigha Brown, and the Hogs should score some big points here. Wichita State’s Nikki Larch-Miller barely qualified to the NCAA Championships but is having a great meet and just might end up on the awards stand. Below is a summary that shows each athletes’ PRs in the second-day events and how the final standings might play out.

High Jump
Start lists and live results
The favorites are Georgia’s Mady Fagan and Tatiana Gusin–they took the top two spots at the NCAA Indoor Championships–so the Bulldogs have major scoring potential here. The best mark of the outdoor season is 1.90 meters (6′ 2.75″) by UNLV’s Kaysee Pilgrim, but it’s a bit of a one-off performance; her second-best career jump is 5cm short of that. Logan Boss (Mississippi State) and Stacey Destin (Alabama) are two more to watch. Kentucky has an outside scoring chance with Ellen Ekholm.

Discus
Start lists and live results
Arizona State’s Maggie Ewen has already won the hammer throw (with a new meet record) and placed sixth in the shot put. She’s attempting her third throwing event here and is among the favorites. She is one of three women to throw over 60 meters this year, the others being Kansas State’s Shade Lawrence and Florida State’s Kellion Knib. Knob and Lawrence are the top two returners from last year’s championship, and both are undefeated this year against collegiate competition. Lurking as a possible upset is shot put champion Danielle Thomas of Kent State.

Triple Jump
Start lists and live results
The most dominant athlete in the entire meet is Georgia triple jumper Ketura Orji. She is already not just the best collegiate triple jumper of all time but the best American triple jumper of all time. She holds the collegiate record (and all of the top six jumps in collegiate history) and the American record (and all of the top three jumps in US history). She has never been beaten in collegiate competition, and her fourth place finish at last summer’s Olympics is the best ever by an American. In an event typical decided by inches or less, she’s two feet better than anyone else in this meet. In short, the competition here is for second place.

4×100 Relay

This is a race of survivors. Co-collegiate record holders Oregon and LSU suffered the dreaded DQ on the way to the championship, as did Texas A&M, Miami, and Auburn — half of the year’s ten fastest teams. It’s probably going to come down to Florida, Alabama, and Kentucky…if they can get the baton around.

1500 meters

This race matches up three former NCAA champions. Mississippi State’s Price won this event two years ago, but hasn’t performed to that level since. Sanford’s Karissa Nelson won the NCAA indoor mile this year and has backed it up with fast times outdoors. Colorado’s Dani Jones won the NCAA indoor 3000 and outran all the mile specialists to win the distance medley from behind. Oregon’s Rainsberger will probably begin the scoring onslaught. If you hadn’t already heard, sisters Christina and Danielle Aragon are racing each other.

Steeplechase

New Hampshire’s Purrier is the favorite but there are a few newcomers who could upset the apple cart. Boise State cross country star Allie Ostrander is running just her fourth steeplechase ever and already looks very good at it. Another to watch is Colorado freshman Madison Boreman, who will be running her sixth steeplechase ever.

100m Hurdles

Oregon and USC each have two finalists and should come away with a large amount of points. The clear favorite is Camacho-Quinn, the defending champion, although Amusan appears her equal.

100 meters

By their own high standards, Oregon’s Stevens and Washington ran like garbage in Thursday’s semifinals and barely qualified to the final. I’m not sure what to make out of that. The favorite is probably LSU’s Hobbs, but she didn’t run well in the semis either. Daniels is the reigning NCAA champion at 60 meters so expect her to lead early and try to hang on.

400 meters

This is expected to be a three-way battle. Wimbley and Ellis went 1-2 at the NCAA Indoor Championships while Gordon had the best semifinal. Guster will add yet more points to Oregon’s total.

800 meters

Oregon might clinch the championship right here. That would be appropriate since the 800 is where the sprints and the distances meet, which perfectly describes the profile of this Duck team. Rogers is as overwhelmingly a favorite as you’d expect from a five-time NCAA champion who holds the collegiate record.

400m Hurdles

Expect a battle between Iuel and Watson, the two fastest and most accomplished athletes in the race. USC will score big here and, if Oregon is having a terrible day, could put themselves in contention.

200 meters

Oregon’s Stevens and Washington looked much better in the 200 semis than the 100 semis, particularly Stevens who rates as the favorite. Brown is better than most people expected, since the last half of her outdoor season was run in the kind of terrible weather you get in Big Ten country.

5000 meters
Start lists and live results
Missouri’s Karissa Schweizer is the favorite. She was the NCAA champion in cross country last fall and at the NCAA Indoor Championships she won the 5000 and took second in the 3000. Only two women entered in this race have beaten her at any time in the last nine months. Those are Erin Clark (Colorado) and Peyton Bilo (Cal Poly) who beat her at the cross country Pre-Nationals in October. Oregon has yet more scoring firepower in this race with Samantha Nadel and Lilli Burdon.

4×400 Relay

This will probably just be piling on for Oregon. But in the unlikely scenario that the Ducks need to win the relay to win the meet, they have one of the best squads in collegiate history. The second, third, and fourth place trophies could be in play at this point and most of the contenders are in the race.

Jesse Squire

I was second in the 1980 Olympic* long jump. (*Cub Scout Olympics, Pack 99, 9-10 age group.)