What To Watch At The 2024 NCAA Indoor Track And Field Championships

Pack your bags and practice your accent, because we’re shipping up to Boston!

For the first time ever, the NCAA Indoor Championships will be taking place at the TRACK at New Balance, a shiny, professional affair nominally hosted by the Boston College Eagles. Indoor NCAAs is jam-packed with action as it’s half the length of its outdoor cousin, with team titles decided over only two days of competition and only 18 events per gender. 

Below, we break down all the action and the races to watch as track programs across the country hope to take down the 2023 double champions, the Arkansas Razorbacks. The Hogs enter the competition with #1 rankings on both the men’s and women’s side, but they’re followed closely by Texas Tech on the men’s side and Florida on the women’s, and with multi-event stars like Terrence Jones and Parker Valby in the mix (more on that below), one athlete could cause some major point swings.

A schedule of events, start lists, and live results can be found here. The finals of the weight throw kick off Thursday, March 7, in the evening at 6pm E.T., and track events begin Friday, March 8, at 4 pm E.T. The championships are streaming live on ESPN+ (subscription required).

Women’s Sprints

One way or another, there will be new NCAA champions in the 60m and 200m with Julien Alfred moving on to bigger and better things. With Aleia Hobbs and Mikiah Brisco dominating the U.S. pro scene, it often feels like the women’s 60m is owned and operated by LSU, but the Tigers haven’t actually won a 60m title since Hobbs’s then-NCAA record in 2018. That drought might end this year, however, with sophomore Brianna Lyston undefeated over 60m this year and entering with the top seed at 7.07. She’ll have to defeat Tennessee’s Jacious Sears, who’s run between 7.09 and 7.14 on seven separate occasions this season and has only lost to Alfred this year.

In the 200m, South Carolina freshman JaMeesia Ford has raced seven individual races this season at distances ranging from 200m-400m and won them all, often in blazing-fast time. As the NCAA leader at 22.36, she’ll likely be chasing history as much as she is racing her competition: she’s currently #4 all-time behind Alfred, Abby Steiner, and Favour Ofili but ahead of Olympic medalist Gabby Thomas. How close Ford can get to Alfred’s NCAA record of 22.01 may be an indicator of how much we’ll be seeing of the sprint star well into the summer. Other contenders include many of Arkansas’s 400m stars doubling back and an NCAA championship debut for high school phenom Shawnti Jackson (also running the 60m).

The women’s 400m is owned by the Arkansas Razorbacks currently, with five qualified athletes and the top four seeds. Brit Amber Anning is the SEC champ and NCAA leader at 50.43, but it would hardly be a surprise to see her get taken down by one of her three teammates seeded at 51.00 or faster (Kaylyn Brown, Nickisha Pryce, and Rosey Effiong). The biggest surprise would be seeing an athlete not from Fayetteville on top of this particular podium – and spoiler alert, the Razorbacks are the big favorite in the 4x400m as well. 

In the hurdles, Jasmine Jones of USC is 1/10th of a second clear of the field thanks to her 7.78 runner-up finish at the U.S. Indoor championship, but she’ll be hard-pressed to bring 10 points home to the Trojans as defending champ Grace Stark of Florida is back for more and LSU’s Alia Armstrong has been right on her heels all season. The women’s 60H stands to be one of the most hotly-contested events of the whole weekend and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Ackera Nugent’s 7.72 NCAA record get taken down one day before its first birthday if all goes well.

As mentioned, the Razorbacks will be the favorites in the relay after an astonishing four second win last year, but should they falter, three other SEC teams lurk a few seconds behind in South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas A&M.

Men’s Sprints

Texas Tech’s Terrence Jones is the defending NCAA champion in the 60m and returns to the championship with the top seeds in the 60m and the 200m. Jones only finished third in the 200m at outdoor NCAAs last year, but the two men who beat him there aren’t in the NCAA anymore. The double won’t come easy, however: Jones’s biggest threat in the 60m may be his own teammate, Don’dre Smith, who’s also run sub-6.50 this season but got beat by Jones in the process. If you like experience though, look no further than Houston’s Shaun Maswanganyi who finished fourth last year and third at the 100m outdoors. 

In the 200m, a pair of Florida Gators are seeded right behind Jones’s 20.28, with Wanya McCoy winning the SEC title in 20.29 and Robert Gregory running 20.47, 20.40, and 20.31 in three 200ms this season. The top returner from last year is Alabama’s Tarsis Orogot may be the biggest question mark in the event with only two races in 2024. The 2023 runner-up won his season opener, but then failed to make the SEC final, begging the question which side of him will we see.

In the 400m, all eyes will be on NCAA record holder (and world indoor best, archaic blocks rules notwithstanding) Christopher Morales Williams of Georgia will be looking to prove that his 44.49 wasn’t a fluke and that Canadians are a force to be reckoned with in the long sprints. With 6 other men seeded sub-45.50, though, he’ll need a performance worthy of his SEC title to claim the national championship as well. The only title that might trump Williams’ “NCAA record holder” is “national champion”, and by that I mean U.S. champion, which is the title that Arizona State’s Justin Robinson – who has won both of his races at the distance this season – holds from 2023. Robinson will be looking for redemption this year after he failed to make the NCAA final in 2023 a month winning his U.S. title.

The 60m hurdles will be a tightly contested affair, with six men seeded between 7.55 and 7.60 led by Johnny Brackins of USC, but the top returner from last year’s indoor championship, Caleb Dean of Texas Tech, and the top returner from the 110H outdoors, De’Vion Wilson of Houson, are both in the mix as well. With no returning champion in this event, the title is up for grabs and the field is wide open at the top.

The men’s 4x400m is similarly tight, with the top seven teams all seeded within a second of one another. Arkansas took the SEC title but they’re far less obvious favorites than their women teammates; the NCAA leader is Arizona State and with big points on the line, the Florida Gators always seem to come up big when it counts. This one is more of a coin toss, and the team that’s able to muster up the freshest legs at the end of a long weekend may be the ultimate victor.

Women’s Distance

These days, it feels like the NCAA is Parker Valby’s world and we’re all just living in it. The NCAA cross-country champion hasn’t raced much this winter, but she’s opted for quality over quantity: She set an NCAA record in the 5000m in December, becoming the first sub-15 collegian in history, won the SEC 3000m from the slow heat, and anchored Florida’s DMR to an SEC title as well. As the top seed in the 5000m and the No. 2 seed in the 3000m, Valby has perhaps the best shot of anyone at picking up multiple individual titles this weekend, but she’ll have to go through NCAA steeple champ Olivia Markezich first.

The Notre Dame senior hasn’t lost a race since finishing third at NCAA XC, and with 4:27 mile speed to match her 8:40.42 3000m PB, she’ll be a real threat in a kicker’s race. She’ll likely be coming off a DMR anchor leg, so she won’t be running fresh, but she’ll have 17 fewer laps on her legs than the women doubling back from the 5k. And the other big name to watch is freshman Doris Lemngole of Alabama, who’s also double-entered in the 3000m/5000m and whose 15:04.71 from February would make her the NCAA record holder if Valby hadn’t beaten her to it.

In the mile, the Gators also stand to pick up some serious points as Flomena Asekol ran 4:26.47 against the pros at BU and then picked up an SEC mile title. She’ll be hoping that a quick trip to Scotland has taken its toll on Harvard’s Maia Ramsden, the NCAA leader at 4:24.83 who just finished 10th at World Indoors representing New Zealand. But she might not even be the fastest Kiwi at NCAAs if Providence’s Kimberley May has anything to say about it. The Friar has a 4:27.85 PB from January and with a pair of Big East titles in the DMR and 3000m, she’s shown she knows how to win as well.

In the women’s 800m, LSU’s Michaela Rose might be the heaviest betting favorite of any race this weekend. Sure, the top two finishers from last year both return in Stanford stars Juliette Whittaker and Roisin Willis, but Rose hasn’t lost an 800m to a collegian since that race one year ago and she owns three of the seven fastest indoor marks of all time, including the No. 2 time of 1:59.25 behind Athing Mu’s NCAA record. Rose will likely take the pace out hot and try to drop the kickers, a strategy that has proven successful so far this year but does open the door for a super-fit challenger to shake things up on the home stretch.

The women’s DMR might sneakily be the best race of the meet, as the top eight seeds have all run top ten times (all-conditions) in NCAA history this year. Washington comes into the meet as the favorite fresh off an collegiate record three weeks ago, and they’ll try to avenge their last place finish in the event last year. Providence, who didn't even qualify for this meet last year, finished less than a second behind UW’s record at Boston University’s DMR Challenge, and will be looking for redemption across town this weekend. Both the Huskies’ and Friars’ distance stars will be all in on the relay without any individual qualifiers in 5000m and plenty of time for their milers to recover from their prelims a few hours earlier. There’s also the defending champions Stanford, who will certainly be in the mix should they choose to use the dynamic duo of Willis and Whittaker, who should have over an hour to recover after 800m prelims. And if Notre Dame can get the baton to a fresh Olivia Markezich close to the front, she’ll be damn near impossible to beat. Last but not least, don’t count out Oklahoma State. The Cowgirls had all the pieces for a title team last year but they were doomed by a dropped baton on the first handoff. Who doesn’t love a redemption arc?

Men’s Distance  

After winning two outdoor titles back in June over 5000m and 10,000m, Stanford’s Ky Robinson comes into this weekend with the top 3000m seed in the field, and his 5000m mark trails only Nico Young’s collegiate record set back in January. While Robinson’s outdoor double makes him look like the favorite to do it again in Boston, the Aussie has won only one of his six individual races this season, and will be fighting the ghosts of his disappointing performance at the indoor championships last March in Albuquerque (10th in the 3000m/7th in the 5000m). 

Young, UNC’s Parker Wolfe, and UNM’s Habtom Samuel, all top ten finishers alongside Robinson at Cross Country nationals in the fall, are also running the double. Wolfe, North Carolina’s ACC champion in the mile and 3000m, is on a four race winning streak, and his only loss to anyone else in either field was to Robinson, but that was more than three months ago, and the two have seemingly gone in different directions since. For those looking for a dark horse in the 5000m, look no further than Arkansas freshman Peter Maru. The SEC 3000m/5000m champion planned on entering the NCAA in 2021, but got the opportunity to train in his home country of Uganda with World Cross Country champion Jacob Kiplimo.

Many of the runners in the 3000m are also expected to be doubling back just an hour after the mile final on Saturday, including the top two seeds in the mile, Washington’s Luke Houser – the defending champion – and South Carolina’s Anass Essayi. Houser ran a 3:51 back in January, but has not run a mile since, and the lack of an indoor championship for the Pac-12 (or what is left of it) may leave him rusty. Essayi, on the other hand, is coming off a loss in the SEC championships to Florida freshman Parvej Khan, a hard-kicking favorite for many. Former high school sensation Northern Arizona’s Colin Sahlman comes into the race with four wins over runners in the field, a distinction shared with only the top two seeds in the field. The mile field is full of studs, including 2022 outdoor 1500m champion Joe Waskom, and Big Ten champion Adam Spencer who finished sixth in a fast Wanamaker Mile at Millrose.

In the shortest distance event, Texas’s Yusuf Bizimana comes in as the only man in the NCAA this year to run under 1:46 for 800m. Bizimana finished second both indoors and outdoors last year, but was awarded the indoor title after Navasky Anderson’s controversial DQ. The Longhorn became the NCAA record holder in the 1000m earlier this season… for about a week before Georgetown freshman Tinoda Matsatsa took down his mark. Matsatsa will be racing on the same track this weekend that he won the New Balance Nationals title on a year ago, and he’s already shown he can win on the collegiate level as well. The top of the field is rounded out with last year’s outdoor 1500m champion Nathan Green of Washington, and Handal Roban of Penn State, who finished third both indoors and outdoors last year and won the 600m at the Big Ten championships.

As for the DMR, it’s hard to forecast the race without knowing who will be racing for each school, but we know one thing. It’s going to be stacked. 2024 has been the year of the DMR with four marks on the NCAA top 10 list, plus oversized-track performances by Northern Arizona, North Carolina, and Michigan that would rank third, fourth, and seventh all-time. Those marks by NAU and UNC give them the top two seeds in the field, but with the relay scheduled less than half an hour after the conclusion of the 5000m, they might not have their anchor legs of Young and Wolfe. That plays to the advantage of Washington, whose large middle-distance stable could tap any of a wide combination of runners, and you can’t count the defending champions Oklahoma State, courtesy of Ryan Schoppe’s legendary anchor leg last year.

Women’s Field

It would be hard to imagine Texas A&M’s Lamara Distin losing the high jump competition this weekend when the only two women that have jumped higher than her this year were just duking it out at Worlds in Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Nicola Olyslagers. The 24-year-old Distin is Jamaica’s national record holder (by a wide margin) and the defending Commonwealth Games champion, so it’s safe to say she’s the favorite. Distin did lose however at NCAAs outdoors last year, and while the athlete who beat her won’t be in Boston, 1.96m jumper Temitope Adeshina will be. The 25-year-old Nigerian freshman has won all four of her competitions this year for Texas Tech and has to be the biggest threat to Distin.

There is another big favorite in the pole vault: Washington’s Hana Moll. Moll is the reigning U20 World Champion, who competed for the U.S. at the senior championships last year in Budapest and has only lost to pros this season. If the second highest vaulter in the field, Big Ten champion, Rutgers’s Chloe Timberg, has any advantage it’s that she has already won this year on the runway at the TRACK, where Moll hasn’t yet competed.

Each jumping event has a heavy favorite this year, and in the long jump it’s reigning NCAA outdoor champion Ackelia Smith of Texas. Smith competed for Jamaica at the World Championships in both the long jump and triple jump last year and has jumped over ten centimeters further than anybody else in the country every time she has competed this season, but is only contesting the long jump in Boston. If Smith is to stumble, Florida senior Claire Bryant may pounce on the chance to claim the title.

San Jose State’s Emilia Sjostrand is undefeated on the year in the triple jump and looks well-positioned to win the title. Sjostrand has made quite the leap (no pun intended) from last year, when she only finished seventh and 14th place finishes at NCAA indoors and outdoors. Anything can happen in the horizontal jumps however, and Texas Tech’s Rūta Lasmane of Latvia actually has the better PB (14.20m to 14.09m).

As for the throws, Colorado State’s Mya Lesnar – daughter of WWE star Brock Lesnar – is the top seed in the shot put after a personal-best 19.10m at her conference championship. Lesnar is undefeated on the year in the shot put, including a head-to-head win over her biggest competitor, Oregon’s Jaida Ross. Also coming off a PB in her conference championship is Jalani Davis of Ole Miss, who will be doubling after competing in the weight throw, where she has the highest seed, followed by her teammate Jasmine Mitchell, who topped Ross in their season opener. Davis’s 25.09m throw at SECs was actually her first weight throw win of the year, but it is the farthest mark in the field by nearly a meter. The next two best marks in the famously-unpredictable event come from University of Minnesota athletes Shelby Frank and Big Ten champion Annie Nabwe.

In the pentathlon, the top three finishers from last year’s meet return to do battle in Jadin O’Brien (Notre Dame), Allie Jones (USC), and Pippi Lotta Enok (Oklahoma), who also won the heptathlon outdoors. Another name to watch is Texas’s Kristine Blazevica, who improved from fifth indoors last year to third outdoors and comes into Boston as the second seed in the competition. Even if Blazevica is behind headed into the final event, don’t count her out as she ran the fastest 800m of the bunch last year with a 2:12.79 PB at altitude.

Men’s Field

Last year’s high jump champion will be defending his title in a different uniform this weekend. The rich got richer in the transfer portal over the summer when South Florida’s Romaine Beckford transferred to “Jump U” in Arkansas. Beckford is 4-0 as a Razorback, and has a head-to-head win against his biggest competition – Big 12 champion Devin Loudermilk of Kansas.

The pole vault will be a much different competition without the top four finishers from Albuquerque last year. The top returner from that meet is Kansas’s Clayton Simms who has a head-to-head victory against the top returner from last year’s outdoor championships, runner-up Hunter Garretson of Akron. The two highest marks in the field this year belong to Kentucky senior Keaton Daniel, whose only loss this season is to American record holder KC Lightfoot, and Arkansas State’s Jelmert Bradley, who has won all six of his competitions.

In the long jump, the hands-down favorite is reigning World silver medalist Wayne Pinnock of Arkansas, but it will be interesting to watch Johnny Brackins jump in between the prelims and finals of the 60m hurdles. There are two other 8.20m jumpers in the field in SEC runner-up Malcolm Clemons of Florida and Florida State’s Jeremiah Davis, who will come back the next day as one of the favorites in the triple jump with a head-to-head win over top seed Luke Brown of Kentucky. The other name to watch in the triple jump is Fairleigh Dickinson’s Salif Mane, who is undefeated on the season and naturally didn’t face much competition at the NEC championships (winning the triple jump by close to two and a half meters!)

In the shot put, it shapes up to be a two-man competition between Georgia’s Alexander Kolesnikoff, who set the collegiate lead this season at the TRACK back in January, and Mississippi’s Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan, who won the SEC title as Kolesnikoff passed on his first throw and didn’t record a mark in the competition. As for the weight throw, Harvard’s Kenneth Ikeji has won ten competitions in a row, dating back to his national title in the hammer throw last summer. Ikeji’s biggest threats stem from the southeast in Alabama’s Rueben Banks, and the man who handed Banks his first loss of the season at the SEC championships, Robinson O’Hagan, who will try to add two national titles to his conference victories.

The heavy favorite in the heptathlon is Texas’s Leo Neugebauer who made the top ten all-time list with his NCAA winning decathlon performance last summer, and followed it up with a fifth place finish at the World Championships for Germany. Neugebauer’s biggest competition now that he won’t be facing off against former NCAA rival Kyle Garland may be Big Ten champion Aiden Ouimet of Illinois, who set personal bests in six of the event’s seven disciplines en route to his conference title.

It’ll be a jam-packed weekend of track and field in Boston with both New Balance Nationals and the NCAA Championships coming up, so make sure you follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube to stay up on all the action.