What To Watch This Weekend: NCAAs, New Balance Nationals, NYC Half

By Alex Predhome

Happy Pi Day, Trackheads and Athleticos!

For your latest track fix, we have the penultimate big weekend of the indoor track and field, where the best athletes at the collegiate and high school levels are competing for national titles. This is a big one for two reasons. The first is that there are a lot of great matchups as athletes are chasing all-americans and team titles. The second is that this is a good weekend for getting ahead of the curve as a trackhead. If you like taking pride in identifying talent early before stars hit their stride at a future Olympics, then you’ll want to catch the meets this weekend. On the roads, we have another big half marathon on deck that should give fans a world-class contest and some data into how everyone’s favorite marathon runners are in the midst of their builds. 

How To Watch Track and Field This Weekend

Each week, the indoor meets get more condensed and away from the atomization of the regular indoor season (before we have to do it all again outdoors). There will be a lot happening, but you don’t have to have as many tabs open.  For this weekend, however, you’ll need ESPN+ and FloTrack (subscription required) and YouTube (subscription NOT required). 

New Balance Nationals 

This meet is historically the pinnacle of indoor track and field for high school athletes. Here we will see not only the best and the brightest, but also the future. If you’re looking to get ahead of the curve and see the next potential Grant Fisher or Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, then this is a livestream you’ll want to put on. 

This meet will showcase the titans of high school track and field. On the boys’ side, the main star of the show is Quincy Wilson, who rose to fame as he became an Olympic 4x400m relay gold medalist. On the girls’ side, one star athlete to keep an eye on is 60m national record-holder Lisa Raye, who comes into this meet with a 7.13 PB, which she set back in the Millrose Games where she recorded her only loss of the season (against professional competition). And there are the girls of Bullis School (MD)’s 4x400m relay, who have clocked the third fastest time in history with a time of 3:38.96. 

But beyond the titans, there will be generation-defining challengers. Wilson will be in one of the most anticipated matchups against national 500m record holder Andrew Salvodon in the boys’ 400m. Wilson is the favorite going into this, as he holds the indoor and outdoor 400m high school national record. However, Salvodon defeated Wilson when he set his national record, so this will make for a proper and thrilling contest. 300m national record holder Elise Cooper and U.S. #6 Dasia Reed will challenge Raye in the 60m.

Beyond that, there are also closer matchups, if you are looking for openings for breakouts and unpredictability. 7 seconds separate the top 6 teams in the boy’s 4x800m relay, led by St. John’s College with their time of 7:42.45. Eight of the top ten best weight throwers will face off in a battle for inches in the girls’ weight throw, with Vanessa Jones leading the way with a toss of 59-2. 

Regardless of the story you’re looking for, this meet has it and it will deliver. You won’t want to miss this.  

How to watch: This meet will be contested from Thursday through Sunday, March 13-16. New Balance set up a livestream for each of the days on their YouTube channel to make it easy. The start times are Thursday at 2:00pm E.T., Friday at 8:45am E.T., Saturday at 9:00am E.T., and Sunday at 9:00am E.T. 

Handy Links: Meet Schedule | Entries | Live Results 

NCAA DI Indoor Track and Field Championships

We referenced the pinnacle of high school indoor track and field, so this meet naturally represents the pinnacle of collegiate indoor track and field. It’s a similar story with the New Balance meet; it’s just further along in the pipeline. This is a good one to catch if you want to get ahead of the curve of rising talent. The champions that come out of this meet are often the stars you hear about in, say, the Olympic 1500m final for example. 

If you’re interested in team narratives, Arkansas comes in as the likely favorite on the men’s and women’s side and they will be challenged by BYU, Georgia, and Oregon on the women’s side as well as USC, Auburn, and Texas A&M on the men’s side. This context will come in handy when watching the contentious and historically fast 4x400m relays and DMRs. 

A lot of events are fairly wide open. In the distance events, we’ll see how all these record-breaking fast times from Washington and Boston University translate into long-awaited head-to-head matchups. Take the 3000m, for example. The men’s field include UNC’s Ethan Strand and Virginia’s Gary Martin, the two fastest male milers in NCAA history as well as six of the eight fastest all-time in the event. The women’s field will include BYU stars Lexy Halladay-Lowry and Riley Chamberlain, Margot Appleton of Virginia, and NCAA mile record holder Silan Ayyildiz of Oregon. We’ll also see how racing personalities play out outside of a time trial environment. In the 5000m, where NCAA XC runner up Habtom Samuel of New Mexico will face off against the strength of newly-minted Olympic marathoner Yaseen Abdalla of Arkansas and the kick of 1500m Olympic Trials finalist Liam Murphy of Villanova. Expect to see a lot of chaos and depth. If you like watching wide-open events in the sprints, you’ll want to keep an eye out for the men’s 60m. Auburn’s Kanyinsola Ajayi and Israel Okon both hold the top seeds at 6.51, but they both lost to Arkansas’s Jordan Anthony at the SEC meet.

If you’re looking to see a more dominant figure aim to cement their legacy, then keep an eye on South Carolina’s Jameesia Ford in the women’s 200m and USC’s Johnny Brackins in the men’s 60m hurdles. Ford has dominated the 200m all season as a defending champion and is back to defend the title she won as a freshman and Brackins has only lost one race all year and it was in a mostly-professional field. Alabama’s Doris Lemngole remains undefeated against collegians this season in the women’s 5000m and will aim to keep that streak going. Amanda and Hana Moll of Washington look to also maintain their dominance in the pole vault as they have season’s bests 9 centimeters above the rest of the NCAA.

How to watch: The NCAA Division I Indoor Championships will be contested on March 14-15. ESPN+ will stream the championships live starting at 9:15am E.T. Friday, March 14 and starting at 9:30am E.T. Saturday, March 15. If you can’t catch it, ESPNU will re-air the championships at 7pm on Sunday, March 16.

Handy Links: Live Results | Schedule | Accepted Men’s Entries | Accepted Women’s Entries

NYC United Airlines NYC Half Marathon

On the roads, we have the first of several half marathons happening in the Big Apple this spring. While the course will be different this year (the route goes over the Brooklyn Bridge instead of the Manhattan Bridge), the United Airlines NYC Half will maintain its historic reputation as a premier half marathon. To say this is a world-class competitive field is putting it mildly. This highly-credentialed field includes four defending champions, as well as Olympians, Paralympians, and national record holders.

The 4 defending champions to look out for are Abel Kipchumba (KEN), Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal (NOR), Geert Schipper (NED), and Susannah Scaroni (USA). Kipchumba and Grøvdal may have taken titles in 2024, but they’ll have their work cut out for them. The open divisions include challengers such as American half-marathon record holder Conner Mantz, steeplechase-Olympian-turned-road-warrior Hillary Bor, and the US Olympic marathon squad of Emily Sisson, Dakotah Lindwurm and Fiona O’Keeffe.

Schipper and Scaroni will also have to fend off a deep Paralympic field that includes 2024 TCS New York City Marathon champion Daniel Romanchuk and past NYC Half champions Manuela Schär and Tatyana McFadden.

In addition to great competition, this race is also good data on the status of the top (and future) marathoners. We have the long-awaited half marathon debuts of Olympians Woody Kincaid and Mo Ahmed, who have been eyeing the transition to the roads from their historic track careers. We’ll also see where top pros are in their build to Boston, such as the 2022 NYC Marathon champion and 2024 Boston Marathon runner-up Sharon Lokedi, 2018 Boston Marathon Champion Des Linden, and Olympian Sara Hall. 

If you want a pulse on the road racing scene, this is one to catch. 

How to watch: This race will be held on Sunday, March 16. You can watch the pro  race livestream on ESPN+ and abc7ny.com, starting at 7:00am E.T. If you’re local and prefer watching it on a TV, it’s also available on ABC New York, Channel 7 in the NY Tri-State area from 6:00am–10:00am E.T.. 

Handy Links: Live Results 

One Good Song For Your Weekend 

It’s time for some more pop in the rotation. For my fellow Little Monsters out there, “Good Gaga” is back. This is good news for F1 and potential bad news for the economy. Hope you enjoy it!

The Best of CITIUS MAG This Week: Michael Johnson on The CITIUS MAG Podcast | NCAA Indoor Championships Preview on The CITIUS MAG Podcast | What It Takes To Qualify For The NCAA Championships In 2025 | Grand Slam Track Announces Full Field For Kingston Slam | ATHLOS Returns To NYC | European Indoor Championships Recap

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