NCAA Track & Field Championships – Your Complete Preview, Matchups & Storylines To Watch

By Audrey Allen, David Melly, and Paul Snyder

Sure, the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Championships will be one to remember for the collegiate records on watch, the finishing touches being put on Bowerman campaigns, and the usual stacked competition after stacked competition. But it’s also the last hurrah in the current era of collegiate track and field, giving a nostalgic yet anticipatory feel to the meet often regarded as the most entertaining in the entire sport.

The meet will take place from Wednesday, June 11th to Saturday, June 14th. All days will air on the ESPN family of networks. Wednesday and Thursday will be broadcast on ESPN, Friday’s action on ESPN2, and Saturday’s on ESPNU. All days will be streamed on WATCHESPN.

Handy links: Men’s Start Lists / Women’s Start Lists / Live Results

Obvious Favorites

While the bulk of this preview will dive into the more unpredictable storylines and wide-open competitions to look out for this week, there’s a few athletes who’ve been dominating the NCAA ranks all season that seem to have the top podium spot already in their back pockets. 

• Men’s 100m | Jordan Anthony, Arkansas: If Anthony, the reigning indoor 60m champ and short sprints king of the SEC, can run 9.75w while closing up shop early, it’s hard to picture someone tarnishing his undefeated 100m campaign this year—even South Florida’s Abdul-Rasheed Saminu. Plus, a wind-legal race and this week’s stage might give Christian Coleman’s 9.82 eight-year-old collegiate record a scare.

• Men’s Discus | Mykolas Alekna, Cal: As ironic as it is to ask, will the world record holder finally get his NCAA title? While Oklahoma’s Ralford Mullings is the second best ever, the 22-year-old Lithuanian holds 16 of the 18 best performances in collegiate history, including three performances this year that are 2+ meters better than anyone else on that same list. We didn’t need a 72.12m bomb at West Regionals to know that his consistency has improved drastically since his last collegiate season in 2023, and it’s smelling like that championship curse will be broken in two days time.

• Women’s Pole Vault | A Moll (Not A. Moll), Washington: Now we aren’t calling which twin is going to get the title, but it’s no surprise who the top two favorites are. Amanda is still the WORLD leader with her indoor collegiate record of 4.91m, and holds the No. 1 and No. 2 outdoor marks in Division I, while Hana has No. 3 and No. 4. They’ve both proven the ability to shake off early misses and won’t get rattled if the high bars and higher expectations don’t go perfectly according to plan.

• Women’s Steeplechase | Doris Lemngole, Alabama: The odds are looking pretty good as three of the eight all-time 9:20-and-belows have been run by Lemgole, this year, all solo. West Virginia’s Ceili McCabe might have gotten her over the flat 3000m indoors, but the defending outdoor champion feels untouchable when barriers are involved, even with BYU’s Lexy Halladay-Lowry going all in on the steeplechase this championship season. 

• Men’s 400m Hurdles | Nathaniel Ezekiel, Baylor: We don’t need to pull out the numbers to prove just how good Ezekiel is. (Just watch him!) But if you are a statistics stickler, Ezekiel is over 0.5 seconds faster than anyone else in the NCAA this year after his 47.89 from Big 12s, and it would take a Caleb Dean-esque breakthrough to take him down.

Top Athletes + Storylines

Sprints 

Men’s 200m: Five Guys isn’t just for stacked burgers, it’s also for stacked 200m fields! For this variety, the ingredients are Auburn’s Maka Charamba, Tennessee’s T’Mars McCallum, USC’s Garrett Kaalund, Kentucky’s Carli Makarawu and the aforementioned Anthony. The first four ran well below 20 seconds at their regional meets, but it’s possible that the Razorback’s latest performance in 20.20 might’ve been the most eyebrow-raising. In just about the opposite fashion from his 100m, he coasted out of the blocks and around the bend before powering down the home straight to do the bare minimum to punch his ticket. Anthony just might be untouchable if he puts the two together for his two races this week. Don’t take that as disrespect towards Charamba’s windy 19.79 or the pair of wind-legal 19.8s from McCallum and Kaalund. Anthony is just that good. 

Women’s 200m: If there’s one name most prominent in the short sprints headlines this season, it’s South Carolina’s JaMeesia Ford. She’s excelled in the 100m this year, including earning SEC gold, but the half-lap is her bread and butter. Her 22.01 from conference weekend is a step or two ahead of the rest of the country. However, the Gamecock isn’t invincible on the national stage after falling to McKenzie Long at this meet last year and a 3rd-place finish during the indoor season. USC’s Madison Whyte and Dajaz Defrand, Texas A&M’s Jasmine Montgomery and TCU’s Indya Mayberry all posted fast times at Regionals and proved they have the legs to run with Ford. This race is shaping up to be one of the best in collegiate history. 

Women’s 400m: The 2024 400m season was always going to be a tough act to follow, and while we haven’t quite reached those same heights in 2025, the encore is still a show worth tuning in for. Georgia’s Aaliyah Butler appears to be the clear favorite given that she’s the only woman under 50 seconds outdoors, but she could be challenged by a rising Kaylyn Brown. The Arkansas star has been steadily improving this outdoor season, and she currently sits as the third-fastest athlete in the nation. She’s not one to overlook, especially if being back in Hayward triggers her muscle memory from a runner-up, 49.13-second finish last June. You also can’t count out Butler’s teammate Dejanea Oakley, or Zimbabwean record holder Vimbayi Maisvorewa of Auburn. 

Distance

Women’s 800m: LSU’s Michaela Rose might be the favorite on paper, but will have to flip the script of how her past NCAA appearances have gone to come out on top this week. It feels wrong if she ends her career with only one national title (at 2023 NCAA Outdoors), but it sure is possible against six other members of the sub-two club, including this year’s indoor champ Makayla Paige of UNC (hopefully in a stumble-free race), BYU’s rapidly ascending Meghan Hunter, and Stanford’s Roisin Willis, who’s never one to count out on the national stage, especially after breaking 2:00 for the first time in over two years the other week at regionals. 

Men’s and Women’s 1500m: If trackflation is seen in any event group, it’s the 1500m. 2025 has welcomed seven of the 14 fastest men and six of the 10 fastest women in NCAA history. Now they’re all going head-to-head. Just to put it into perspective, that makes up half (or more) of the starting line for the final. Georgetown’s Abel Teffra took the title indoors—can he back it up with a title in Eugene? The women’s side is guaranteed to have a bit of a different fate, given that Oregon’s Wilma Nielsen is out of the picture this outdoor season. But the Ducks still have a strong field to keep the top podium spot in the family with Klaudia Kazimierska not just back, but better post-injury and her teammate Şilan Ayyıldız possibly hungry to reassert her dominance after her collegiate mile record was given a scare by high school wunderkind Jane Hedengren last week. Looking back over at the men’s starting list, it will be fun to see a reigniting of UNC’s Ethan Strand and Virginia’s Gary Martin’s championship rivalry over the distance they both forwent during indoors. There’s honestly too many names to write about, so what will serve as the separator in a field like this?

Men’s and Women’s 5000m and 10,000m: We’re trying to figure out what’s bigger than just a broom, but left with lack of a better term we must ask ourselves: can New Mexico mega-sweep the 5K and 10K titles on both sides? With the two fastest 10K runners in the world this year, Ishmael Kipkurui and Habtom Samuel, and Pamela Kosgei, who’s run the 2nd-fastest steeplechase, 5K, and 10K in collegiate history, making up six entries on the starting lists, it’s a fair question. Defending 5K champ Parker Wolfe was forced to hang up his argyle-d spikes early, so the biggest threats to a Lobo 1-2 in the shorter of the two events will be UNC’s Ethan Strand (post-1500m), Villanova’s Marco Langon (not post-1500m), and Wake Forest’s Rocky Hansen in the men’s race, and NC State’s Grace Hartman in both of the women’s races. 

Jumps

Women’s Long Jump: NCAA Indoor champion Alexis Brown of Baylor hasn’t lost an outdoor competition all season and has twice jumped 7 meters (once wind-aided), something no one else in the field has done this year. Short of a major upset, she’ll be favored to win her second title this year.

Men’s Triple Jump: Oklahoma’s Brandon Green is No. 2 on the overall U.S. list this year, ahead of nine-time national champion Donald Scott (so far). When it comes to collegiate competition, his 16.94m season’s best is 40 centimeters clear of the field, and the two guys who beat him indoors both haven’t competed this outdoor season. He’s close to a lock as he’s jumped farther than every other NCAA athlete in every one of his five competitions this season.

Women’s High Jump: Indoors, Georgia’s Elena Kulichenko and Texas Tech’s Temitope Adeshina tied for the title, and their rematch should be just as thrilling. Adeshina hasn’t lost a competition indoors and out all year, but Kulichenko is the defending champion outdoors and has a habit of showing up big when it counts most. This two-woman battle could easily come down to misses, so don’t miss a single attempt.

Throws

Women’s Discus: The battle between Louisville’s Jayden Ulrich and Florida’s Alida van Daalen might be one of the best head-to-heads of the whole week. Ulrich is the 2nd-best in collegiate history after throwing 69.39m in Ramona earlier this year and van Daalen is currently sitting at 6th all-time with five performances over 65m throughout her collegiate career. The Cardinal came out on top at regionals, but that was far from the Dutch Gator at her best after fouling the first two throws of the series. If both women are dialed in for their matinee matchup on Saturday, it will be a legendary duel.

Men’s Hammer: Unless things go totally off-script here, the title should go to a Greek athlete representing the University of Minnesota. Angelos Mantzouranis is the NCAA leader and currently sits at No. 8 in the entire world this year, thanks to a 78.61m heave. Should Mantzouranis have an off day, his countryman and fellow Golden Gopher Kostas Zaltos is right behind him on the NCAA form chart and at No. 15 in the world this year, having thrown 77.91m. 

Team Titles

Women: Last year, the Arkansas sprint juggernaut powered the Razorbacks to a team title, but this year, they’ll need their deep 200m/400m bench to overperform to be back in the mix. Instead, SEC rival Georgia looks favored based on their widespread point capacity, with entrants in five field events plus a strong sprint squad of their own. Their SEC team title was a promising indicator, as their primary rivals for the title come from the same conference—namely, Georgia, Texas A&M, and Florida. If a non-SEC rival plays spoiler, it’ll likely be the Trojans out of USC, though their sprinters will need to exceed expectations as well.

Men: The battle for the men’s team title lacks a clear favorite, but several of the usual suspects—Texas A&M and USC—ought to be in contention. A&M will rely on a mix of sprints, the 800m, and pole vault for its points, while USC is all in on sprints and jumps. But given that 41 team points was enough to win it all last year, it wouldn’t take much for another squad to swoop in and claim victory. South Florida will look to do just that, and secure the school’s first ever NCAA track and field team title off the strength of its formidable sprinting crew. Though unlikely, New Mexico could conceivably win, too, if Kipkurui and Samuel do in fact go 1-2 in both their events, and steepler Mathew Kosgei puts a couple points on the board.

If you can’t make it to Eugene, fear not—we’re ready to bring the NCAA magic into your living room and phone screens! The CITIUS MAG team will have boots on the ground for live coverage, written recaps, and athlete interviews. Make sure to follow all the action on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky, and Threads for updates, and subscribe on YouTube for all our videos.

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