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Report13 Mar 2022

Ross attacks world record, Steiner and Stark secure NCAA indoor success

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Randolph Ross on his way to 400m victory at the NCAA Indoor Championships (© Kirby Lee)

Randolph Ross came within 0.05 of the world indoor record to win the 400m at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, on Saturday (12).

The 21-year-old, who last year sped to a world-leading 43.85 to win the outdoor NCAA title, produced an incredibly well-controlled run. He covered the first lap in 21.09 to reach half way in first place, then gradually pulled away from his opponents to stop the clock at 44.62, winning by more than a second from Jenoah McKiver (45.65) and Emmanuel Bamidele (45.78).

Ross, who represented the USA in the 400m at last year’s Olympics and won gold in the 4x400m, now moves to third on the world indoor all-time list behind Michael Norman’s 44.52 (which couldn’t be ratified as a world record) and Kerron Clement’s world indoor record of 44.57.

Two weeks after her 22.09 at the SEC Championships to become the second-quickest ever women’s indoor 200m runner, Abby Steiner ran the second-fastest time of her career behind that North American indoor record to retain her NCAA title. After 22.45 in her heat, she returned to run an NCAA Indoor Championship record of 22.16 ahead of Favour Ofili with 22.50 in the final.

Only Merlene Ottey with her world record of 21.87 from 1993 has ever gone quicker than Steiner in the event.


Trey Cunningham set his fifth PB of the year to win the men’s 60m hurdles title. The Florida State student dashed to a lifetime best of 7.38 to win by a quarter of a second from teenager Leonard Mustari (7.63).

The 23-year-old, who finished third at last year’s NCAA Indoor Championships, now moves to equal 11th on the world indoor all-time list. Only world record-holder Grant Holloway has gone faster than Cunningham this year.

Similarly, only one other athlete tops the season list in the women’s event ahead of Grace Stark, following her dominant 7.78 PB win in Birmingham. The 20-year-old now sits second this year behind Danielle Williams with 7.75, and her 7.78 equals the collegiate record.

The day before, Stark had improved her PB to 7.83 to win her heat.

Talitha Diggs had a breakthrough 400m run to win the women’s title over two laps, clocking 50.98 in the first of the two finals. Kennedy Simon was second in that race in 51.46, while Stacey-Ann Williams finished top in the second final, clocking 51.49.

Jasmine Moore completed a jumps double in style, breaking her own collegiate record in the triple jump with an outright PB of 14.57m. The 20-year-old, who competed in the triple jump at the Tokyo Olympics, won the long jump title the day before, leaping 6.57m.

Ayden Owens produced a sensational run in the final discipline of the heptathlon to make up a 152-points deficit and take the title.

Kyle Garland held the overnight lead, thanks to strong performances in the long jump, shot put and high jump. Leo Neugebauer, the early leader, was always close behind and trailed Garland by just 33 points going into the 1000m. Owens, meanwhile, was fourth overall at that point, but a storming run of 2:31.55 – his third PB of the day – elevated the Puerto Rican from fourth to first with a score of 6211.

Garland finished second with 6200 from Neugebauer (6148) and Andrei Iosivas (6069).

There was no stopping long-time leader Anna Hall in the women’s pentathlon. After setting a PB of 8.25 in the 60m hurdles, she moved into the lead after the high jump and built up a 62-point lead ahead of the final discipline. The 20-year-old rounded out her series with a 2:08.75 clocking for 800m, giving her a winning score of 4586.

In a competitive men’s shot put final, Turner Washington retained his title, though he was pushed all the way by Adrian Piperi.

Piperi took an early lead with 21.19m, then Washington responded with 21.27m in round two. Washington then improved in round three to 21.65m – the second-best mark of his career and just eight centimetres shy of the championship record. Piperi, meanwhile, improved to 21.23m in round four and was temporarily bumped down to third after Jordan Geist threw 21.27m. But Piperi responded moments later with 21.39m, followed by 21.58m in round six to finish within seven centimetres of Washington’s winning mark.

In contrast, Jorinde van Klinken was a dominant winner of the women’s shot put title, throwing an outright PB of 19.08m to win by more than a metre.

In the men's high jump, Vernon Turner was just a single centimetre off his 2018 PB with 2.32m to take the title.

Abdihamid Nur was the standout performer in the men’s distance events. The Northern Arizona University student won the 5000m title on Friday in a championship record of 13:19.01, then took the 3000m title 24 hours later in 7:59.88. In a high-quality 5000m race, the top four athletes finished inside the previous championship record.

On Saturday the women’s 3000m was won by Taylor Roe in 8:58.95 ahead of Katelyn Tuohy (8:59.20). Tuohy had also finished second in the 5000m the day before, running 15:30.63 behind Courtney Wayment’s 15:30.17.

Julien Alfred broke the collegiate record in the heats of the women’s 60m, clocking 7.04, but she went on to finish fifth in a close and competitive final.

Melissa Jefferson pulled off a shock victory in a big PB of 7.09 from Steiner (7.10) and Jadyn Mays (7.11). Hurdles specialist Stark was fourth in 7.13 and Alfred fifth in 7.15.

The men’s 60m was recalled at the first time of asking, though most of the athletes didn’t hear the recall gun and continued to the finish with Davonte Burnett reaching the finish first in an unofficial 6.52. When the race properly got under way, a determined Burnett once again was first to finish, this time stopping the clock at an even quicker time of 6.50. Rikkoi Brathwaite was second in 6.52.

Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics

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