Hall is one of three Gators to capture individual crowns with heptathlon victory, including Diggs delivering again in 400, with Moore sweeping long jump and triple jump to secure first women’s outdoor championship; Steiner runs collegiate 200 record 21.80 and Armstrong triumphs in 100 hurdles

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

EUGENE, Ore. – In her last appearance at Hayward Field nearly a year ago, Anna Hall wasn’t able to finish one event of the women’s heptathlon after enduring a navicular bone injury following a scary fall in the 100-meter hurdles at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Hall returned to the facility for the NCAA Division 1 Championships, and she and her Florida teammates were the last ones standing Saturday to capture the first women’s outdoor title in program history.

RESULTS | INTERVIEWS | PHOTOS by Chuck Aragon

Abby Steiner of Kentucky watched last year’s event on television at home while rehabilitating an Achilles’ injury.

Steiner made her long-awaited debut at Hayward Field a memorable one, not only achieving the feat of being the only athlete at the meet to compete in four finals, but capping her schedule with two of the must-see moments of the championships by achieving a collegiate record in the 200 meters and producing the fastest overall split in the 4x400-meter relay for the victorious Wildcats.

And LSU’s Alia Armstrong rebounded in inspiring fashion from a false start in the NCAA indoor 60-meter hurdles final in March to triumph Saturday in the 100-meter hurdles championship and secure her first career title.

Resilience and perseverance were demonstrated by several champions throughout the four-day meet, but Armstrong, Hall and Steiner were three of the most inspiring examples, all leading their respective teams to podium finishes.

Hall dominated the heptathlon with 6,385 points, becoming the first collegiate female athlete in history to achieve three performances of more than 6,300 points in the same season, completing the 800-meter race in 2:21.23 less than 20 minutes after placing second in the 400-meter hurdles final in 54.76 seconds.

Hall’s title completed an hour stretch for the Gators that included Talitha Diggs winning the 400 crown in a lifetime-best 49.99 seconds to complete a sweep of indoor and outdoor championships and equal the No. 5 all-time collegiate competitor, followed by Jasmine Moore securing the triple jump title with a 46-11.75 (14.32m) performance to become only the second female athlete in NCAA history to win the indoor and outdoor long jump as well as the indoor and outdoor triple jump championships in the same year.

Sheila Hudson of Cal was the first to achieve the feat in 1990.

Those performances, along with Parker Valby placing second in the 5,000, Imogen Barrett finishing fourth in the 800, Sterling Lester placing fifth in the heptathlon, Natricia Hooper securing sixth in the triple jump and Vanessa Watson earning seventh in the 400 hurdles helped the Gators grab the team title with 74 points.

Texas took second with 64 points, Kentucky was third with 50 points, with LSU and Texas A&M finishing tied for fourth with 39 points.

Florida became the fourth school in Division 1 history to sweep men’s and women’s outdoor titles in the same meet, along with the sixth women’s program to capture both indoor and outdoor championships in the same year, all under the guidance of coach Mike Holloway.

Steiner was a huge presence in Kentucky being capable of duplicating its podium finish from the Division 1 indoor final in March in Birmingham, Ala.

In her final collegiate competition, Steiner ran 21.80 seconds to eclipse the collegiate record of 21.96 set earlier this season by LSU’s Favour Ofili.

It was one of two collegiate records achieved Saturday, along with Courtney Wayment of Brigham Young clocking 9:16.00 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, leading the deepest all-time field in an NCAA final.

NCAA CHAMPION COURTNEY WAYMENT PUSHES WOMEN'S STEEPLECHASE TO NEW LEVEL by Doug Binder

Steiner, a two-time Division 1 indoor 200 champion who achieved both NCAA and American records in February with her 22.09 effort at the Southeastern Conference Championships at Texas A&M, ascended to the No. 8 all-time outdoor competitor for the U.S., as well as ranking 21st in global history.

She also ran a 48.92-second split on the third leg to give Kentucky the lead, one the Wildcats wouldn’t relinquish on their way to capturing the first 4x400-meter relay title in program history with a 3:22.55 effort.

Kentucky ran a collegiate record 3:21.93 with its May 14 performance at the SEC Championships in Mississippi, as Karimah Davis, Dajour Miles and Alexis Holmes joined Steiner on the 4x400 lineup again Saturday.

Steiner also took third in the 100-meter dash final in 11.08 and contributed to the Wildcats placing second in the 4x100 final in 42.55, accounting for 20.5 points and four All-America first-team honors.

Armstrong ran 12.57 in the 100 hurdles final, edging USC’s Jasmine Jones in 12.66, capturing the first title in the event for LSU since 2000.

Kentucky’s Masai Russell became the 12th female athlete in Division 1 history to achieve All-America first-team honors in both the 100 hurdles and 400 hurdles in consecutive years, taking third in the 100 hurdles in 12.81 and fourth in the 400 hurdles in 55.83.

Arkansas’ Britton Wilson produced the first 400 hurdles crown in program history by clocking 53.86 and added a 49.55-second split on the 4x400 relay to lift the Razorbacks to a third-place effort in 3:23.69.

North Carolina State’s Katelyn Tuohy made it two straight 5,000-meter titles for the Wolfpack, winning in her Hayward Field debut in 15:18.39 to follow the championship captured last year by former teammate Elly Henes.

It marked the first time since Oklahoma’s Monique Ecker and Kay Gooch won titles in 1992 and 1993 that a school won back-to-back 5,000 championships with different athletes. Laurie (Gomez) Henes, now the Wolfpack coach, won the 5,000 title in 1991 for North Carolina State.

Arizona State’s Jorinde Van Klinken, representing the Netherlands, repeated as discus throw champion with a fifth-round performance of 203-11 (62.16m) to emerge victorious against Kansas’ Sasha Emilianov, representing Moldova, and her 191-9 (58.44m) effort.

Van Klinken became the only Arizona State female athlete to repeat as champion and the first competitor to secure consecutive NCAA titles since Texas A&M’s Shelbi Vaughan in 2014-15.

Sintayehu Vissa of Ole Miss, representing Italy, produced a timely surge in the final 150 meters to get past Colorado’s Micaela DeGenero in the 1,500-meter final by a 4:09.42 to 4:09.62 margin.

DeGenero edged Vissa at the Division 1 indoor championship meet in March, with the Italian competitor becoming the first female athlete in program history to prevail in the 1,500 final.

Christina Aragon of Stanford took third in 4:10.00, becoming only the fifth female athlete to earn All-America first-team honors four times in the 1,500 in NCAA history.

Texas A&M’s Lamara Distin, representing Jamaica, followed her indoor high jump crown in March by winning the outdoor title with a 6-4.75 (1.95m) clearance on her first attempt, before missing on three opportunities at 6-6.75 (2.00m). Distin cleared 6-3.50 (1.92m) to triumph at the Division 1 indoor final in Alabama.

Distin became the first Texas A&M female athlete since 1989 to win the outdoor high jump crown. Zarriea Willis of Texas Tech was the last female competitor in 2019 to capture the indoor and outdoor titles in the same year.

Texas’ JuJu Alfred, representing Saint Lucia, won her first career 100-meter crown and the first for the program since 2009 by an 11.015 to 11.020 margin against Oregon’s Kemba Nelson, which followed the Longhorns achieving the 4x100 relay title, as Kynnedy Flannel, Rhasidat Adeleke and Kevona Davis contributed to the victory in 42.42 seconds, the first for the school since 2006.

Boise State’s Kristie Schoffield became only the third female competitor in program history to win a Division 1 championship in any event, rallying with a 62-second final lap to prevail in the 800 final in a personal-best 2:01.09, with Villanova’s McKenna Keegan (2:01.71) and Oklahoma State’s Gabija Galvydyte (2:01.76), representing Lithuania, finishing second and third.