Tacoria Humphrey Breaks Meet Record In Long Jump, Helps Illini Take Team Lead; Nebraska's Kalynn Meyer Fires Off Sixth-Round Winner In Discus

By Lori Shontz for DyeStat

Photos by Brynn Kleinke/Kim Spir

RESULTS | RACE VIDEOS | INTERVIEWS

When she arrived at Kentucky as college freshman in 2019, Annika Williams never expected she’d still be competing collegiately six years later.

But thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and her two-year graduate program at Oregon, there she was at Hayward Field over the weekend, competing in the heptathlon at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships.

She hadn’t competed in nearly a year, since finishing eighth at the 2024 NCAA meet. Instead, she had what she called “a long fall training.”

And it all paid off Saturday, when she won the Big Ten title with a personal best 5,914 points, joining Oregon greats Brianne Theisen-Eaton and Kelly Blair as conference heptathlon champions for the Ducks.

“This sixth year meant a lot to me,” she said. “There isn’t anything else. I don’t know if I’m going pro. I don’t know what’s the plan after. But I know right now, it’s just go big or go home. That’s all I know.”

Williams finished 63 points ahead of Illinois freshman Lucie Kienast, a German who scored 5,851 points, and 94 points ahead of UCLA senior Sydney Johnson, who also set a personal best with 5,820 points.

Williams had the lead after the first day, even though she started more slowly than she wanted, finishing eighth in the 100 hurdles. She also ended less well than she wanted with a ninth place in the 200 meters.

But experience, again, paid off.  

“In the past, you would have seen me on the sidelines crying,” she said. “Yeah, that’s pretty much just it. Crying. And once you cry, your mindset literally just drops, your energy drops.

“Positive mind, positive performance, in my opinion.”

So Williams went through her routine after the first day – a flush, cold tub, dinner and then watching a bit of Bridgerton.

“I told myself, ‘You’ve been in this position before,’” Williams said. “’You’ve always gone into day two in the lead or second, and anything can happen to anyone going into day two, especially recovery-wise. Do what you have to do. Trust your coach, trust yourself, trust your training. If everything doesn’t go as you want it, just follow up in the next.’”

Which is just what she did Saturday. She finished third in the long jump at 19-8.25 (6.00m), third in the javelin at 136-0 (41.45m) and 15th in the 800 at 2:26.75. She pointed out that she didn’t achieve any personal bests in an individual event, so she has room to break the 6,000-point barrier.

She was also pleased to get 10 team points for the Ducks and is hoping to add some more when she competes Sunday in the high jump. “We’re going for that Triple Crown,” she said.

The Ducks are sitting in fourth place in the team race with 25 points, behind Illinois (41), Minnesota (38) and Nebraska (28).

They are well positioned on Sunday with the top two qualifiers in the 1,500, the top qualifier in the 100 hurdles and the top three seeds in the 5,000. 

The Ducks also have two athletes in the final of the 800-meter final and finalists in the 400 hurdles and the 400.

In other finals on Saturday, Kalynn Meyer of Nebraska threw a PR on her final attempt to win the discus title. Her winning throw of 191-3 (58.29m) was more than 11 feet longer than any of her other attempts.

The throw was also 10 and a half feet farther than the runner-up, Anthonett Nabwe of Minnesota, who won the hammer throw Friday.

Illinois senior Tacoria Humphrey, who was recruited as a high jumper, won her second consecutive conference long jump title with a meet record of 21-7.50 (6.59m). She had also won the indoor conference title in March.

Second place went to Sydney Johnson of UCLA, who had finished third in the heptathlon earlier in the day, at 20-7.25 (6.28m), and third place went to Humphrey’s teammate Sophia Beckmon at 20-2.50 inches (6.16m).

Humphrey said she liked long jump better from the time she made the transition, which a coach suggested because she was short and probably couldn’t get more than an inch beyond her PR of 6 feet.

“I feel like high jump is a little more technical, so it’s a little more stressful,” she said. “Where long jump, you honestly just run and jump. It’s straight to the point with long jump. I definitely liked the transition. I don’t miss high jump.”

Michigan State senior Katelyn Stewart-Barnett won a closer-than-expected 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9:42.78. Her seed time was 16 seconds faster than the next best in the field, and she was unexpectedly challenged by Washington’s Maggie Liebich, who improved her PR by about 22 seconds to finish second in 9:48.84.

Liebich had the lead before she fell at the final water jump.

“My race plan was to go to the front and just run a place that I felt confident and calm and ready to compete that last K, and I’d say I executed well,” Stewart-Barnett said. “A little more stress on me than I anticipated with Washington there, but I was just ready to move on the last lap.”