The 2024 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships will be held at the storied Hayward Field in Eugene, Oreg., with the women’s events kicking off June 6 and culminating June 8. Ahead of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials from June 21 - 30, the Championships are bound to produce fast, record-breaking times.
Although one of the most special aspects of track and field is its unpredictability, here are predictions for every individual track event held at the Championships.
100m: Oregon’s Jadyn Mays
The sprinting field is stacked with world-class talent: 14 athletes ran qualifying times at or under the Olympic Standard of 11.07 seconds during the preliminary rounds. With margins down to fractions of a second, the final standings are almost impossible to predict. However, it is hard to bet against Jadyn Mays. The Oregon senior, who enters the competition with the fastest qualifying time, will have the magic of a home crowd on her side as she toes the line at Hayward Field.
Mays must fend off a strong challenge from Texas Tech’s Rosemary Chukwuma, who qualified in second place. As a Big 12 Champion, a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, and the second-fastest Nigerian woman of all time, Chukwuma has demonstrated she can thrive under the pressure of world-class competition.
200m: Ole Miss’ McKenzie Long
After battling injuries for much of last season and coping with the loss of her mother earlier this year, you cannot help but root for McKenzie Long’s success on the national stage. The Ole Miss senior arrives in Eugene as the fastest seed but faces fierce competition from Mays, South Carolina’s JaMeesia Ford, and the rest of a strong field. After a stellar season that saw her become the first repeat SEC Champion since 2013 after running a world-lead performance of 22.03 (+0.6), Long seems up to the challenge.
400m: Arkansas’ Kaylyn Brown
There is no question that the Razorbacks will dominate the 400m discipline. With Razorbck athletes representing the top four qualifiers, Arkansas can sweep the event. Senior Nickisha Pryce qualified for Eugene with the fastest seed time, but freshman phenom Kaylyn Brown qualified hot on her heels to occupy the second spot. Both women have posted top-10 all-time collegiate times this season and there shouldn’t be much — probably a few one-hundredths of a second — between them at the final.
800m: LSU’s Michaela Rose
Michaela Rose is the best collegiate athlete over 800m since Olympic gold medalist Athing Mu and she appears to be on top of her game. At the Bryan Clay Invitational earlier this outdoor season, Rose ran a school record of 1:58:37, making her the only collegiate athlete other than Mu to run under the 1:59 mark. Rose will also set out with extra motivation on her side. After winning the 2023 NCAA outdoor title last year, Stanford’s Juliette Whittaker upset Rose by three-tenths of a second at the 2024 NCAA Indoor Championships. It seems unlikely Rose will allow herself a second-place finish again.
1500m: Harvard’s Maia Ramsden
2023-2024 has been the year of Maia Ramsden as she finds herself in a prominent position to become the first woman to win consecutive 1500m NCAA titles since Mississippi State’s Tiffany McWilliams in 2003-2004. The New Zealander won the 1500m national title as somewhat of an underdog last year and has never looked back, seemingly improving with every race. Earlier this season, Ramsden, representing New Zealand, finished 10th in the world after qualifying for the final of the mile at the March 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow. She then went on to set a meet record to win the mile at the 2024 NCAA Indoor Championships less than a week later.
Ramsden is likely to push a blistering pace from the starting gun as she chases the so-far elusive Olympic Standard. She set a new 1500m personal best and Kiwi national record of 4:02.58 at the May 18 Los Angeles Grand Prix — 0.08 seconds away from the necessary mark to be able to represent her country in Paris.
Ramsden also qualified and is set to compete in the 5,000m.
5000m and 10,000m: Florida’s Parker Valby
Completing the ultimate distance double would be quite the feat, even though Parker Valby has cemented herself as one of the best collegiate distance runners in history. But who is anyone to root against Valby? The Florida senior has had a record-setting season, smashing both the 10,000m and indoor 5,000m collegiate records, and she remains undefeated in collegiate track and cross-country championship races since her resounding victory in the outdoor 5,000m NCAA final last year.
If Valby wins both the 5,000 and 10,000-meter events, having already swept the 3,000m and 5,000m at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March, she will become the first Division I female athlete to claim all four titles across the same year. Valby would also be the first woman to successfully complete the 5,000m and 10,000m double since Arkansas and South Africa’s Dominique Scott in 2016.
Alabama’s Hilda Olemomoi will try her best to thwart Valby’s attempt as she also pursues the double crown. Olemomoi is another collegiate distance standout and qualified for the 5,000m just ahead of Valby at the East First Round.
100m Hurdles: USC’s Jasmine Jones
In a tightly contested field where all 24 athletes’ qualifying times are separated by less than one second, the title is anyone’s for the taking. However, USC senior Jasmine Jones, who qualified as the third seed, stands out due to her four years of consistently excellent collegiate performances, including her 60m hurdles victory at the NCAA Indoor Championships earlier this year. Jones also qualified as the third-fastest seed time in the 400m hurdles.
400m Hurdles: Arkansas’ Rachel Glenn
From the field to the track, Rachel Glenn can do it all. Already an NCAA Champion in the high jump, Glenn will look to win her first national title on the track this year –– and she appears poised to do so. The Razorback junior will head into the 400m hurdles prelims with the fastest qualifying time in the field by over one second.
Glenn is also slated to compete in the high jump. After matching the collegiate record of 2.0m in March, she has a unique opportunity to become a national champion on the track and in the field.
3000m Steeplechase: Notre Dame’s Olivia Markezich
The steeplechase is set to be a two-women battle for gold between last year’s champion, Notre Dame’s Olivia Markezich, and Doris Lemngole, an Alabama freshman and SEC Champion who has burst onto the scene. Although Lemngole will head into the final with the fastest qualifying time of 9:28.91, Markezich, with experience on her side, has shown that she can step up in the face of tough competition. The Notre Dame senior has proved she can run at least 9:17.93 — her personal best set at the 2023 USATF Championships last July — and she will look to produce a similar fast result ahead of the U.S. Olympic Trials later this month.
With American steeplechase stars Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs ruled out of Paris 2024 due to injury, the spots on the U.S. Olympic team are anyone’s for the taking. Since Markezich has already run under the Olympic Standard of 9:23.00, her Olympic dreams are alive and her's to seize.
You can watch the NCAA Championship meet on Thursday, June 6, Women's Day 1, at 8:30 PM ET on ESPN2 and Saturday, June 8, Women's Day 2, at 5:30 PM ET on ESPN.
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