DON’T STOP ME if I’m repeating myself. This time, I insist. Again I must sing praises for an NCAA Championships. This year’s — the 104th for men, 44th for women — yet again outdid itself.
•A World Record! Ja’Kobe Tharp’s 110H semifinals blinder, 12.75, was the first WR at an NCAA in 50 years. It came the same week Dwight Stones, who high jumped a WR 7-7 (2.31) in ’76, opined on Facebook it would never happen again. Although I’d have been 60/40 to share Dwight’s side of the bet on that… never say never. Tharp’s was also an American Record.
•Collegiate Records: 8 of them, Tharp of Auburn’s plus, in the men’s meet, Jaiden Reid (LSU) in the 200, Samuel Ogazi (Alabama) in the 400 and Auburn in the 4×1, without Tharp.
Women’s CRs went to Adaejah Hodge (Georgia) in the 100 & 200, Dejanea Oakley (also Georgia) in the 400 and Sanu Jallow-Lockhart (Arkansas) in the 800. Don’t miss the recaps of all these events. The marks were superb.
•Meet Records: In addition to those above, Amanda Moll (Washington) in the women’s vault and Alida Van Daalen (Florida) in the women’s discus cranked out MRs.
A World Athletics mantra of late — understandably in the modern sports/entertainment marketplace — has been tight pacing, non-stop action, cut the downtime. The NCAA on its final two days offers all that. Two-hour shows, give or take. With team-scoring, the same hook every ball sport has. It’s easy for us humans to bite on a hook.
Both NCAA team contests saw ups and downs. The final resolutions, each by a 7-point margin, came only with the climactic 4x4s. First-year Arkansas head Doug Case saw his favored team weather what our Jeff Hollobaugh described as “all sorts of disasters.” The Razorbacks then got down to “nickel-and-diming their way to the first Hog team title outdoors in 23 years.”
To score a repeat win after their ’25 triumph, coach Caryl Smith Gilbert’s Georgia women went in projected for “an easy repeat,” with a 25-point margin on the formchart. As Hollobaugh reports, “The battle was fought in much closer quarters, and the Bulldogs needed all the firepower they had to best a surprisingly strong Florida program, 50–43.”
What more could a fan want — unless you’re a fan who lives for blowouts?
Although perhaps it doesn’t matter much, a world where turf-protection didn’t squelch any USATF and WA interest in celebrating the magnificent fixture that is the NCAA would be an incrementally more just world, indeed. Not that I couldn’t cite chapter and verse beefing about many policies of the NCAA (the federation, not its championships). You can be sure I’ll get around to writing more about that side sooner than later.
The fact is this NCAA Champs held its own for quality of performance even with the six ’26 Diamond League meets held through June 10 when the collegiate spectacular fired up.
In the 32 events where the DL and NCAA slates intersect, I compared finals-winning performances (best performance from any of the 6 DL meets versus the NCAA champ), 5th-placers and 8th-placers.
Guess what? In 7 events (nearly a quarter) the NCAA outshone the DL. Marks comparisons for 1st, 5th & 8th presented.
m100: 9.72w/9.88, 9.95w/9.99, 10.07w/10.10
m200: 19.63/19.69, 20.09/20.16, 20.33/*
m400: 43.38/43.92, 44.49/44.68, 45.14/45.51
m110H: 12.90/13.07, 13.19/13.22, 13.50/13.36
w200: 21.68/21.87, 22.31/22.43, 22.54/22.85
w400: 48.79/49.52, 50.48/50.19, 50.91/52.25
wPV†: 4.84/4.80, 4.59/4.60, 4.49/4.45
(*=no DL had 8 finishers, †=metric measure)
“Wait one dang minute!” you may say. The wind-aided NCAA men’s 100 isn’t a fair comparison. Point taken. I ran the numbers on it after adjusting the times to zero wind at sea level equivalents per our Big Gold Book’s Wind & Altitude Effect tables. The NCAA final still prevails.
m100: 9.83/9.88, 9.95/9.99, 10.07/10.10
Methinks the validity of the comparison is shored up by the fact that NCAA century champ Kayinsola Ajayi won at the Eugene DL three weeks later timed in 9.84 with a 0.1 wind.
The NCAA men’s HJ and women’s 100 stacked up comparably, near-evenly with the DL.
To be fair, the DLs could claim marked, and not surprising, superiority at 800 on up for both men and women. The reasons for that are easy to comprehend, and DLs feature rabbits plus pacelights. Both NCAA TJs and throws across the board paled next to DL comps. That’s also predictable.
The NCAA is a gem. Year in and year out, it’s a rival to thrill comparably with any meet on the planet. You know that, I know that. Maybe some day the poobahs of the national and international governing bodies will feel we’re all in this together enough to acknowledge it. ◻︎
