COULD TEXAS HAVE WON the NCAA women’s championship without Julien Alfred — subsequently named T&FN’s Women’s Collegiate Athlete Of The Year?
Maybe. Do the math, and sure, it’s possible. The Longhorns were not a one-woman show. This title came because coach Edrick Floréal built a daunting ensemble of talent.
Fifth-year Longhorn director Floréal is where Alfred began in giving credit for her flawless display of grace… nay… power under pressure.
“My coach,” Alfred said to a large gaggle of reporters. “My coach has been my biggest influence in my life, my 5 years here at Texas. Prior to beginning the championships, I went outside to speak to him, and he was like, ‘Let’s not focus on [you], focus on the team. I think that changing the pressure, moving the pressure from myself and doing it for my team instead made a huge difference.”
But remove Alfred from the equation and it would have been a lot more dicey. Championships come a lot easier when a team has a Tom Brady. Or if you prefer a female analogy, a Diana Taurasi. (Or for a Longhorn one, Vince Young.)
That is to say, a player not just loaded with talent, but also one who has the coolness under pressure to deliver. And the Saint Lucian came into the meet with loads of pressure. Our final pre-meet formchart predicted a Longhorn stampede of 88 points, and between the 100, 200, 4×1, and 4×4, Alfred was expected to have a hand in 36. Alfred (with the help of her 4×1 teammates) delivered 30 of 83. The points piled so high (fifth-most under the modern scoring system and highest since ’94) that a semifinals 4×4 disqualification became moot.
After blasting the 4×1 semis with its third Collegiate Record of the season at 41.55, the Texas quartet of Alfred, Ezinne Abba, Rhasidat Adeleke, and Kevona Davis stayed dominant in the finals with a 41.60, nearly a full second ahead of Kentucky (42.46). In the 100, Alfred tied her all-conditions CR 10.72w, and in the 200 similarly produced an all-conditions collegiate best 21.73w.
Said Alfred, “After the 4×1, I was just so high like last year after the 4×1 [which Texas also won in a more-human 42.42], and he tried to calm me down, helping me to breathe in and out. And that helped me out a lot. My coach has had such an influence on my life and I really appreciate him for that.”
Of course, it’s the prep work that makes the onstage performance possible. Alfred said a “change of mindset” got her to a level that she could run fast consistently all season, beginning with lowering her own indoor 60 CR 5 times — finally landing at 6.96 — and setting the 200 CR at 22.01. Then she kicked off the outdoor season with CRs in the 4×1, 4×2, and sprint medley at the Texas Relays.
“I knew it was my last year,” said Alfred, who is officially a junior. “I wanted to go out with a bang. I knew I had to work on my 200, so I did put in a lot of work on my hard days and made sure I was dedicated to it, because sometimes us short sprinters really want the short workouts — just the blocks, just the sprint days. But I think putting in my dedication to those hard workouts really paid off.”
The 4×4 disqualification (a bizarre lane violation in which Texas’ leadoff runner seemed to get confused and tried to hand off to another school) surely put a lump in the throats of Texas fans, and could have rattled Alfred and her teammates.
“After Thursday, even though we had so many positives happening, I think the 4×4 kind of threw us off a little bit,” she said. “But having to put my teammates back into place… then we had to pick up in other events. Rhasidat picked up [with a meet record 49.20 in the 400], my other teammates picked up, and I’m so happy for them. We didn’t let it affect us too much. Yes, we wanted to get more points, score 100 points and go out with a bang, but we won, it didn’t really affect us.”
Unsurprisingly, in a World Championships year, Alfred will take only a moment to savor her triumphs before some summer traveling for competitions. She just needs to decide where to apply her talent.
“I want to go to Worlds,” she said. “I do want to run at least one Diamond League to get the experience of running with the pros before heading to Budapest, but I do want to go to Worlds and represent my country.
“I want to have a better experience than the last one,” she said, referring her semifinals DQ in last year’s WC 100. “The last one was very terrible, so I want this one to be a great one. No pressure, I don’t want to pressure myself to go out there and try to have a goal in mind. I just want to do my best and have fun, that’s all that matters to me.”
And despite having previously claimed a dislike of the 200, she might even try a double.
“Until this season I didn’t consider the 200, but now I have more confidence in it, so I’ll definitely consider it. I’m sure Coach Flo wants me to run it after the collegiate season.
“I do have a lot more in me. Especially for the 100. I just want to see what I can do. I think I have a lot more potential in both events.”
Will Floréal continue serving as her coach? “Yeah. Flo knows,” she said, repeating a team slogan.
Floréal sounds happy to continue the partnership.
“If you look at the body of work, and you compare all the great sprinters of all time in the NCAA, this has to be the best female sprinter bar none,” Floréal said at the trophy presentation.
“What a way to end it,” Alfred exulted. “I came here at 17, [this is] my final race at 22 [this was also her birthday], and I’m proud of myself, proud of my team, and another accolade added to my name — a team title, I didn’t have that before. So I think that’s a perfect way to end it. I’m so happy, I’m so grateful, and I love these ladies, and I love my team, I love my coach, and I’m really grateful for them.”
