The University of Mississippi Athletics
Jalani Davis Wins NCAA Weight Throw Title
3/10/2023 | Track and Field
Davis Wins 11th NCAA Indoor Title in Ole Miss History
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Jalani Davis came to Ole Miss as a walk-on four years ago and was immediately cast into the shadow of training partners who were among the best in the history of the sport. On Friday night, Davis fully broke free as a star on her own, winning her first national championship to lead a stupendous first day of action for Ole Miss track & field at the 2023 NCAA Indoor Championships.
Davis – a senior native of Hampton, Virginia – concluded a wire-to-wire indoor season as the NCAA's best in the weight throw, winning the national title on Friday at her third-round toss of 24.51m/80-5 – making her the No. 4 performer in the history of the national meet with the sixth-best throw.
The win was even more sweet for Davis, who has grinded for a full year after fouling out of both the weight throw and shot put at last year's indoor national meet.
"(Winning) feels amazing," Davis said. "On my last throw I started crying, it's just a relief to get it done. What it takes to be here and what it takes to do what I did in the meet, it paid off. It feels great."
This is the 11th indoor national title in Ole Miss history, and it makes Davis the 14th overall NCAA Indoor Champion. It also puts her into elite company as just the fourth Rebel woman to ever do so indoors alongside Olympian Brittney Reese in the long jump in 2008, Olympian Raven Saunders in the shot put in 2017, and teammate Shey Taiwo in the weight throw just last year in 2022.
Combined with Taiwo's win, Ole Miss is now just the sixth school in NCAA history to repeat as the women's weight throw champion, joining Louisville in 2009-10, the Connie Price-Smith led Southern Illinois Salukis in 2007-08, Florida four years in a row from 2002-05, SMU in 2000-01 and South Carolina for the first three years of the collegiate women's weight throw from 1996-98.
Davis' win caps off an extraordinary 2023 indoor campaign in the weight throw, during which she became the No. 5 performer in collegiate history and No. 12 in world history at her career-best 24.63m/80-09.75 from the SEC Championships two weeks ago. At the conference meet, Davis became the first woman in world history to break 80 feet in the weight throw and 60 feet in the shot put, which is also coming up for Davis on Saturday as she completes her weight/shot double.
Fellow senior Jasmine Mitchell earned her fourth career All-American nod in the weight throw in as many attempts, finishing third at 23.14m/75-11 to give Ole Miss a wallop of 16 points in the team scores right off the bat. Mitchell has never finished worse than fourth in the weight at NCAAs in her career, finishing runner-up in 2022, fourth in 2021 and earning a blanket All-American honor for the canceled 2020 meet.
Since 2021, Ole Miss has scored an eye-opening 45 points in the women's weight throw, with 19 alone coming from Mitchell.
Ole Miss closed out the night with high-drama in the men's distance medley relay, where the Rebels threw a wrench into the formchart with a thrilling NCAA runner-up performance.
The Rebels were seeded eighth entering competition, and when senior Anthony Camerieri received the baton for the anchor mile leg in ninth place, that prediction seemed not too far off. But the senior grad transfer from Miami of Ohio did what he's done all year long stretching back to the cross country season: prove everyone wrong.
Camerieri – who had never broken the four-minute mile barrier before coming to Ole Miss but has now done so five times in a row – dropped a 3:57.50 anchor, which registered as two seconds better than any other. Camerieri began to make up some ground, moving the Rebels into scoring contention at the bell in sixth place and fifth with 100 meters to go. From there, Camerieri clocked a 15-second final 100 and passed three additional teams – including Wisconsin right at the line by one tenth of a second to put Ole Miss as the national runners-up at 9:31.63.
Even more impressive is this is the first time Camerieri had ever run at altitude.
"I've actually never been at altitude in my life, so I wasn't really sure how I was gonna feel," Camerieri said. "At 600 and 400 out I still felt pretty decent, but I was kind of surprised I had that last gear at 100 to go. I was not expecting to have that."
The quartet of senior Shane Bracken (1200m: 2:58.01), freshman Cade Flatt (48.86), senior Tiarnan Crorken (1:47.27) and Camerieri all earn First-Team All-American honors, and are the latest in a long line of superb DMR teams at nationals for the Rebels. Since 2016, Ole Miss has scored five times – with four of those within the top-three and capped by a 2017 national title.
Freshman Tarik Robinson-O'Hagan added six points of his own in the men's weight throw, finishing third to give the Ole Miss men 14 points after the first day of competition.
Robinson-O'Hagan, the collegiate freshman record holder, topped out at 22.96m/75-4 for his first career All-American nod. That is the best finish ever by a Rebel in the men's weight throw, and it's the best by any freshman nationally since Purdue's Chukwuebuka Enekwechi finished third in 2013. Robinson-O'Hagan's distance of 22.96m/75-4 also registers as a collegiate freshman record at the indoor national meet.
On the track, Ole Miss went 3-for-3 in crucial semifinals to put finals qualifiers through to Saturday.
Senior McKenzie Long continued to light the Ole Miss record book on fire, dismantling both school records in the 60-meter and 200-meter semifinals on Friday. Long opened the day with a 7.10 in the 60, breaking the previous record of 7.18 and also improving her previous PR of 7.22 by more than one tenth of a second. That earned her a time qualifier to Saturday's final as the fifth-best time, and it also launched Long into a tie for No. 17 in NCAA history and No. 10 in the history of the NCAA Indoor meet.
Not long after, Long returned to the track in the 200-meter semifinal and somehow found the strength to impress yet again. Just two weeks after twice shattering the school record at the SEC Championships, Long lowered the Ole Miss record again to 22.48 to advance to the final as the fourth-place finisher in the semifinal. That time blew past her previous record of 22.67 that earned her SEC silver, and it makes her the No. 12 performer both in NCAA Indoor history and in the history of the indoor national meet.
Long – who was the last entrant to NCAAs in the 60-meter dash – is guaranteed a point in each event on Saturday, and will be one of six women who are competing in both finals.
Senior Baylor Franklin punched his first ticket to an NCAA final in the men's 800-meter, earning a time qualifier spot with the fourth-best prelim time at 1:48.01. Franklin was in the faster first heat, and despite being near the back of the pack with two laps to go, he ripped off a 55.21 final 400 – including a 28.12 final 200 that registered as the fastest split in the heat.
In the team standings through Day One, Ole Miss ranks second in the men's race with 14 points through five events scored, and tied for fourth in the women's standings at 16 points through six scored events.
Competition resumes for Ole Miss at Day Two on Saturday at 5 p.m. CT with both Jalani Davis and Jasmine Mitchell in the women's shot put.
Day One NCAA Champions
Jalani Davis – Women's Weight Throw
Day One NCAA Runners-Up
Shane Bracken – Men's Distance Medley Relay
Anthony Camerieri – Men's Distance Medley Relay
Tiarnan Crorken – Men's Distance Medley Relay
Cade Flatt – Men's Distance Medley Relay
Day One First-Team All-Americans
Jalani Davis – Women's Weight Throw, 1st Place
Shane Bracken – Men's Distance Medley Relay, 2nd Place
Anthony Camerieri – Men's Distance Medley Relay, 2nd Place
Tiarnan Crorken – Men's Distance Medley Relay, 2nd Place
Cade Flatt – Men's Distance Medley Relay, 2nd Place
Jasmine Mitchell – Women's Weight Throw, 3rd Place
Tarik Robinson-O'Hagan – Men's Weight Throw, 3rd Place
Finals Qualifiers
Baylor Franklin – Men's 800-Meter
McKenzie Long – Women's 60-Meter Dash
McKenzie Long – Women's 200-Meter Dash
REBELS IN DAY ONE COMPETITION
Women's 60-Meter Dash Semifinals
5. McKenzie Long – 7.10q – School Record, T-No. 17 NCAA History, No. 10 NCAA Meet History
Women's 200-Meter Dash Semifinals
4. McKenzie Long – 22.48q – School Record, No. 12 NCAA History, No. 12 NCAA Meet History
Men's 800-Meter Semifinals
4. Baylor Franklin – 1:48.01q
Men's Distance Medley Relay Final
2. Bracken, Flatt, Crorken, Camerieri – 9:31.63 – NCAA Runners-Up, First-Team All-Americans – No. 9 Ole Miss History
Splits:
Shane Bracken (1200m) – 2:58.01
Cade Flatt (400m) – 48.86
Tiarnan Crorken (800m) – 1:47.27
Anthony Camerieri (Mile) – 3:57.50
Women's Weight Throw Final
1. Jalani Davis – 24.51m/80-5 – NCAA Champion, First-Team All-American – No. 4 NCAA Meet History (No. 6 throw)
3. Jasmine Mitchell – 23.14m/75-11 – First-Team All-American
Men's Weight Throw Final
3. Tarik Robinson-O'Hagan – 22.96m/75-4 – First-Team All-American
For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field and Cross Country, follow the Rebels on Twitter (@OleMissTrack), Facebook and Instagram.
Davis – a senior native of Hampton, Virginia – concluded a wire-to-wire indoor season as the NCAA's best in the weight throw, winning the national title on Friday at her third-round toss of 24.51m/80-5 – making her the No. 4 performer in the history of the national meet with the sixth-best throw.
The win was even more sweet for Davis, who has grinded for a full year after fouling out of both the weight throw and shot put at last year's indoor national meet.
"(Winning) feels amazing," Davis said. "On my last throw I started crying, it's just a relief to get it done. What it takes to be here and what it takes to do what I did in the meet, it paid off. It feels great."
This is the 11th indoor national title in Ole Miss history, and it makes Davis the 14th overall NCAA Indoor Champion. It also puts her into elite company as just the fourth Rebel woman to ever do so indoors alongside Olympian Brittney Reese in the long jump in 2008, Olympian Raven Saunders in the shot put in 2017, and teammate Shey Taiwo in the weight throw just last year in 2022.
Combined with Taiwo's win, Ole Miss is now just the sixth school in NCAA history to repeat as the women's weight throw champion, joining Louisville in 2009-10, the Connie Price-Smith led Southern Illinois Salukis in 2007-08, Florida four years in a row from 2002-05, SMU in 2000-01 and South Carolina for the first three years of the collegiate women's weight throw from 1996-98.
Davis' win caps off an extraordinary 2023 indoor campaign in the weight throw, during which she became the No. 5 performer in collegiate history and No. 12 in world history at her career-best 24.63m/80-09.75 from the SEC Championships two weeks ago. At the conference meet, Davis became the first woman in world history to break 80 feet in the weight throw and 60 feet in the shot put, which is also coming up for Davis on Saturday as she completes her weight/shot double.
Fellow senior Jasmine Mitchell earned her fourth career All-American nod in the weight throw in as many attempts, finishing third at 23.14m/75-11 to give Ole Miss a wallop of 16 points in the team scores right off the bat. Mitchell has never finished worse than fourth in the weight at NCAAs in her career, finishing runner-up in 2022, fourth in 2021 and earning a blanket All-American honor for the canceled 2020 meet.
Since 2021, Ole Miss has scored an eye-opening 45 points in the women's weight throw, with 19 alone coming from Mitchell.
Ole Miss closed out the night with high-drama in the men's distance medley relay, where the Rebels threw a wrench into the formchart with a thrilling NCAA runner-up performance.
The Rebels were seeded eighth entering competition, and when senior Anthony Camerieri received the baton for the anchor mile leg in ninth place, that prediction seemed not too far off. But the senior grad transfer from Miami of Ohio did what he's done all year long stretching back to the cross country season: prove everyone wrong.
Camerieri – who had never broken the four-minute mile barrier before coming to Ole Miss but has now done so five times in a row – dropped a 3:57.50 anchor, which registered as two seconds better than any other. Camerieri began to make up some ground, moving the Rebels into scoring contention at the bell in sixth place and fifth with 100 meters to go. From there, Camerieri clocked a 15-second final 100 and passed three additional teams – including Wisconsin right at the line by one tenth of a second to put Ole Miss as the national runners-up at 9:31.63.
Even more impressive is this is the first time Camerieri had ever run at altitude.
"I've actually never been at altitude in my life, so I wasn't really sure how I was gonna feel," Camerieri said. "At 600 and 400 out I still felt pretty decent, but I was kind of surprised I had that last gear at 100 to go. I was not expecting to have that."
The quartet of senior Shane Bracken (1200m: 2:58.01), freshman Cade Flatt (48.86), senior Tiarnan Crorken (1:47.27) and Camerieri all earn First-Team All-American honors, and are the latest in a long line of superb DMR teams at nationals for the Rebels. Since 2016, Ole Miss has scored five times – with four of those within the top-three and capped by a 2017 national title.
Freshman Tarik Robinson-O'Hagan added six points of his own in the men's weight throw, finishing third to give the Ole Miss men 14 points after the first day of competition.
Robinson-O'Hagan, the collegiate freshman record holder, topped out at 22.96m/75-4 for his first career All-American nod. That is the best finish ever by a Rebel in the men's weight throw, and it's the best by any freshman nationally since Purdue's Chukwuebuka Enekwechi finished third in 2013. Robinson-O'Hagan's distance of 22.96m/75-4 also registers as a collegiate freshman record at the indoor national meet.
On the track, Ole Miss went 3-for-3 in crucial semifinals to put finals qualifiers through to Saturday.
Senior McKenzie Long continued to light the Ole Miss record book on fire, dismantling both school records in the 60-meter and 200-meter semifinals on Friday. Long opened the day with a 7.10 in the 60, breaking the previous record of 7.18 and also improving her previous PR of 7.22 by more than one tenth of a second. That earned her a time qualifier to Saturday's final as the fifth-best time, and it also launched Long into a tie for No. 17 in NCAA history and No. 10 in the history of the NCAA Indoor meet.
Not long after, Long returned to the track in the 200-meter semifinal and somehow found the strength to impress yet again. Just two weeks after twice shattering the school record at the SEC Championships, Long lowered the Ole Miss record again to 22.48 to advance to the final as the fourth-place finisher in the semifinal. That time blew past her previous record of 22.67 that earned her SEC silver, and it makes her the No. 12 performer both in NCAA Indoor history and in the history of the indoor national meet.
Long – who was the last entrant to NCAAs in the 60-meter dash – is guaranteed a point in each event on Saturday, and will be one of six women who are competing in both finals.
Senior Baylor Franklin punched his first ticket to an NCAA final in the men's 800-meter, earning a time qualifier spot with the fourth-best prelim time at 1:48.01. Franklin was in the faster first heat, and despite being near the back of the pack with two laps to go, he ripped off a 55.21 final 400 – including a 28.12 final 200 that registered as the fastest split in the heat.
In the team standings through Day One, Ole Miss ranks second in the men's race with 14 points through five events scored, and tied for fourth in the women's standings at 16 points through six scored events.
Competition resumes for Ole Miss at Day Two on Saturday at 5 p.m. CT with both Jalani Davis and Jasmine Mitchell in the women's shot put.
Day One NCAA Champions
Jalani Davis – Women's Weight Throw
Day One NCAA Runners-Up
Shane Bracken – Men's Distance Medley Relay
Anthony Camerieri – Men's Distance Medley Relay
Tiarnan Crorken – Men's Distance Medley Relay
Cade Flatt – Men's Distance Medley Relay
Day One First-Team All-Americans
Jalani Davis – Women's Weight Throw, 1st Place
Shane Bracken – Men's Distance Medley Relay, 2nd Place
Anthony Camerieri – Men's Distance Medley Relay, 2nd Place
Tiarnan Crorken – Men's Distance Medley Relay, 2nd Place
Cade Flatt – Men's Distance Medley Relay, 2nd Place
Jasmine Mitchell – Women's Weight Throw, 3rd Place
Tarik Robinson-O'Hagan – Men's Weight Throw, 3rd Place
Finals Qualifiers
Baylor Franklin – Men's 800-Meter
McKenzie Long – Women's 60-Meter Dash
McKenzie Long – Women's 200-Meter Dash
REBELS IN DAY ONE COMPETITION
Women's 60-Meter Dash Semifinals
5. McKenzie Long – 7.10q – School Record, T-No. 17 NCAA History, No. 10 NCAA Meet History
Women's 200-Meter Dash Semifinals
4. McKenzie Long – 22.48q – School Record, No. 12 NCAA History, No. 12 NCAA Meet History
Men's 800-Meter Semifinals
4. Baylor Franklin – 1:48.01q
Men's Distance Medley Relay Final
2. Bracken, Flatt, Crorken, Camerieri – 9:31.63 – NCAA Runners-Up, First-Team All-Americans – No. 9 Ole Miss History
Splits:
Shane Bracken (1200m) – 2:58.01
Cade Flatt (400m) – 48.86
Tiarnan Crorken (800m) – 1:47.27
Anthony Camerieri (Mile) – 3:57.50
Women's Weight Throw Final
1. Jalani Davis – 24.51m/80-5 – NCAA Champion, First-Team All-American – No. 4 NCAA Meet History (No. 6 throw)
3. Jasmine Mitchell – 23.14m/75-11 – First-Team All-American
Men's Weight Throw Final
3. Tarik Robinson-O'Hagan – 22.96m/75-4 – First-Team All-American
For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field and Cross Country, follow the Rebels on Twitter (@OleMissTrack), Facebook and Instagram.
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