The University of Mississippi Athletics
Track & Field’s McKenzie Long Named USATF Athlete of the Week
6/14/2024 | Track and Field
INDIANAPOLIS – Ole Miss women's track & field senior and recent three-time national champion McKenzie Long has been named USA Track & Field's Athlete of the Week, as announced by the USATF on Friday.
Long is the second Rebel to earn the honor this season, joining fellow national champ Jalani Davis, who was named the national Athlete of the Week back on Feb. 29 following the SEC Indoor Championships.
Last week in Oregon for the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships, Long won three national titles in a mere 90 minutes to put Ole Miss track & field's sprints group on the map – and capture the hearts and minds of the nation with the story of her perseverance following her mother's death this past indoor season.
Long ran the second leg on Ole Miss' winning 4x100-meter relay team – the first relay title, men or women, in Ole Miss history outdoors – and followed that up with a historic sweep across the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes within the following hour and a half. Her performances helped push Ole Miss to a fifth-place showing, tying the overall program record at an NCAA meet – her fourth top-25 team finish she has been a part of as a Rebel in as many tries.
She is one of 15 women in NCAA Division I history to sweep the 100 and the 200, and one of just six to add on a victory in the 4x100-meter relay. Her victories in the 100 and 200 were the first by any Rebel outdoors, men or women, in events shorter than 800 meters. And among Ole Miss women, her wins were the first indoors or outdoors in events shorter than the 1500-meter or mile.
Long's winning time in the 200-meter dash of 21.83 (+1.0) extended her reign as the world leader for 2024, and it put her No. 2 in collegiate history and into a tie for both No. 10 in U.S. history and No. 24 in world history. She is the lone woman in collegiate history with multiple wind-legal sub-22 times in the 200, and she just missed breaking the collegiate record of 21.80 (+1.3) run by Kentucky's Abby Steiner in 2022. Worldwide this season, Long owns each of the three fastest wind-legal 200-meter times run by women, as well as four of the top-seven.
Her semifinal time in the 100-meter of 10.91 (+0.0) ranks No. 6 both in collegiate history and on the world list for 2024, making her the lone runner in the world this year with a sub-11 time in the 100 and a sub-22 time in the 200. And along with relay teammates Akilah Lewis, Gabrielle Matthews and Jahniya Bowers, is part of the No. 5 collegiate relay all time with their semifinal performance of 42.22.
In just two seasons at Ole Miss, Long ends her career as one of the best Rebels of all time as a three-time NCAA Champion, two-time NCAA runner-up, eight-time All-American (seven First-Team), nine-time NCAA qualifier (all at Ole Miss), two-time SEC Champion, six-time SEC medalist and a two-time Bowerman Award Watch List member with six school records, 45.5 career NCAA points and 47.5 career SEC points scored.
Long also was the 2024 SEC Indoor Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and is working toward her second master's degree – this time in public health – after completing her previous master's in criminal justice at Ole Miss in 2023 and her bachelor's in psychology and communications at NC State in 2022.
Long will be one of several Rebels running for a chance to represent Team USA at this summer's Olympic Games in Paris at next week's U.S. Olympic Trials, held back at Oregon's Hayward Field from June 21-30.
Long is the second Rebel to earn the honor this season, joining fellow national champ Jalani Davis, who was named the national Athlete of the Week back on Feb. 29 following the SEC Indoor Championships.
Last week in Oregon for the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships, Long won three national titles in a mere 90 minutes to put Ole Miss track & field's sprints group on the map – and capture the hearts and minds of the nation with the story of her perseverance following her mother's death this past indoor season.
Long ran the second leg on Ole Miss' winning 4x100-meter relay team – the first relay title, men or women, in Ole Miss history outdoors – and followed that up with a historic sweep across the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes within the following hour and a half. Her performances helped push Ole Miss to a fifth-place showing, tying the overall program record at an NCAA meet – her fourth top-25 team finish she has been a part of as a Rebel in as many tries.
She is one of 15 women in NCAA Division I history to sweep the 100 and the 200, and one of just six to add on a victory in the 4x100-meter relay. Her victories in the 100 and 200 were the first by any Rebel outdoors, men or women, in events shorter than 800 meters. And among Ole Miss women, her wins were the first indoors or outdoors in events shorter than the 1500-meter or mile.
Long's winning time in the 200-meter dash of 21.83 (+1.0) extended her reign as the world leader for 2024, and it put her No. 2 in collegiate history and into a tie for both No. 10 in U.S. history and No. 24 in world history. She is the lone woman in collegiate history with multiple wind-legal sub-22 times in the 200, and she just missed breaking the collegiate record of 21.80 (+1.3) run by Kentucky's Abby Steiner in 2022. Worldwide this season, Long owns each of the three fastest wind-legal 200-meter times run by women, as well as four of the top-seven.
Her semifinal time in the 100-meter of 10.91 (+0.0) ranks No. 6 both in collegiate history and on the world list for 2024, making her the lone runner in the world this year with a sub-11 time in the 100 and a sub-22 time in the 200. And along with relay teammates Akilah Lewis, Gabrielle Matthews and Jahniya Bowers, is part of the No. 5 collegiate relay all time with their semifinal performance of 42.22.
In just two seasons at Ole Miss, Long ends her career as one of the best Rebels of all time as a three-time NCAA Champion, two-time NCAA runner-up, eight-time All-American (seven First-Team), nine-time NCAA qualifier (all at Ole Miss), two-time SEC Champion, six-time SEC medalist and a two-time Bowerman Award Watch List member with six school records, 45.5 career NCAA points and 47.5 career SEC points scored.
Long also was the 2024 SEC Indoor Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and is working toward her second master's degree – this time in public health – after completing her previous master's in criminal justice at Ole Miss in 2023 and her bachelor's in psychology and communications at NC State in 2022.
Long will be one of several Rebels running for a chance to represent Team USA at this summer's Olympic Games in Paris at next week's U.S. Olympic Trials, held back at Oregon's Hayward Field from June 21-30.
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