The University of Mississippi Athletics
TUNE IN: Big Day Ahead for Ole Miss Women’s Sprinters on ESPN
6/8/2024 | Track and Field
EUGENE, Ore. – Ole Miss track & field's stay at Hayward Field for the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships comes to a close today, but a powerful group of Rebel women's sprinters hopes to go out with a bang in front of a national TV audience on Saturday. All of the action today will air live on ESPN, with coverage starting on the mothership at 4:30 p.m. CT.
Ole Miss strung together a series of historic, world-class performances in the semifinal round Thursday in four key events for the Rebel women: the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, 400-meter hurdles and 4x100-meter relay.
A lot is riding on those four races for Ole Miss. A chance for a record program finish. A potentially historic haul of national titles. The last chance for the resplendent McKenzie Long to etch her name into the collegiate record book.
Below is a summary of each event ahead for the Rebels on Saturday, as well as when each will air live on ESPN.
Women's 4x100-Meter Relay Final • 4:32 p.m. CT
Before April 13 of this year, no Rebel women's 4x100-meter relay had broken 43.40. The foursome of Akilah Lewis, McKenzie Long, Gabrielle Matthews and Jahniya Bowers have not only done so four times since then, but they have launched Ole Miss into the upper echelon of the event in collegiate history.
In the semifinal, the Rebels flew around the track in a stunning 42.22 – the top time qualifier to Saturday's final that made Ole Miss the fifth-best relay team in collegiate history on the 12th-fastest time overall.
Ole Miss now enters Saturday's final with a target on their backs, but also a chance to make history. A win would make Ole Miss the first first-time champion in the event since South Carolina in 2002, as well as the first school not named Texas, USC or LSU to win since Kentucky in 2017. It would mark the first relay title outdoors across men's and women's competition at Ole Miss, and any finish above seventh place would mark a women's program record in the event.
Women's 100-Meter Dash Final • 5:22 p.m. CT
McKenzie Long is no stranger to the double or the triple, but Saturday will be the toughest task of her collegiate career. After running the second leg of Ole Miss' relay, she'll have roughly 45 minutes to recover for the 100-meter dash final at 5:22 p.m. CT.
Long wowed the Hayward faithful with the top time qualifier in the 100 on Thursday at a wind-legal PR of 10.91 (+0.0), which tied her for sixth worldwide in 2024 as well as into a tie for No. 10 in the collegiate record books. She is the only runner in the world with wind-legal times below 11 seconds in the 100 and 22 seconds in the 200.
Long's marquee event will be coming up a bit later, but the last two weeks has proved she is a legitimate threat in the 100 – both collegiately and beyond. She only ran the 100 once this season prior to the NCAA East Regional on May 23. Since then, she has broken 11 seconds with a legal wind for the first two times in her career.
A win would mark the first NCAA Outdoor victory in a track event shorter than 800-meters in Ole Miss men's or women's history. The best finish ever by a Rebel in the event was by All-American Teneeshia Jones, who finished fifth in 2001.
Women's 400-Meter Hurdles Final • 5:57 p.m. CT
Long isn't the only one pulling double-duty on Saturday. Sophomore Gabrielle Matthews will have a little more than an hour to recover from the relay before getting in the blocks for the 400-meter hurdles final, where she will be one of only two underclassmen in attendance.
Matthews escaped cataclysm in the semifinal Thursday after clipping her final hurdle, finding a way to keep her balance and cross the finish line for an AQ berth to today's final – an exact inverse of what helped propel her to an SEC title in the event one month ago.
Matthews is already guaranteed the best finish ever by a Rebel woman in the event so long as she crosses the line, with the prior best being Brandy Mack's 10th-place showing in 2000. Any points in this event would mark the first in Ole Miss women's history – another first for the Jamaican sophomore, who has dismantled the school record several times en route to becoming the first Rebel woman to break 57 and then 56 seconds in the event.
Women's 200-Meter Dash Final • 6:07 p.m. CT
For McKenzie Long, all the heartbreak, all the pain, all the hard work comes down to this: the NCAA 200-meter final.
A year ago, while battling nagging injuries, she made a name for herself, running stride-for-stride with one of the fastest collegians of all-time in one of the fastest NCAA finals ever.
This year, the spotlight has remained hers, capturing the track world's attention first with her world-leading speed, and second for her perseverance through tragedy and her humility in the face of all the pressure that comes with being the world's fastest woman.
In the semifinal, Long posted a jaw-dropping 21.95 (+0.3) – her first career wind-legal sub-22. What was stupefying about that time, though, was that she noticeably decelerated over the final 15-20 meters. A similar final in which she goes full-blast through the line could be a sight to behold.
This won't be the last time McKenzie Long runs in the spotlight. A prosperous professional career lies ahead, starting with this summer's U.S. Olympic Trials. But on her last half-lap around the track as a collegian, Rebel fans should savor the moment and prepare to be dazzled one last time.
Ole Miss strung together a series of historic, world-class performances in the semifinal round Thursday in four key events for the Rebel women: the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, 400-meter hurdles and 4x100-meter relay.
A lot is riding on those four races for Ole Miss. A chance for a record program finish. A potentially historic haul of national titles. The last chance for the resplendent McKenzie Long to etch her name into the collegiate record book.
Below is a summary of each event ahead for the Rebels on Saturday, as well as when each will air live on ESPN.
Women's 4x100-Meter Relay Final • 4:32 p.m. CT
Before April 13 of this year, no Rebel women's 4x100-meter relay had broken 43.40. The foursome of Akilah Lewis, McKenzie Long, Gabrielle Matthews and Jahniya Bowers have not only done so four times since then, but they have launched Ole Miss into the upper echelon of the event in collegiate history.
In the semifinal, the Rebels flew around the track in a stunning 42.22 – the top time qualifier to Saturday's final that made Ole Miss the fifth-best relay team in collegiate history on the 12th-fastest time overall.
Ole Miss now enters Saturday's final with a target on their backs, but also a chance to make history. A win would make Ole Miss the first first-time champion in the event since South Carolina in 2002, as well as the first school not named Texas, USC or LSU to win since Kentucky in 2017. It would mark the first relay title outdoors across men's and women's competition at Ole Miss, and any finish above seventh place would mark a women's program record in the event.
Women's 100-Meter Dash Final • 5:22 p.m. CT
McKenzie Long is no stranger to the double or the triple, but Saturday will be the toughest task of her collegiate career. After running the second leg of Ole Miss' relay, she'll have roughly 45 minutes to recover for the 100-meter dash final at 5:22 p.m. CT.
Long wowed the Hayward faithful with the top time qualifier in the 100 on Thursday at a wind-legal PR of 10.91 (+0.0), which tied her for sixth worldwide in 2024 as well as into a tie for No. 10 in the collegiate record books. She is the only runner in the world with wind-legal times below 11 seconds in the 100 and 22 seconds in the 200.
Long's marquee event will be coming up a bit later, but the last two weeks has proved she is a legitimate threat in the 100 – both collegiately and beyond. She only ran the 100 once this season prior to the NCAA East Regional on May 23. Since then, she has broken 11 seconds with a legal wind for the first two times in her career.
A win would mark the first NCAA Outdoor victory in a track event shorter than 800-meters in Ole Miss men's or women's history. The best finish ever by a Rebel in the event was by All-American Teneeshia Jones, who finished fifth in 2001.
Women's 400-Meter Hurdles Final • 5:57 p.m. CT
Long isn't the only one pulling double-duty on Saturday. Sophomore Gabrielle Matthews will have a little more than an hour to recover from the relay before getting in the blocks for the 400-meter hurdles final, where she will be one of only two underclassmen in attendance.
Matthews escaped cataclysm in the semifinal Thursday after clipping her final hurdle, finding a way to keep her balance and cross the finish line for an AQ berth to today's final – an exact inverse of what helped propel her to an SEC title in the event one month ago.
Matthews is already guaranteed the best finish ever by a Rebel woman in the event so long as she crosses the line, with the prior best being Brandy Mack's 10th-place showing in 2000. Any points in this event would mark the first in Ole Miss women's history – another first for the Jamaican sophomore, who has dismantled the school record several times en route to becoming the first Rebel woman to break 57 and then 56 seconds in the event.
Women's 200-Meter Dash Final • 6:07 p.m. CT
For McKenzie Long, all the heartbreak, all the pain, all the hard work comes down to this: the NCAA 200-meter final.
A year ago, while battling nagging injuries, she made a name for herself, running stride-for-stride with one of the fastest collegians of all-time in one of the fastest NCAA finals ever.
This year, the spotlight has remained hers, capturing the track world's attention first with her world-leading speed, and second for her perseverance through tragedy and her humility in the face of all the pressure that comes with being the world's fastest woman.
In the semifinal, Long posted a jaw-dropping 21.95 (+0.3) – her first career wind-legal sub-22. What was stupefying about that time, though, was that she noticeably decelerated over the final 15-20 meters. A similar final in which she goes full-blast through the line could be a sight to behold.
This won't be the last time McKenzie Long runs in the spotlight. A prosperous professional career lies ahead, starting with this summer's U.S. Olympic Trials. But on her last half-lap around the track as a collegian, Rebel fans should savor the moment and prepare to be dazzled one last time.
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