Texas women’s track and field claims its 14th Big 12 indoor title

The No. 7 ranked Texas women’s track and field team was crowned indoor conference champions one last time before joining the SEC at the 2024 Big 12 Indoor Championships in Lubbock this weekend.

The Longhorns scored 135 points with an abundance of record-breaking performances to beat out No.5 Texas Tech, and also took home six individual gold medals.

Sophomore sprinter Dejanea Oakley led the team by contributing 20 points to the score, being named the Big 12 Indoor High Point Performer.

Oakley won the 400-meter dash title with a personal best of 51.72 seconds. The player from Jamaica hung on to the lead despite pressure from Iowa State’s Rachel Joseph, becoming the fifth Longhorn in a row to win the title. The Longhorns nabbed 19 points from the event, with senior Ziyah Holman winning the bronze and freshman Lauren Lewis finishing sixth.

Oakley accomplished a personal best of 22.86 seconds in the 200-meter dash, placing second.

The nation’s current best long jumper, junior Ackelia Smith, continues to be practically flawless in her execution of the event, winning her second Big 12 title with a mark of 6.74 meters. Smith also placed fourth in the triple jump and fifth in the 60-meter dash, scoring 19 points for the Longhorns.

Freshman Aaliyah Foster placed third in the long jump event with a mark of 6.34 meters.

Texas dominated the shot-put event, sweeping the podium. Freshman star Nina Ndubuisi claimed her first conference title with a throw of 18.07 meters, just shy of her personal best. Junior Chrystal Herpin threw a personal best of 17.48 meters, taking second place and placing herself at No. 4 on the all-time performer list for Texas. Rounding out the podium positions was graduate student Marilyn Nwora, who threw for 17.23 meters.

Back on track, senior Emelia Chatfield ran away from the 60-meter hurdles field from the start and won her first conference title with a personal best time of 7.95 seconds. Freshman and two-time under-20 World Champion hurdler Akala Garrett finished sixth with a time of 8.27 seconds. Chatfield and Garrett totaled 13 points in the event for the team.

Garrett went on to become the fifth Longhorn in a row to win the 600-yard run with her time of 1:19.04, scoring an additional 10 points.

In the relay events, Lewis, Oakley, Holman and junior Kenondra Davis collectively scored eight points, taking home second place in the 4×400 relay with a time of 3:30.08 seconds.

Senior Trinity Tomlinson took home third place with a jump of 1.80 meters in the high jump, while graduate student Olivia Howell also finished third in the 800-meter dash with a personal best of 2:03.86 seconds.

Senior Kristine Blazevica was crowned the pentathlon queen once again, winning her third conference title with a program and personal record of 4,430 points. Blazevica fought for the championship to the very end, as she came into the last segment of the event in second place, but won the 800-meter dash by a large margin to claim the title.

The Longhorns will look to build upon this momentum heading into the NCAA Indoor National Champions March 8-9 in Boston, Massachusetts, where they will face a much larger talent pool.