Despite following shortly after indoor, the outdoor season can feel like a blank slate for student-athletes due to the shift in events, format and competition environment.
For the Texas men’s track and field team, the switch was a much-needed reset. After placing 14th out of 15 at the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships in its conference meet opener, the Longhorns focused on changing the narrative and restoring the expected high level of performance.
“We’re all irritated, we’re all pissed off,” junior Logan Popelka said earlier in the outdoor season. “We all want to go be great, and we want to show everybody that. Just because we had a bad performance indoors doesn’t mean we are a bad team.”
Popelka and his teammates knew they were capable of rebounding.
And they have.
The Texas men have been in the Top 20 of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association team rankings throughout the outdoor season, entering the SEC Championships at No. 13. It marked a clear improvement from indoor, in which the Longhorns continuously fell in the rankings and finished outside of the Top 25.
At the SEC Outdoor Championships, held on Kentucky’s campus in mid-May, the Texas men came in seventh. That development led to the NCAA First Round in College Station, where championship qualifying spots were on the line.
Nine Texas men across seven different events qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, this week. Sophomore Osawese Agbonkonkon (high jump), junior Kody Blackwood (400-meter hurdles, 4×400-meter relay), junior Chris Brinkley Jr. (4×400-meter relay), sophomore Xavier Butler (200-meter, 4×100-meter relays), senior Kelsey Daniel (triple jump), Popelka (4×400-meter relays), junior John Rutledge (4×100-meter relay, 4×400-meter relays), senior Almond Small (4×100-meter relay) and junior Kendrick Smallwood (110-meter hurdles, 4×100-meter relay) make up the group.
The first day of men’s events was held on Wednesday, with the remainder being completed on Friday. Women’s events take place on Thursday and will conclude on Saturday. Ten Texas women in six different events will compete in Eugene, making it 19 total for the Longhorns.
On Wednesday, four of five Texas events competing in track semifinals advanced to Friday’s finals.
The headliner is Smallwood, who qualified for the 110-meter hurdle final with the second-best semifinal time. He has not lost a race in the event all season and now owns the top eight fastest times in Texas history. Smallwood has the chance to close a perfect outdoor season by becoming an NCAA champion on Friday.
He will also take part in the 4×100-meter relay alongside Rutledge, Small and Butler. The squad finished third in their heat but had the eighth-best time overall, earning them qualification for Friday.
Butler finished second in his heat in the 200-meter, allowing him entry into the final. He will be making two finals appearances in his first NCAA Championships.
Blackwood advanced to the 400-meter hurdle finals after running the third-fastest time in the semifinals. Expect him to be in the mix down the stretch, as he has been amongst the top competitors in the event all season. Agbonkonkon, debuting on the championship stage, and Daniel, in his fourth NCAA meet, will have their field events to round out Texas’s action.
With six events on Friday, the Longhorns could return to Austin with podium finishes, confirming the success of their outdoor season bounce-back.
