The DI indoor track and field championship selections are tomorrow, February 28, but before the announcement of qualifiers, let's take a look back at some of the top performances of the season.
December-January top performances
To kick off February, I highlighted the most exciting indoor track and field performances from the beginning of the season. With some, if not most, of those performances standing out spectacularly a month later, I won't make you relive them. Instead, I'll just list them below to acknowledge their impressive accomplishments.
- Arkansas's Britton Wilson — 600 meters
- Texas' Julien Alfred — 60 meters (part 1)
- Kentucky's Masai Russell — 60-meter hurdles
- NC State's Katelyn Tuohy — Mile
- Michigan's 4x400 meter relay
- Texas' Ackelia Smith — Long jump
- Florida's Jasmine Moore — Triple jump
- Northern Arizona's Drew Bosley — 3000 meters
- Texas' Brian Herron — 500 meters
- Georgia's Kyle Garland — heptathlon
- Washington's eight-mile runners
- Florida State's Jeremiah Davis — Long jump
MORE: The most exciting indoor track and field performances after one month
Some of the athletes on the list have continued to impress in the same events in February as they did in January. To diversify the performances in this article, athletes like Jasmine Moore, Jeremiah Davis and others from above miss out.
The new collegiate record holders
There have been 16 DI collegiate records set in the 2023 indoor season, with eight coming in February. On the women's side, Texas' Julien Alfred broke the 60-meter record two more times, NC State's Katelyn Tuohy claimed her third collegiate record of the year in her third event, Oregon's Jorinde Van Klinken set the shot put record and the 400-meter record fell twice in one day.
If that wasn't good enough, Washington and Oklahoma State broke the women's and men's DMR records, respectively. The motto of the 2023 season should be "Another week, Another record."
RELATED: Every collegiate indoor track and field record broken this season
Your new American, Collegiate, School, Facility, and Meet record holder in the Indoor 400m (50.15)
— Gators Track and Field & Cross Country (@GatorsTF) February 26, 2023
Talitha Diggs 🤩🤩🤩#GoGators 🐊 pic.twitter.com/T4umRPZB20
The rest of the top performances
Now that the obvious top performances are out of the way, we can dive into more non-record-breaking but still impressive performances.
Jaydon Hibbert continues to look like the best freshman in the country
Jaydon Hibbert is only a freshman, but he leads the NCAA in the triple jump at 17.10 meters after SEC Championships. No one else in the country has broken the 17-meter threshold this year. Hibbert is quickly approaching the top 10 indoor triple jumps in collegiate history in his rookie season.
Here's Jamaica's Jaydon Hibbert of the University of Arkansas, posting an indoor best 17.10m to win the SEC finals on Saturday. Enjoy. pic.twitter.com/g2qZOODKVx
— Athletics Jamaica (@Athletics_JA) February 26, 2023
🔮: Men's indoor track and field championship predictions
Terrence Jones reintroduces himself with the fourth-fastest time in NCAA history
"Allow me to reintroduce myself" might be one of Grammy Award-winning rapper Jay-Z's most popular lyrics, but for Texas Tech's Terrence Jones, it was a statement sent to NCAA sprinters at the Big 12 Indoor Championships.
Jones, the collegiate men's 60-meter record holder, returned to the track for the first time this year at conference championships. Jones ran a 6.46 second 60 meters in the heats, just .01 seconds away from matching his record. He later won the conference title to cap off his impressive return to action.
Turned off hibernation mode 🫣#WreckEm | @sprintertj pic.twitter.com/lSwQwlnpL5
— Texas Tech Track & Field (@TexasTechTF) February 25, 2023
Roisin Willis breaks the two-minute barrier in the 800-meter
Stanford's Roisin Willis became the first collegiate woman in 2023 to run sub two minutes in the 800 meters at Wisconsin Badger's Windy City Invite II. Willis ran 1:59.95 to become just the second woman in NCAA history to break the two-minute barrier
Lamara Distin's remains dominant in the high jump
Texas A&M's Lamara Distin swept 2022's women's high jump titles, and she looks like the favorite to win them again after her 1.97-meter jump at the Tiger Paw Invite. Distin probably could've matched her mark again at SEC, but she went for the collegiate record at 2.00 meters instead.
🔮: Women's indoor track and field championship predictions
Jalani Davis reminds us why Ole Miss is "Weight Throw U"
Ole Miss' Jalani Davis reached 24.63 meters on her weight throw at SEC Championships to enter the top five of the record book. With her throw, Davis joined the five of the top nine women's weight throws all-time from any athlete in NCAA history that have come from Ole Miss.
Your weekly reminder that Ole Miss = good in the weight throw.
— Ole Miss Track&Field (@OleMissTrack) February 25, 2023
Updated all-time collegiate top-10:
2. Shey Taiwo - 25.55m
3. Jasmine Mitchell - 24.94m
5. Jalani Davis - 24.63m
9. Janeah Stewart - 24.12m#HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/GQUtwJHjG7
A pair of collegians win USATF indoor titles
Arizona State's Justin Robinson and Texas A&M-Commerce's J.T. Smith each won titles at the USATF Indoor Championships. Robinson won the US men's 400-meter title with a huge kick to finish in 45.40 seconds. Smith won the US men's 60-meter title in 6.53 seconds. Both beat professional sprinters en route to the title.
Arizona State’s Justin Robinson is your new @usatf Indoor 400m champion 🇺🇸 🏆 @Justin_Malik2 finished in 45.40 seconds for the win, a new @SunDevilTFXC program record and the 3rd-fastest time in the world 🌎 #NCAATF @NCAATrackField
— Stan Becton (@stan_becton) February 18, 2023
pic.twitter.com/DmQspFFmmn
Looking forward
There were plenty of other elite-level performances throughout the indoor track and field regular season and conference championships, but with so many, I couldn't include them all.
However, the good news is that we still get one more indoor meet where collegiate athletes will surely surpass some of the performances on this list. All eyes will be on the 2023 DI men's and women's indoor track and field championships from March 10-11.
