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Gary Putnik | NCAA.com | May 15, 2022

The best 5 performances from outdoor track and field conference battles

2022 midseason superlatives for women's outdoor track and field

Outdoor track and field conference championships are wrapping up this weekend with the DI prelim selections coming up soon on May 19. There were great performances out of each conference as the competition heats up. Here are five of the best from this weekend. 

1. Kentucky women's 4x400 breaks NCAA record

On Saturday night, Kentucky's Karimah Davis, Dajour Miles, Abby Steiner and Alexis Holmes put together the fastest women's 4x400 in NCAA history, running it in 3:21.93. 

All of the top three teams in the 4x400 broke the previous record set by Texas A&M last spring, but Kentucky beat out the Aggies by eight-hundredths of a second to set the new best time. The Wildcats ended up in fourth place overall in this year's women's outdoor championships final standings. 

2. LSU's Favour Ofili outlasts Kentucky's Abby Steiner in 200m

Favour Ofili and Abby Steiner had an all-time face in the 200m. Ofili posted a time of 22.04 while Steiner followed inches behind at 22.07. Steiner got out to a great start, but around the 100m mark, Ofili gained a lead and was able to use that momentum to hold Steiner off. 

Ofili cleaned up at the SEC outdoor championships with a first-place finish in the 100m (10.93) and 4x100 (42.59) to go along with her 200m win. 

3. Texas' Julien Alfred breaks program record in 100m

In the 100m prelims of the Big 12 championships, Texas' Julien Alfred broke Carlette Guidry's program record for the fastest 100m dash with a time of 10.81. Guidry's record stood for 31 years before Alfred broke it. 

That time was also good enough to put Alfred at No. 3 all-time for fastest NCAA 100m just behind Sha'Carri Richardson (10.75). 

4. Coastal Carolina's Melissa Jefferson blows by competition in 100m

Another name was added to the top 100m performances on Saturday. In the Sun Belt, Coastal Carolina's Melissa Jefferson ran it in 10.88 seconds in the finals. That was good enough for a personal best for the junior from Georgetown, South Carolina. 

Jefferson was also a part of the 4x100 team that claimed first by setting a meet and Sun Belt record in the event with a time of 43.79. 

5. Florida, and Arkansas claim SEC titles

The SEC is one of the most competitive conferences in the nation and it provided an exhilarating championship over the weekend. Florida won the women's title while Arkansas won the men's. 

The Razorbacks were four points away from sweeping the men's and women's titles, but the Gators edged out Arkansas with a final tally of 107. A big piece of Florida's win was Jasmine Moore who took home first in both the long and triple jump. This was the seventh SEC title for UF women's outdoor track and field and its first since 2018. 

On the men's side, Arkansas put up 120 points to beat out Alabama and the rest of the SEC field. One spot in particular where the Razorbacks picked up a lot of points was the 5000m. There, Arkansas' Patrick Kiprop, Amon Kemboi and Emmanuel Cheboson finished first, second and third. 

Check out all the results from the SEC championship here.

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