World Leader Surpasses Sha’Carri Richardson’s Peak Performance After Winning at NCAA Championships

In less than three hours, Ole Miss’ McKenzie Long won three events at the NCAA Track and Field Championships. Long achieved a triple crown at the event with wins in 100m, 200m and 4×100-meter relay. After helping the program to secure a first outdoor relay title in its history, Long made history of her own, eclipsing Sha’Carri Richardson, while setting up a world lead in 200m.

After winning the 4×100 relay and the 100m dash, Long geared for the 200m event. Here, Long was competing against the U20 American record holder and indoor national champion Jameesia Ford. However, Long found it in her to not only win, but set a time of 21.83, behind only Abby Steiner in NCAA history.

This is also her personal best and with it she surpassed Sha’Carri Richardson 200m timing in both her junior and senior stints so far. Richardson held the Junior World Record Holder in 200m with 22.17 in 2019 and she finished with a time of 21.92 in the 200m at the World Championships held in Budapest, Hungary last year. But Richardson was not the only sprinter, Long surpassed at the Championships.

McKenzie Long’s time at the NCAA championships means she is ahead of two-time Olympic champion Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone, who achieved her best 200m timing of 22.07 seconds this season. The 23-year-old athlete has also overpowered another Olympic champion, Gabby Thomas. Despite a time of 22.08 seconds, the phenomenal American sprinter has now slipped to third position. Long thus has set the world lead.

Long’s performance is made all the more remarkable considering she lost her mother, Tara Jones, in February this year due to a heart attack. On the championship day, she mentioned that seeing the blocks made her calm, as she felt like her mom was with her.

“You usually have to fix your blocks before you get into your lane. But, the 100 is the event where I’m less comfortable in compared to the 200. When I went out there and the block was already in my settings, I was shook. I was like Mom, this is instantly you. That’s never happened to me before,” she added.

Before coming to the 200m event today, she said she asked her mother, “Mom, I know you’re here, push me through.” And the result left her ahead of the American U-20 record. After attaining such a humongous feat, Long rushed to her father, waiting in the stands for her, and hugged him.

Long started the NCAA Finals with the relay team win. She then ran the 100m and finished top with 10.82 seconds, for her second win of the day. The Rebel then completed a historic triple crown by winning the 200m. With this, she became only the sixth woman to ever achieve this feat.

Meanwhile, her accomplishments also helped Ole Miss to make history at the NCAA Championships.

McKenzie Long rewrites history books with Ole Miss

In the first competition, McKenzie Long was joined by Akilah Lewis, a world championship qualifier, Gabrielle Mathews, an All-American in the 400-meter hurdles, and Jahniya Bowers, newly crowned national champion in the 4×100 relay. Together, they put up a time of 42.34 to lead Ole Miss to their first national title in outdoor relay.

In the process, Ole Miss also became the first first-time champion in the women’s 4×1 since South Carolina in 2002.

With this win, Ole Miss etched their name as just the fourth team in women’s NCAA Outdoor history to sweep all three events—Florida State (1984) was the first to do it, LSU has done it three times (1989, 1990, 1996), and Texas has done it twice (1991, 2023). The efforts of Long and her teammates helped Ole Miss Rebels to an overall program record fifth-place finish.

For McKenzie Long, this leg of her journey is now complete. Despite, having to deal with the challenges of a personal loss, Long wrote her name in the history books and in some style.