Indoor Track Update 21

Ohio State's Adelaide Aquilla takes NCAA shot put crown

Adelaide Aquilla won the shot put at the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 12. The Ohio State junior won with a throw of 18.12. She entered the contest with the sixth best throw of the season. Her previous best throw this year was 17.70.

Arizona's Smantha Noennig entered the competition with the best throw at 18.25. She finished second with a throw of 17.69. Arizona State's Jorinde Van Kinken was third at 17.56.

Aquilla is the back-to-back Big Ten champion in the shot put. It was her first time qualifying for the indoor national meet but she did compete at the outdoor NCAA championships as a freshman in 2019. She placed 12th at that meet..

The rest of the top eight of the field of 16 were Virginia Tech junior Essence Henderson, North Dakota State junior Akealy Moton, junior Gabrielle Bailey of Kent State, Indiana senior Madison Pollard and Kayli Johnson, a senior from Texas Tech.

Henderson and Bailey made the two most surprising marks of all the competitors. Henderson entered with the 10th best throw at 17.01 and Bailey was 12th at 16.84. The two juniors threw a fourth place 17.36 and sixth place 17.11 respectively.

Tyra Gittens owns NCAA pentathlon record on national stage

On March 12, Tyra Gittens was not to be denied. She set the NCAA record scoring 4,746 points in the pentathlon as she won the national title in the event.

The Texas A&M junior scored wins in the high jump, shot put and long jump portions while placing second in the 60-meter hurdles and 15th in the 800 meters. Her dominant effort was good enough to hold off Georgia sophomore and rival Anna Hall. Hall topped Gittens in the SEC pentathlon championship. At the NCAA meet Hall scored 4,401 points.

Makenli Forrest soars like a Cardinal in NCAA weight throw

Louisville senior Makenli Forrest beat some steep competition to take the NCAA championship in the weight throw, March 11, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Six other competitors out of 16 entered the meet with a higher throw but Forrest walked out with the best mark of the day.

Forrest's throw of 23.26 finished ahead of Notre Dame senior Rachel Tanczos's 23.24 toss and Ole Miss senior Shey Taiwo's mark of 22.94.

Forrest and Tanczos finished in a familiar position as the two took the top two spots at the ACC indoor championship meet. Forrest last won the ACC weight throw when she was a freshman back in 2018. Tanczos won the ACC crown in 2019, while having runner-up finishes in 2020 as well as this year.

Taiwo was the SEC weight throw champ last season. This year she was the conference runner-up before placing third at the NCAA championship meet. She qualified for the NCAAs in 2019 where she placed 10th. Taiwo was the only of the top three ranked regular season competitors that finished in the top three.

Other throwers that scored points for their team in the competition were Ole Miss sophomore and SEC champ Jasmine Mitchell, Auburn junior Madi Malone, California junior Camryn Rogers, Southern Illinois junior Shauniece O'Neal and Michigan State junior Rebecca Mammel.

LSU's Lisa Gunnarsson, NCAA's best in pole vault

Senior Lisa Gunnarsson earned a first place win for LSU, capturing the NCAA indoor crown in the pole vault. Her mark of 4.56, finished ahead of runner-up Georgia senior Kayla Smith who vaulted at 4.35 and High Point freshman Sydney Horn who finished at 4.41.

Gunnarsson was last year's SEC champ in the pole vault but placed third at this year's conference championship meet behind Georgia sophomore Julia Fixsen and the previously mentioned Kayla Smith who placed first and second respectively.

Fixsen competed in the national meet, placing 11th out of 16 competitors with a mark of 4.16.