AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn track & field will send five athletes to the Albuquerque Convention Center Friday and Saturday to compete in the final meet of the indoor season, the 2023 Indoor Division I NCAA Championships.
Representing Auburn at this year's championships will be senior Madi Malone on the women's side, seniors Kyle Brown, Dontavious Hill, Alex Spyridonidis, and sophomore Favour Ashe on the men's side.
"Now it is just a bit of fine tuning and making sure the gears are well oiled," Tigers Head Coach Leroy Burrell said. "It starts with our All-Americans and they are an amazing group of athletes."
One of Auburn track & field's most decorated female athletes in school history, Madi Malone looks to step onto the national stage for a school-record fifth consecutive time boasting four event wins this season. The Wichita, Kansas product earned First Team All-America honors with a 22.63m/74-3 throw at the 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships to finish eighth. The top 10 throws in program history all belong to Malone, half of which came during the 2022 season.
Hill will make his third consecutive appearance at the indoor national meet. At last year's championships, Hill jumped 2.20m/7-2.50 to secure a third-place finish and First Team All-American status. Hill's bronze medal was the highest finish by an Auburn high jumper since Donald Thomas in 2007. This season, the Mobile, Alabama native jumped to new heights at the Vanderbilt Invite clearing 2.21m/7-3 for a new indoor personal best.
Spyridonidis heads to Albuquerque for his third consecutive national championship appearance after setting a season's best 5,867 points at the Texas Tech open and Multis meet. The senior set personal bests in the shot put (14.64m/48-0.5) and pole vault (5.10m/ 16'8.75) in Lubbock, Texas. Spyridonidis set a career best 5,881 points en route to a sixth-place finish at this meet in Birmingham just a year ago.
Like Hill, Spyridonidis also becomes the first Auburn man in program history to qualify for back-to-back-to-back NCAA Indoor meets in his event.
After winning the men's 60m dash two weeks ago at the Indoor SEC Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., Ashe returns to the national stage for the second time and first time in an Auburn uniform. This season, Ashe has recorded four of the top six 60m times in Auburn history while becoming the number two performer in program history.
At the 2022 Indoor NCAA Championships, Ashe clocked the fastest preliminary time of 6.51 before going on to finish third in the final crossing the line in 6.55.
Brown will make his indoor national championship debut at the Albuquerque Convention Center in the men's weight throw. Two weeks ago, at the conference championships Brown threw a career-best of 22.24m/72-11.75 to secure the bronze medal. Brown became the first Auburn man to post back-to-back podium efforts in the event since Jacob Dunkleberger in 2007 and 2008.
Spyridonidis will kickstart the action for the Tigers in the men's heptathlon 60m dash at 11 a.m. CST Friday while both Malone and Brown will enter the throwing ring the same day at 5 p.m. CST and 8 p.m. CST, respectfully. Ashe is set to compete Friday evening in the semifinal of the men's 60m dash at 8:15 p.m. CST. Saturday action begins with Spyridonidis completing in the final events in the heptathlon, beginning with the 60m hurdles at 11:30 a.m. CST, with Hill high jumping at 2 p.m. CST.
Live championship coverage will be streamed on ESPN+ starting at 10:30 a.m. CT Friday March 10 and starting at 12:30 p.m. CT Saturday March 11. Two re-airs of the championship will take place at 5 p.m. CT on Sunday, March 12 on ESPN and starting at 6 p.m. CT on Monday March 13 on ESPNU.
Live results for the meet will be available at FlashResults.com.