AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn track and field travels to Virginia Beach, Virginia, to compete in the final meet of the indoor season, the 2025 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, March 14-15 at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.
There are nine Tigers representing Auburn at the championships this year, the most since 2007, where the team sent 10 to Nationals. The Tigers’ six men mark the most individual qualifiers the team has had at the championships since 2007, when they sent six. For the women, this marks the 24th consecutive year than an Auburn woman has competed in the event. This year, the Tigers send three to Virginia Beach.
Representing Auburn this year will be seniors Makanakaishe Charamba (200m), Maura Huwalt (weight throw), Vimbayi Maisvorewa (400m) and Dario Matau (200m), junior Azeem Fahmi (60m), sophomores Kayinsola Ajayi (60m), Ja’Kobe Tharp (60m) and Ana-Liese Torian (60m hurdles) and freshman Israel Okon (60m).
Okon is Auburn’s first freshman to run at NCAA Indoors in the 60m since redshirt freshman Harry Adams in 2010.
The Tigers are led by head coach Leroy Burrell, who is in his third season on The Plains.
“I feel really good about our group,” Burrell said. “I am looking forward to getting there and finishing the job of getting them ready to go. We are building on what we did outdoors last year. We’ve got a special group. They represent us well and could continue to do so if we put them in the right situation.”
In the most recent USTFCCCA rankings poll, the men enter the weekend ranked 4th and the women 48th.
“On the men’s side, we have an opportunity to score big,” Burrell said. “This is a mostly veteran group. They are savvy and well-seasoned in all levels of competition. I feel good about the opportunity of us leaving with quite a few points and finishing in the top 10 if a few things go our way.”
Charamba, an Olympic finalist in Paris last summer for Zimbabwe, will race in his first NCAA Indoor Championships. He enters the weekend with the fastest 200m time in the nation (20.13). At his last showing, he delivered a gold-worthy performance at the SEC Indoor Championships, crossing the line in 20.13. His performance is the 2025 world-leading time, African No. 3 all-time indoors, No. 6 all-time collegiate indoors and the Zimbabwe national indoor record. He has run four of Auburn’s five fastest indoor 200m times in history.
Tharp was Auburn’s other individual champion at SECs. He broke his own school record, the facility record and posted the eighth-fastest collegiate time ever to claim the 60m hurdles title (7.48). The Murfreesboro, Tennessee native is the youngest Auburn 60m hurdles indoor qualifier since Shamar Sands in 2004. He is a two-time SEC Champion (2025 indoors 60m hurdles and 2024 outdoors 110m hurdles). Tharp owns seven of the fastest program times in the event and is currently on the Bowerman Award Watch List.
“We have guys who have competed at World Championships and the Olympic games,” Burrell said. “They’re ready for this.”
First Team All-American Ajayi is making his first NCAA indoor appearance and second NCAA appearance. He is tied for the fastest 60m time in the nation (6.51), which he ran at the Tiger Paw Invitational in February. His time is also tied for the second fastest in program history.
Sprinter Okon finished second in the men’s 60m dash to earn a spot on the podium. In the prelim round of the event, he broke the Auburn freshman record, facility record and tied with his teammate (Ajayi) with the fastest time in the nation this season. Okon equaled the World U20 Record previously set by Mark Lewis-Francis of Great Britain in 2001.
Sharing the 60m podium with Okon was Fahmi. He punched a ticket to his first NCAAs after delivering a collegiate best performance in the 60m at the conference championships. His time of 6.56 earned him a bronze medal and he moved up to eighth on Auburn’s Indoor Top Performers List, bettering his Malaysian indoor national record.
Matau will make his second indoor championship appearance (first for Auburn) after earning his spot at SECs racing in the 200m. He finished fourth overall, tying his collegiate personal best (20.60). Matau is ranked No. 13 in the nation.
On the women’s side, Torian ran a personal best (8.07) in the 60m hurdles finals at SEC Indoors to finish fourth and take her spot as the No. 2 performer in Auburn history. She is Auburn’s first 60m hurdles NCAA qualifier since Samantha Scarlett qualified in 2016.
“For our women, Ana-Liese is on a tear,” Burrell said. “There’s a chance she could have a PR and put herself in scoring position. I feel the same about Vimbayi. If she runs a good race, it’ll give her a chance to score. Maura has performed well in these situations. I’m really hoping on the women’s side, we can get on the scoreboard.”
All-American Maisvoerwa is making her second consecutive Indoor NCAA Championships appearance. While racing in the prelim round of SECs, Maisvoerwa broke her own record in the 400m (51.55). She finished seventh in finals. At the 2024 championships, she finished 14th overall, earning Second Team All-America honors.
This is Huwalt’s first time as an indoors qualifier and third time overall as an NCAAs qualifier after securing her place in discus (2022) and javelin (2023) at outdoors. Throughout the indoor season, she has been a consistent presence for the Tigers in weight throw. She took gold in four of the five regular season meets. Huwalt’s ticket-punching mark came from a throw at the Bob Pollock Invitational in February (22.27m). She enters the weekend at No. 13 in the country.
“They work hard, and they’ve prepared themselves well,” Burrell said, “now we just need to make sure that they can finish the job.”
Live results for the meet will be available at FlashResults.com. ESPN+ will live stream the event starting Friday at 8:30 a.m. CT and 9:30 a.m. CT on Saturday.