AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn track and field is set for the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Championships at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, June 11-14, on the University of Oregon’s campus.
Led by third-year Auburn track & field head coach Leroy Burrell, the Tigers will be represented by 13 individuals in 12 different events and two relays at the top collegiate meet in the country. This will be the 43rd consecutive championship that Auburn has had at least one woman represented and the 36th straight on the men’s side.
“We’re looking forward to taking it to Eugene,” Burrell said. “Our goal has been to qualify as many for nationals and take a shot at a top-five performance, and I think the men are primed to do something along those lines. The women have improved remarkably, and they have a shot at finishing in the top 25, which would be an outstanding performance for us.”
The men will compete Wednesday and Friday, while the women’s events take place Thursday and Saturday. Action for Auburn begins in the field Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. CT with the men’s hammer throw. Running events start at 6:05 p.m. CT with the men’s semifinal round of the 4x100m relay.
Entering the weekend, the men are ranked 6th, their highest ranking of the season, and the women come in at 27th.
Competing at the 2025 NCAA East Preliminaries in Jacksonville, Florida, the team delivered solid performances to punch their tickets to the NCAA Championship.
“I’m satisfied with what we were able to accomplish,” Burrell said. “There were a couple of really high-level performances. The men’s side on day two was one of the best meets I have seen in a long time as far as performance is concerned. Our athletes were certainly part of that. It was all around, a great weekend for Auburn track and field.”
The first Tigers to punch tickets to NCAAs were the hammer throwing duo of Kyle Moison and Kyle Brown. Senior Moison finished the event third, qualifying for the second time in his collegiate career with a personal best mark of 68.20m. Senior Brown will make his third outdoor championships appearance after finishing seventh with a toss of 66.61m.
The men's sprinters advanced five to NCAAs. Senior Makanakaishe Charamba posted the fastest 200m in the nation, crossing the line in 19.79 (+2.4 m/s) to earn a spot in his second outdoor championships.
With a time of 20.19 (+2.4 m/s), senior Dario Matau ran the ninth fastest 200m time of the day, and he will compete in his first 200m at the outdoor championships at the highest level.
Sophomore Kayinsola Ajayi and freshman Israel Okon punched tickets in the 100m dash. Ajayi ran a personal best time of 9.95, just one-hundredth of a second off the program record. Okon crossed the line in 10.13, which earned him the final spot to Eugene in the event.
The 4x100m relay quartet of junior Azeem Fahmi, Ajayi, Matau, and Charamba ran the second fastest time of the day (38.51) and advanced to nationals, with the hopes of defending their national title. They look to be the first repeat champions in the event since Burrell’s Houston team won in 2017-18.
The reigning indoor 60m hurdles champion, Ja’Kobe Tharp, qualified for the 110m hurdles after running 13.14, the top time of the event and breaking his own program record by one-hundredth of a second. Tharp looks to become Auburn’s seventh athlete to win an NCAA indoor and outdoor championship in the same year.
Discus thrower Seth Allen delivered a big-time performance to punch his ticket to nationals. The junior from Austell, Georgia, had the best throw of the day, tying his collegiate best (60.95m). Allen looks to compete in his second NCAAs and his first for Auburn.
On the women’s side, freshman Brenda Jepchirchir continues to be a dominant force for the Tigers as she punched two tickets, taking down a school record in the process. The Iten, Kenya native claimed the last ticket to Eugene in the women’s 10000m, crossing the finish line 39 hundredths of a second ahead of her closest competitor (33:13.61).
Jepchirchir, the 2025 SEC Indoor 5000m silver medalist, also qualified for Eugene in the same event after she broke her own program record (15:33.50).
Sophomore Ana-Liese Torian qualified for her first outdoor nationals after running 12.81 in the women’s 100m hurdles. She broke the previous school record set by Vonette Dixon in 2000 (12.90) and enters the meet ranked sixth in the country.
Junior Alyssa Quinones-Mixon cleared 4.24m in the women’s pole vault competition, punching her ticket to NCAAs for the second year in a row. The San Antonio, Texas native is the second Auburn woman in school history to advance to nationals in pole vault, joining Jessie Johnson.
Senior Adrienne Adams threw 55.09m in women’s discus throw, punching her ticket to NCAAs and finished seventh overall. This will be Adams' first nationals for the Tigers and her second overall.
Saving her best throw for last, sophomore Megan Hague earned her second trip in a row to Eugene with a mark of 17.00m, finishing eighth overall in women’s shot put.
All-American Vimbayi Maisvorewa will return to Oregon for her second NCAA Outdoor Championships to race in the women’s 400m. She automatically punched her ticket in the event after delivering the second fastest time in her heat (51.10). Her season’s best time of 50.25 is the second fastest in the country.
The NCAA East Preliminaries ended with a spectacular performance from the women’s 4x400m relay team. Maisvorewa, senior Ashantae Harvey and sophomores Zuriel Reed and Deborah Oke advanced to nationals (3:28.06) with the fifth fastest time of the event. Last season, the relay missed nationals by one place, finishing 13th.
“We’re in a constant state of trying to improve and build our program,” Burrell said. “We want to put Auburn track & field among the group that is always in contention. I think we have the right people on staff and surrounding our program to do that.”
Live results can be found at flashresults.ncaa.com. The meet will be live streamed on ESPN+ and coverage throughout the meet can also be found on the ESPN family of networks. To view the Auburn Notes, visit here.