AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn track and field sophomore hurdler Ja’Kobe Tharp and assistant coach Ken Harnden were selected as the 2025 Men’s South Region Track Athlete of the Year and the Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year, respectively, the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country (USTFCCCA) announced Friday.
Award winners were determined by a vote of USTFCCCA member coaches following the conclusion of the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, at Hayward Field.
Competing at his second NCAA Outdoor Championships, Tharp claimed his second national title, running 13.05 in the 110m hurdles. His time was the third fastest in the world this year and the fifth fastest collegiately ever. He was Auburn’s first 110m hurdles national champion since Ty Akins in 2007.
Harnden, who is in his third year at Auburn, is responsible for coaching the Tigers’ sprints and hurdles. The men finished fourth overall at the outdoor championships, and Harnden’s squad accounted for all 35 of the men’s team points total. It was the first time the Auburn men had consecutive top-five finishes at outdoor nationals since 2007-08.
Auburn’s fourth-place finish was the team’s third consecutive trophy on the men’s side after finishing third at the 2025 NCAA Indoor Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Tharp now holds the eight fastest 110m hurdles times in program history. The Murfreesboro, Tennessee, native was the 2025 NCAA indoor 60m hurdles champion, and he became the seventh Auburn student-athlete to win an indoor and outdoor NCAA title in the same year. He was the first since Kerron Stewart in 2007 and the first male runner since James Walker in 1979.
At the SEC Outdoor Championships, Tharp took silver in the event (13.15).
The 4x100m relay team of sophomore Kayinsola Ajayi, junior Azeem Fahmi and seniors Dario Matau and Makanakaishe Charamba became national champions for the second year in a row (38.33). The quartet became the first repeated champions in the event since head coach Leroy Burrell’s Houston teams did it in 2017 and 2018.
The pair of event titles gave Auburn multiple national titles in the same year for the third time ever in program history.
Following the outdoor championships, the men earned seven All-America honors, including six with first team distinctions. First team accolades were earned by Ajayi (100m & 4x100m relay), Charamba (Men’s 200m & 4x100m relay), Fahmi (4x100m relay), Matau (4x100m relay), Israel Okon (100m), Tharp (110m hurdles). Matau also earned Second Team honors for his performance in the 200m.
Earlier this season, Tharp was selected as the Men’s South Region Track Athlete of the Year and Harnden was named Men’s South Region Assistant Coach of the Year and Men’s National Assistant Coach of the Year following the indoor season.
Last season, Harden was named the 2024 USTFCCCA South Region Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year and the 2024 USTFCCCA National Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year.
Each of the nine regions – Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Mountain, Northeast, South, South Central, Southeast and West – honored both gender’s top track athletes and field athletes as well as the top men’s and women’s head coaches and assistant coaches.
For a full list of the 2025 USTFCCCA regional winners, visit here.