AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn junior Ja’Kobe Tharp won his second 110m hurdles conference title, and the men’s 4x100m relay claimed gold to highlight the third and final day of the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships Saturday at Hutsell-Rosen Track on the Auburn campus.
Auburn also had two podium finishes from senior Alyssa Quinones-Mixon, who won silver in the women’s pole vault and sophomore Israel Okon in the men’s 200m dash.
Tharp’s 13.05 equaled the fastest time in the world in 2026, tied his school record, and was a meet and facility record. The SEC champion in the event as a freshman, Tharp is the first Auburn male to win multiple SEC outdoor titles in the same event since Stephen Saenz won the shot put in 2011 and 2012.
"It feels great. I expressed how this is one that I really, really wanted this year,” Tharp said. “Usually, this is just a train through meet, but last year I came up short. I’m glad I was able to get it done. After losing last year, it kind of put a hole in me. Super happy to get this done, and at home is just the cherry on top.”
The 2026 calendar year has been eventful for Tharp, who won the SEC and NCAA indoor 60m hurdles title and now the league’s outdoor 110m hurdles title. Tharp now owns the top 10 performances in Auburn history in the event.
“My start was pretty good to be honest. Yesterday, I got rushed a little bit. I was able to stay calm, keep on focusing. It was a good race. Like I said, I really wanted this one. I was super excited to get it done.”
Auburn’s quartet of senior Azeem Fahmi, junior Kayinsola Ajayi, senior Austin Kresley and senior Tyler Davis won the program’s first 4x100m SEC outdoor title since 1997, running an NCAA leading 38.07 to easily outdistance LSU by 28 hundredths of a second.
“It’s a great feeling,” Fahmi said on the relay title. “The goal for the day was just to pass the stick around the track and execute the race. Maybe for some of us, yesterday was not our day. We just shook it off and focused on what we could do today. We believe that we are going to do much better after this.”
The win was the fourth in program history also joining the 1977 and 1978 winning relays.
“Trust me, it’s an honor. We are so happy to run here and break the facility record. This is actually the first time to win the SECs together as a team. It’s an honor, we’re so happy and we can’t wait to do it again at nationals."
Fresh off the relay win, Davis and teammate Omari Lewis, both making their first SEC finals in the men’s 100m, finished fourth and fifth, respectively, both crossing in 10.12. In his first year at Auburn, Davis’s 10.12 established a new personal best in the event. It was also the third time in the last four years that Auburn had two scorers in the event.
Okon claimed bronze in the men’s 200m after running a personal-best 20.10. The time moved Okon into a tie for No. 3 on the school performers list, and his podium finish was the third consecutive for the Tigers at the SEC meet. Sophomore Mekhi Dupree took eighth, crossing in 20.61.
The Atlantic Coast Conference champion last year in the 400m hurdles, senior transfer Devin Nugent finished seventh in the event, crossing in 49.86. Nugget, who ran a personal-best 49.36 in Thursday’s prelims, ran sub-50 seconds in consecutive races for the first time in his career.
On the women’s side, Quinones-Mixon recorded her best performance in her AU career at the outdoor championships with her silver medal performance after equaling a career-best 4.36m/14-3.50. It was the third consecutive scoring performance for the San Antonio native after finishing fourth and fifth the previous two years. Freshman Elizabeth Dowdy also PR’ed with a vault of 4.06m/13-3.75, good for seventh place.
Sophomore Camryn Massey placed fifth in the women’s discus throw with a mark of 56.93m/186-9, her best finish at the conference meet, while teammate Marley Raikiwasa finished sixth with a throw of 55.85m/183-3. A junior from Australia, Raikiwasa placed for the second time at SEC outdoors in the discus after finishing fifth in 2024.
Competing in his first Auburn meet, sophomore transfer Kai Twaddle-Dunham finished eighth in the men’s discus throw with a personal-best mark of 58.48m/191-10. Twaddle-Dunham’s scoring mark came on his third of six attempts and moved him into No. 8 on the school’s performer list.
The Auburn men finished 10th in the team standings with 45 points, while the women were 12th with 29.75 points. The meet was the first outdoor championships at Auburn since 2008 and the seventh all-time on the Plains.
Auburn's next competition will be the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds, May 27-30, in Lexington, Kentucky, on the University of Kentucky campus. The nation's top 48 competitors from the east and west regions of the country will qualify for the NCAA Prelims, with the top 12 from those meets advancing to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June.
SEC OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS
HUTSELL-ROSEN TRACK
AUBURN, AL
Saturday, May 16
Women’s Discus Throw
5. Camryn Massey 56.93m/186-9
6. Marley Raikiwasa 55.85m/183-3
Women’s Pole Vault
2. Alyssa Quinones-Mixon 4.36m/14-3.50 =PR, AU No. 2
7. Elizabeth Dowdy 4.06m/13-3.75 PR, AU No. 4
Men’s Discus Throw
8. Kai Twaddle-Dunham 58.48m/191-10 PR, AU No. 8
9. Seth Allen 57.93m/190-0
Women’s 4x100m Relay
Auburn DNF
Men’s 4x100m Relay
1. Auburn 38.07 FR NCAA No. 1, AU No. 3
Azeem Fahmi, Kayinsola Ajayi, Austin Kresley, Tyler Davis
Women’s 1500m
9. Camila Gomes 4:16.90
Men’s 1500m
10. Max Hardin 3:45.88
11. Joshua Kosgei 3:50.58
Men’s 110m Hurdles
1. Ja’Kobe Tharp 13.05 MR, FR, =SR, NCAA No. 1
Men’s 100m
5. Tyler Davis 10.12 PR
6. Omari Lewis 10.12
Men’s 400m Hurdles
7. Devin Nugent 49.86
Men’s 200m
3. Israel Okon 20.10 PR, =AU No. 3
8. Mekhi Dupree 20.61
Women’s 5000m
33. Mary Mac Collins 17:04.50
34. Audrey Dunn 17:05.20
Men’s 5000
18. Nickson Chebii 13:56.38