Track & Field Concludes NCAA Indoor with Pair of Top-15 Team Finishes

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Ole Miss track & field continued to prove its worth on the national stage, posting a pair of top-15 team finishes at the conclusion of an excellent stay at the 2023 NCAA Indoor Championships on Saturday.
 
The Rebel women finished in 10th place at 23 total points, the second-best finish in Ole Miss women’s history with the second-most points – all from just three women. The Ole Miss men finished tied for 12th at 17 points, their third-straight top-15 team finish – a record streak in the combined history of the men’s and women’s programs at Ole Miss, indoors or outdoors.
 
Ole Miss was one of just eight schools nationwide this year to place both its men’s and women’s teams within the top-15 at the indoor national meet, and in the last two years, Ole Miss stands as one of just three schools to place both programs within the top-15 nationally alongside Arkansas and Texas.
 
“I am so proud of both of our teams and how they competed this weekend,” said Ole Miss head coach Connie Price-Smith. “We had a great weekend with some wonderful performances, and I can’t say enough about how well our team stepped up to the challenge here at NCAAs.”
 
Senior McKenzie Long led the Rebel charge on Saturday with two gutsy performances in the women’s 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash finals. Long – who was one of six women to advance to finals in both events – had to dig deep in the finals after a powerful but draining pair of performances in Friday night’s semifinals, her first-ever races at altitude. But Long was unphased on Saturday, scoring seven crucial NCAA points for the Rebel women – the first national points of her career.
 
Long opened the day in the 60-meter dash final, where she finished seventh at 7.19 seconds in a race that saw the collegiate record lowered yet again by champion Julien Alfred of Texas at 6.94. Long is the first Rebel woman to score in the 60 since Asia Cooper finished eighth in 2013, and she is one of just four Ole Miss women to ever earn First-Team All-America status in the event.
 
Long had little time to rest, though, as the 200-meter dash final awaited her barely 30 minutes later. In the first…