AUSTIN, Texas – Ole Miss track & field will be represented by 11 student-athletes in 11 total events on the highest stage of the collegiate track season at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Championships, which returns to Mike A. Myers Stadium at the University of Texas from June 7-10.
The finest athletes in Division I will descend upon Austin this week for the four-day meet, which is split into men’s competition (June 7 & 9) and women’s competition (June 8 & 10). To get to this point, student-athletes needed to qualify for their respective NCAA Regional Preliminary Round Championship (East or West), and then needed to finish within the top-12 of their events at the regional meet in order to punch their ticket to Texas. Athletes competing in either the decathlon or heptathlon needed only to finish within the top-12 nationally by the end of the regular season.
Those 24 total athletes will not only be competing for team or individual national championships, but also to grasp one of the coveted top-eight scoring spots for First-Team All-American status. Places nine through 16 receive Second-Team All-American honors, and the remaining eight competitors receive Honorable Mention All-American distinction.
This marks the eighth time that the national meet has been held at Texas, and just the second time since 2012 that the NCAA Championships have not been held at Oregon’s Hayward Field (the other being in 2019 at Texas). Texas has hosted the NCAA Outdoor meet six times prior to 2019 (1957, ’74, ’80, ’85, ’92, 2004).
In eight years at Ole Miss, head coach Connie Price-Smith has mentored three NCAA Outdoor Champions (Raven Saunders, shot put, 2016; Janeah Stewart, hammer, 2018; Sintayehu Vissa, 1500-meter, 2022), 61 outdoor First or Second-Team All-Americans (39 women, 22 men) and brought the Rebels four national top-25 team finishes outdoors – with the Rebel men tying for 14th in 2017 and the women tying for 19th in 2022, finishing 20th in 2018 and 22nd in 2016.
Four of the seven all-time NCAA top-10 finishes in Ole Miss history have come within the last two calendar years: 2023 women’s indoor (10th), 2022 women’s indoor (T-6th), 2022 men’s indoor (T-10th), 2021 men’s indoor (10th), 2013 men’s outdoor (8th), 2001 men’s indoor (10th) and 1991 men’s indoor (9th).
Ole Miss has a strong history at the national meet,…
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