AUSTIN, Texas – The Alabama women earned their first top-10 finish at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships since 1993, taking seventh with 29 points on Saturday at the Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas.
With the women finishing seventh and the men taking 10th on Friday, it marked the first time since 1986 that the Crimson Tide men and women have finished in the top-10 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the same year. This year’s outdoor finishes followed an indoor season that saw the women also finish seventh and the men take eighth, giving both the UA men and women top-10 finishes at the indoor and outdoor national championships in the same season for the first time in school history.
Alabama and Florida closed 2019 as the only two schools to finish in the top-10 indoors and outdoors with both the men and the women this season.
Junior Esther Gitahi used a school-record 15:51.81 to take third place in the 5,000 meters. Alabama took fifth in the 4×400-meter relay, with Takyera Roberson, Katie Funcheon, Mauricia Prieto and Natassha McDonald clinching the Tide’s spot. Abigail Kwarteng cleared four-straight heights on her first attempt and took fourth and Stacey Destin also cleared 5-11.25 (1.81m), taking eighth. Daija Lampkin, Prieto, Symone Darius and Tamara Clark took fifth overall in the 4×100-meter relay with a season-best 43.00. Senior Portious Warren on Thursday took second in the shot put with a throw of 59-5 (18.11m). Samantha Zelden used a career-best throw of 173-7 (52.91m) to take 8th in javelin throw.
