This weekend, Auburn University Track & Field hit the ground running at Bryan-College Station, Texas, for the three-day 2026 SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships. There were four personal records, two facility records, two state records, and one college record overall. Three athletes took home an individual title on the last, but certainly not the least, day of the championship meet.
Senior Megan Hague broke not only her own personal record for shot put, but the school record that she set herself, yet again, in a facility that had never seen anything like it. It only took her two of six throws to qualify, the second measuring at 18.73/61-5.5 and the fifth even further at 18.89m/61-11.75, for her to establish her first gold medal. The latter broke personal, facility, and college records and outdistanced her nearest contender by eight inches. In the same event, Camryn Massey finished fifth with a personal record of 17.15m/56-3.25, a significant difference compared to her previous best of 16.41m.
Kayinsola Ayaji, a junior studying Business Administration at Auburn and Nigerian champion for sprinting, struck gold for the second time in his career after tying the collegiate-record run of 6.45 seconds in the men’s 60m. Additionally, his record-time this weekend is notably the fastest for the event in African history and in Nigeria. He started off the blocks strong and reportedly did not falter. This speed has only been matched three times previously since 1999. Following Ayaji in the same event were fellow tigers, Israel Okon won bronze, and Omari Lewis finished sixth.
Ja’Kobe Tharp, a junior and Auburn’s first-ever finalist for The Bowerman, is no stranger to gold medals, as he competed and once again earned a title of champion for men’s 60m hurdles. The beginning of the race did not seem too promising for Tharp, but against odds, he won in 7.48 seconds, an astounding time that isn’t even his personal best, which sits at 7.45. He won with a mere two hundredths of a second ahead of Ja’Qualon Scott of Texas A&M.
Next on the podium, Denae Nembhard, a senior in Psychology at Auburn University, secured a silver medal in the women’s 60m hurdles with a time of 7.93 seconds, narrowly missing a personal best by two hundredths of a second. Fellow Tiger, Ana-Liese Torian, placed sixth overall in the same event with a time of 8.05.
The weekend tournament ended with Auburn’s men's and women’s teams posting tenth place out of the fifteen schools in the conference that attended. Both men and women scored similarly, with 34 and 33 points respectively.
The Championship concluded with Arkansas’s men’s team retaking the title, which they had maintained for a five-year streak until Texas A&M took the title in 2025. Florida took home the title of women’s champions.
In two weeks, the top sixteen individual-placing athletes from each event will go to the NCAA Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Tigers await to claim yet another title.
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