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Stan Becton | NCAA.com | May 24, 2022

The 12 best 2022 women's track and field performances before NCAA preliminaries

North Carolina A&T's Cambrea Sturgis sets collegiate record, wins 100m championship

The outdoor track and field postseason is here! With the East/West preliminary meets approaching, we're taking a look back at some of the top performances from this season.

We already looked at some of the top performances of the season's first half, so these will be focused on what's happened since then, with six performances from the east and west regions. Let's get started.

West

Julien Alfred | Texas

Julien Alfred finished the 100-meter final in 10.80 seconds (+2.4 & altitude) at the Big 12 Championships, continuing her season-long dominance in the sprints. That performance came after a wind-legal 10.81-second finish in the prelims a day prior. Alfred's wind-legal time in the prelims is the third-fastest in NCAA history and her 10.80-second time in the final is the fifth-fastest all-conditions time in NCAA history.

COMPLETE COVERAGE: Everything you need to know for the DI outdoor track and field championships

Lamara Distin | Texas A&M

Lamara Distin's impressive season in the high jump continued at the Alumni Muster meet where she soared 1.97 meters in the air to set a Texas A&M and Jamaican national record in the event. Distin became the world leader with her leap and sits as the fourth-highest collegian of all time.

Abby Nichols | Colorado

The Colorado women finished second at the 2022 Pac-12 Championships and distance runner Abby Nichols' performance was a big reason why. Nichols became the first double conference champion at Colorado since 2017 after winning the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. She's the first Buffalo to double in the events since 2005 after setting a new Pac-12 record in the 10,000 meters.

RANKINGS: Check out the latest rankings before the prelims

Monae' Nichols | Texas Tech

Monae' Nichols proved she was one of the nation's best long jumpers from the start of the Big 12 Championships, where she jumped 6.97 meters on her first leap of the meet. With the mark, Nichols set the tone early en route to the individual conference title in the event. On a larger scale, Nichols' jump gives her the furthest long jump of any collegian this year as the only athlete to surpass the 6.9-meter threshold.

Britton Wilson | Arkansas

Winning one individual conference title is great, but Arkansas' Britton Wilson pulled off the rare 400-meter double at the 2022 SEC Championships, winning the 400 meters and 400 meters hurdles. While Wilson has led the nation in the 400 meter hurdles for much of the year, entering the SEC championships as a favorite in the event, her victory in the 400 meters was surely an upset. Wilson knocked off Texas A&M's Charokee Young in the 400 meters, one of the few women to run sub-50 seconds in the 400 meters in the world this year.

Texas' 4x100 meter relay

Texas' 4x100 meter relay ran a program record and national leading time of 42.37 seconds at the LSU Invitational. The Longhorn quartet of Julien Alfred, Rhasidat Adeleke, Kevona Davis and Kennedy Flannel finished nearly a tenth of a second faster than the nation's second-fastest time and nearly half a second faster than second place in their race.

🔮: 5 predictions for the remainder of the season

East

Adelaide Aquilla | Ohio State

A look at the top marks in the shot put will show that there's defending outdoor national champion Adelaide Aquilla and everyone else. Aquilla's nation-leading throw of 18.94 meters at the Jesse Owens Track Classic is .48 meters more than anyone else in the country.  She reached that distance on her second throw at the meet, later hitting 18.84 meters — a distance that would still be a national lead — on her fourth attempt.

Melissa Jefferson | Coastal Carolina

A wind-legal 10.88. That's how many seconds Coastal Carolina's Melissa Jefferson finished in to win the 2022 Sun Belt Championship in the 100 meters. Jefferson's finish is the fifth-fastest time in NCAA history, setting a Sun Belt Championship record. Jefferson also claimed the conference's 200-meter title, setting another championship record.

RELATED: The top 10 women's track and field performances from the first half

Jasmine Moore | Florida

Jasmine Moore swept the horizontal jumps at the 2022 SEC Championships, winning the long jump and triple jump with 6.73 and 14.46-meter marks, respectively. Moore's performance in the long jump, while not wind-legal, is the furthest of any collegian this season. Moore also became the third woman in SEC history — all hailing from Florida — to sweep the horizontal jumps across the indoor and outdoor seasons in one calendar year. 

Favour Ofili | LSU

Favour Ofili already held the 200-meter collegiate record entering the 2022 SEC Championship, but that didn't stop her from turning out another elite performance. Ofili scored 22.5 points by herself, winning a sprint triple crown of sorts, taking home the conference title in the 100 and 200 meters, while running the second leg of LSU's winning 4x100 meter relay. In the individual sprints, Ofili raced in arguably the best sprint races of the season, defeating fellow Bowerman candidate Kentucky's Abby Steiner twice.

MORE: Here's how the outdoor track and field championships work

Katelyn Touhy | NC State

NC State's Katelyn Touhy won the 1500 meters at the 2022 ACC Championships in 4:06.84, winning the conference title by almost three seconds. Touhy has been impressive all season, and her championship time is good for the national lead, nearly two seconds faster than the next fastest finisher.

Kentucky's 4x400 meter relay

Any list of the top track and field performances would be remiss without including Kentucky's 4x400 meter relay performance at the 2022 SEC Championships. The Wildcat quartet of Karimah Davis, Dajour Miles, Abby Steiner and Alexis Holmes raced to a new collegiate record of  3:21.93, outpacing Texas A&M and Arkansas, who finished with the second and third-fastest all-time collegiate times, respectively. In the win, Steiner ran a leg of 48.78 seconds, and Holmes ran a 49.60-second leg as the anchor.

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