Indoor National Qualifier Results

BOSTON, Mass. – The fastest indoor 4x400m relay in Academy of Art track & field history and sixth-fastest in NCAA Division II history was one of the many highlights Sunday inside Boston University's Track & Tennis Center as the Last Chance Indoor National Qualifier marked the final opportunity for Urban Knights to qualify for Indoor Nationals.

"Pleased with the effort all around this weekend," said Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Kevin LaSure. "We still have some work to do going into the NCAA Championships, but I'm pleased with our improvement each week. We had too many standouts this weekend to name, but I'm proud of the entire group and how they worked through adversity and took it one event at a time. We will get back to work the next two weeks and look to hopefully put up our best effort at Nationals."

The 4x400m relay team of Makarios Page, Omodiaogbe Oboh, Robin Black, and Shareez Hamm were untouchable in the day's final event, going 3:09.76 for the new ART U record by nearly a half-second over the top previous mark (3:10.02) set by Christian Carter, Roshard Williams, Grant Swinton, and Mobolade Ajomale in 2019. The time not only put them sixth in NCAA DII history, but also second in the nation thus far and made Academy of Art one of just two programs to put three marks among the country's top 17.

Individual 400m success also came for Page and Hamm who went 47.72 and 47.89 for an indoor best and season best respectively. That event was highlighted, however, by Duncan Agyemang as he move further up the national ranks to seventh with a new indoor best of 47.16. He remains third in program history behind only multi-time All-Americans Jordan Edwards and Ajomale.

The men's 200m featured Black's fastest time of the year as he moved up eight places nationally to 14th at 21.26. Only competition from Stanford and Alabama-Huntsville were ahead of him in Sunday's meet and Black again finds himself back of the aforementioned Edwards and Ajomale historically in the event at ART U.

Picking up where she left off on Friday, Selena Arjona-Alcazar offered a preview of her Indoor Nationals potential by first winning both the prelims and final of the 60m dash, going 7.51 in the latter. Next she lit up the track with a new best in the indoor 200m at 23.82. Already second only to multi-time Hall of Famer Vashti Thomas in the event, Arjona-Alcazar moved ever closer to the 23.43 program record while simultaneously taking over the sixth spot in the country. Darria Matthias also turned in her fastest indoor 200m to date at 24.32, tying for the 24th position in the NCAA DII ranks as a Indoor Nationals provisional qualifier.

Arjona-Alcazar later joined Britney Clark, Lina Hanich, and Michaela Andrews for the Knights' new season best in the 4x400m relay. The four joined in delivering a 3:46.84 mark which put them 19th in the nation and was just over a second back of the fifth spot in ART U history.

Following second-place finish in the 60m hurdles prelims, Marie-Jeanne Ourega nearly matched her personal record in the final (0.01 seconds away), elevating into the country's top 10 with a time of 8.53. Away from the track, she also paced all long jumpers with a pair of 20-2.25 (6.15m) distances which were less than half an inch from her season's best performance.

One day from the anniversary of her indoor 800m program record, Hanich made Sunday more memorable as she eclipsed her previous time with a new best of 2:10.07. She contended with various non-collegiate competitors across the event and ended up nearly a full second faster than her last record while moving into 17th in NCAA DII as an Indoor Nationals provisional qualifier in the process. 

Challenging a field made up entirely of non-collegiate student-athletes, Yacouba Gnacko showed off his ability, surpassing the Indoor Nationals provisional mark on all six of his jumps. His longest distance would end up being his farthest of the season as he opened with a 49-11.75 (15.23m). The performance sends him into the postseason ranked 11th in the nation.

Close to his season best in the 60m hurdles prelims, Crockett Schooler posted his top time of the season in the final at 8.06, putting him inside the top 30 Indoor Nationals provisional qualifiers.

Though she did not better the Indoor Nationals provisional standard, Katharina Goetschl offered a new season-best 4:58.06 in the mile. She remains fifth in ART U history after coming just 0.06 seconds from the fourth spot.

For the Urban Knights who qualify, Academy of Art will next make its return to Virginia for Indoor Nationals to be held Mar. 10-11.