SEC Sports
EUGENE, Ore. — The Georgia women’s track and field team exploded for 73 points to win its first national outdoor title by 26 points as the NCAA Championships wrapped up on Saturday.
Senior Elena Kulichenko (high jump), junior Aaliyah Butler (400-meter dash) and Butler, Michelle Smith, Dejanea Oakley and Sydney Harris (4x400m relay) captured national crowns while Oakley collected silver in the 400m, Smith managed bronze in the 400m hurdles and freshman Skylynn Townsend posted a personal best to take sixth in the triple jump.
Final Women’s Team Scores: Finishing behind Georgia (73 points) was USC (47), Texas A&M (43), Washington (31) and Illinois (29.5) in the top five.
This squad of 16 Bulldogs, including a relay alternate for both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays, represent seven different nations and featured six first timers at the meet and four true freshmen. Georgia finished as the runner-up in back-to-back years in 2017-18 and its 2025 point total of 73 is a school record, topping the 62.2 in 2017.
While this is the first NCAA outdoor team title for the Georgia women, they did capture the 2018 indoor team championship. The Bulldogs’ outdoor crown is the 52nd overall team national championship for UGA, including the men’s outdoor championship in Eugene in 2018, tying LSU and Arkansas for the second most team titles in the SEC. This is the fourth national championship for UGA this academic year after women’s tennis won the indoor and outdoor crowns and equestrian captured the championship.
Director of Track & Field Caryl Smith Gilbert adds the 2025 championship to her 2018 and 2021 women’s titles while leading USC’s program. Smith Gilbert was also on Tennessee’s staff when the indoor squad won the 2005 championship. With Saturday’s championship, Smith Gilbert becomes the first collegiate female coach to win NCAA track and field championships at two separate schools.
“We worked really, really, really hard and we have a team that is starting to form into something that will be a great program,” Smith Gilbert said. “It’s very important to me for us to have points all over the place. Track and field is track and field so we made a point this year and for the future to build all parts of the program, not just the sprints. I have the greatest coaching staff on the planet and a Director of Athletics in Josh Brooks and a president in Jere Morehead who support our program to no end. I am so proud to bring home this championship to Athens.”
Smith Gilbert on UGA winning: ‘We’ve been working on this moment the whole season’
Meet Schedule: Other than the decathlon running Wednesday-Thursday and the heptathlon going Friday-Saturday, the meet was set up to be a men’s competition on Wednesday and Friday and a women’s competition on Thursday and Saturday.
Wednesday/Thursday/Friday Highlights: Georgia only had a pair of high jumpers compete on Friday and senior transfer Eddie Kurjak tied for eighth place and earned First Team All-America honors after coming from a NCAA Division II program.
During the women’s first day of action on Thursday, graduate transfer Stephanie Ratcliffe won her second career hammer throw title and became the first NCAA representative to accomplish the feat at two separate schools and in non-consecutive years. Freshman Manuela Rotundo and senior Lianna Davidson finished second and fourth in the javelin to give Georgia its first pair of scorers in the event since two Bulldogs were in the top eight in 2005. Finally, senior Kelsie Murrell-Ross steadily improved during her series to finish sixth in the shot put, becoming the first to earn scoring All-America honors in the event for UGA since 2000.
On Wednesday, senior transfer Moustafa Alsherif finished fourth in the javelin to give the Bulldog men a scorer in the event for the fourth straight year. Also, freshman Jayden Keys complemented his Southeastern Conference long jump title with an eighth-place finish in the event to score for the men.
Full Results: To check out live results throughout the four-day season finale, please check: https://gado.gs/da0
The Lowdown: Kulichenko, a Ondintsovo, Russia, native, shared the national crown in 2024 but left no doubt as she claimed her first sole title in the high jump. Coming in at 1.84 meters/6-0.50 on Saturday, Kulichenko went over five heights, including the winning mark of 1.96m/6-5, on her first try and topped Illinois’ Rose Yeboah for the championship. This is UGA’s fourth national championship in the event.
Butler, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., native, collected her first individual national championship in the 400m and the second in school history (Lynna Irby, 2018). She came in as the national leader and left with a fresh school record and became the No. 5 all-time collegiate performer. Only one member of the field, Butler’s teammate Dejanea Oakley, came within striking distance of her.
Oakley, who hails from Clarendon, Jamaica, sped to her own personal record of 49.65 to earn the silver medal as Georgia tallied 18 points in the event to take control of the meet. Oakley’s time dropped Irby’s previous No. 2 time in the school record books to No. 3.
Butler later combined with Smith, Oakley and Harris to win Georgia’s first women’s 4x400m relay outdoors in history. Topping the school record and taking over the No. 8 spot on the collegiate all-time performer’s list, the Bulldogs passed the baton around for a 3:23.62 to top Arkansas (3:24.25) for gold. Butler scorched an anchor leg of 48.79 to move into the overall lead during the final 100 meters and put an exclamation mark on Georgia’s point total.
Smith, a Frederiksted, St. Croix, native, raced in the 400m hurdle final and drove through her lap and 10 hurdles in 55.20 for bronze medal honors. Lining up with what would soon become the new collegiate record holder (Michigan’s Savannah Sutherland, 52.46), Smith added another six points to the Lady Bulldogs’ total and became the team’s first scoring All-American in the event since Gudrun Arnardottir finished third at the 1996 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Arriving on the Oregon campus seeded 11th nationally, Townsend, a native of Prosper, Texas, posted six fair attempts in the triple jump and topped out at a personal record to finish sixth at her first Nationals. Townsend’s second try of 13.52m/44-4.50 situated her in sixth place with a comfortable cushion as she joined the great four-time NCAA outdoor triple jump champion Keturah Orji as a UGA First Team All-American.
How To Keep Up With The Dogs: Results and recaps from the NCAA Outdoor Championships will be found at georgiadogs.com. News and updates from Georgia’s track and field and cross country teams are always located on X/Instagram at @UGATrack.