No. 1 Razorbacks contend for 3rd consecutive NCAA Indoor title

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – No. 1 Arkansas seeks a third consecutive NCAA Indoor Championship this weekend at the Virginia Beach Sports Center after the Razorbacks claimed the 2023 and 2024 team titles.

With Arkansas also winning NCAA Indoor team titles in 2019 and 2021, the Razorbacks have won four of the past five NCAA Indoor championships held. The 2020 NCAA Indoor meet was canceled due to covid.

Of the nine NCAA Championships won by Arkansas, five have been claimed indoors (2015, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024) with three outdoors (2016, 2019, 2024) and one in cross country (2019).

Razorback women’s head coach Chris Johnson made history during his first season as head coach in 2024 by becoming the initial first-year head coach to win both the NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor national championships in the same season.

Coverage of the NCAA Indoor meet will be available through live streams on ESPN+ while a recap of the meet will air Sunday at 6 pm (CT) on ESPNU.

The past two NCAA Indoor team titles earned by the Razorbacks have been close encounters with Arkansas defeating Texas, 64-60, in 2023 and Florida, 55-50, in 2024.

In updated national rankings, based on entries for the NCAA Indoor Championships, the Razorbacks maintain its hold on the No. 1 position over Oregon, BYU, Stanford, and Georgia. In addition, Arkansas enters the meet with the most entries at 13 in nine events.

“It’s great that we’re ranked No. 1, along with the men’s team,” stated Johnson. “But we understand what it’s going to take to garner a national title. Making it to the finals and scoring when you get to the finals is critically important to be able to win a championship.

“They all want to continue the tradition, and our tradition is winning. When one team wins a national championship, the next team wants to follow that. It comes with a lot of pressure. We focus on the aspect of getting ready, and then executing. We just have to calm the storm and quite the noise. We can only do what we can do and give our best efforts to see where that lands us.”

This season the Razorbacks enter the national championship meet coming off a dominate performance in capturing an 11th consecutive SEC Indoor championship. Arkansas totaled 117.5 points in winning the team title by 55.5 points over Oklahoma (62), LSU (60.33), and Georgia (57).

“Any championship you win, you don’t take it lightly,” said Johnson. “Now it’s a different championship. The SEC Championship is one thing, now we’re faced with the rest of the nation along with SEC schools.

“We need to have our ducks in a row, reset and figure out a way to make it to the finals then score big points in the finals. It’s going to be a challenge, but I think the athletes are ready for the challenge.”

Defending high jump champion Rachel Glenn enters the meet as the top seed after winning the SEC title with a 6-6 (1.98) clearance and then attempted 6-7 (2.01) during the meet. Glenn currently ranks equal third in the world for 2025 and is the top American.

Last season Glenn equaled the collegiate record of 6-6.75 (2.00) in winning the NCAA Indoor high jump title. She previously won the 2022 NCAA Outdoor title with a 6-4 (1.93) effort.

Glenn has collected gold, silver, and bronze medals during NCAA Indoor competition, collecting silver in 2021 and bronze in 2022 while at South Carolina.

Razorback Sydney Billington, set a career best of 6-0.75 (1.85) this season, joins Glenn in the NCAA high jump field. Arkansas is one of five schools with a pair of jumpers competing in the NCAA Indoor. The other schools include Arizona, Illinois, Missouri, and Texas Tech.

Three other high jumpers enter the meet with 6-4 performances this indoor season with Georgia’s Elena Kulichenko (6-4.75 | 1.95), Nebraska’s Jenna Robers (6-4.25 | 1.94), and Texas Tech’s Temitope Adeshina (6-4 | 1.93).

The 400m will feature Razorbacks Isabella Whittaker (49.90) and Kaylyn Brown (50.70), who each set career best times as SEC silver and bronze medalists behind Georgia’s Aaliyah Butler (49.78).

Butler and Whittaker currently rank first and second on the 2025 world list, and are No. 6 and No. 7 performers on the all-time world indoor list. They line up in the same 400m prelim heat at the NCAA Indoor after racing against each other twice during the SEC Indoor meet.

Brown races in another heat with Georgia’s other entry, Dejanea Oakley, who finished fourth in the SEC final with a career best of 50.90.

As the second seed in the 800m with an Arkansas school record of 1:59.77, Sanu Jallow-Lockhart races in the first heat of the 800m prelims while Stanford’s Juliette Whittaker, the top seed at 1:59.44 and defending champion, races in the second heat with Razorback Analisse Batista, who improved her best to 2:01.60 as the SEC bronze medalist.

Entered in two events, Paityn Noe is one of two freshmen in the 5,000m and one of three freshmen in the 3,000m.

Noe established school records this season in both events. A time of 8:47.17 in the 3,000m bettered the UA record of 8:52.27 set by Dominique Scott in 2015 while Noe’s 15:11.27 performance to win the SEC title bettered the UA record of 15:13.09 set by Katie Izzo in 2019.

Arkansas features a pair of entries in the long jump with Arkansas record holder Funminiyi Olajide and Nia Robinson, who were SEC silver and bronze medalists. Funminiyi’s mark of 21-10.75 (6.67) broke the UA record of 21-6.75 (6.57) set by Taliyah Brooks in 2018.

Robinson, who will also contest the triple jump, ranks third on the UA all-time long jump list with a 21-6.25 (6.56) and is second on the UA all-time triple jump list with a 44-0 (13.41) that she has achieved twice this season.

Anya Jackson will race in the fourth and final prelim heat of the 200m, where the top 8 times advance to a two-section final. SEC bronze medalist Jackson, one of three freshmen in the 200m field, will race in lane 4 adjacent to SEC champion JaMeesia Ford in lane 5.

An all-SEC final section of the 4 x 400m relay to conclude the meet will include Tennessee (lane 3), Arkansas (4), Georgia (5), and South Carolina (6).

The four schools currently rank 7-8-9-10 on the 2025 world list with Georgia leading the foursome at 3:26.42, followed by South Carolina (3:27.24), Arkansas (3:27.47), and Tennessee (3:27.60).

Following are point projections for the NCAA Indoor Championships by DyeStat and FloTrack. DyeStat predicted where individuals and relays will finish while FloTrack based its projections on how individuals and relays rank on the entry list for the meet.