All Results
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Houston senior sprinter Elijah Hall recorded a historic performance at the 2018 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, winning the 60-and 200-meter dashes to earn two national titles. Two other American Athletic Conference seniors placed second in their respective events to finish as national runners-up. Ten student-athletes in total from Cincinnati, Houston and Wichita State represented The American at the national indoor meet to earn USTFCCCA All-America honors.
Hall’s first gold medal came in the 60-meter dash with his personal-best time of 6.52. He then broke a U.S. and collegiate record with his first place finish in the 200-meter dash, clocking a time of 20.02. He is the first American Athletic Conference athlete to win two events at the national championships, as he became just the fourth sprinter in NCAA history to win both the 60-and 200-meter dash championships in the same season. Hall is Houston's first multi-event national champion in the same meet since Carl Lewis won the 55-meter dash and long jump championships at the 1981 meet.
The American’s record-holder in the women’s weight throw, Cincinnati senior Annette Echikunwoke, earned her third straight first team All-America honor with her second-place toss of 23.29 meters (76-5)—just 0.01 meters off from this year’s champion, Minnesota’s Kaitlyn Long.
Echikunwoke is the second Bearcat national runner-up in this season’s championship meet after classmate Loretta Blaut placed second in the high jump on Day 1.
Wichita State’s Hunter Veith set a personal best in the heptathlon with 6,090 points to finish second place. The All-America senior entered Day 2 of the heptathlon in second place with 3,432 points, 169 points behind first place. He finished 98 points behind first-place finisher Tim Duckworth of Kentucky.
Houston’s Nathaniel Mechler and Cincinnati’s Alex Bloom also completed the heptathlon. Mechler finished the seven-event competition with a school-record 5,758 points and placed eighth to pick up one point for the Cougars overall and earn a spot on the first team All-America list. Bloom earned All-America recognition with 5,518 points, finishing 12th overall in the event.
Kahmari Montgomery also picked up first team All-America honors with a fourth place finish in the 400-meter dash after registering a time of 45.24 to break his own school record and pick up five points for the Cougars.
Hall and Montgomery teamed with Amere Lattin and Mario Burke to run 3:08.86 and finish 13th in the 4x400-meter relay to cap the championship meet. The squad earned second team All-America honors for the performance, as Houston combined to score 26 points to clinch the seventh-place overall spot in the national meet. The Cougars’ 26 points are the most collected at the NCAA Championships in program and conference history. The Cincinnati women scored 16 points to place 12th overall.