NCAA track and field East, Jacksonville 2025: Records broken

JU junior qualifies for nationals in long jump

• Multiple Hodges Stadium records tumbled at the NCAA Track and Field East First Round competition in Jacksonville, Florida.
• Evan Puckett, Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan, and Tima Godbless set new stadium records in pole vault, shot put, and the women’s 100-meter dash, respectively.
• Jacksonville University’s Julia Sue-Kam-Ling qualified for nationals in the women’s long jump.
• Grace Hartman added a facility record in the women’s 10,000.

Evan Puckett sent a message on May 29. Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan did, too. Then, Tima Godbless.

The recipient: The University of North Florida. The subject: The Hodges Stadium record books are about to need a fresh round of updates.

Stadium records tumbled early and often, while hometown athlete Julia Sue-Kam-Ling of Jacksonville University punched a breakthrough ticket to nationals in May 29 action at the NCAA Track and Field East First Round competition.

Beginning with Tennessee junior Puckett’s mark of 17 feet, 9 3/4 inches in the men’s pole vault, the nation’s top Division I college athletes from the nation’s eastern half earned top billing on day two over the latest bout of inclement weather.

Thunderstorms once again disrupted competition for more than two hours beginning at 4:38 p.m., forcing track officials to push back the women’s shot put and later flights of the women’s pole vault for another day.

In addition to JU’s Sue-Kam-Ling, who qualified from the unseeded second flight in the women’s long jump, University of North Florida senior Smilla Kolbe also continued her postseason quest with a dominant race in the women’s 800 meters.

RECORD FESTIVAL AT UNF

The men’s pole vault, postponed from May 28 because of opening-day thunderstorms, set the tone.

Not only did Puckett surpass the previous facility record of 17 feet, 9 inches from Nebraska’s Tyler Loontjer in 2021, but four other vaulters topped the record as well: Georgia senior Nikolai van Huyssteen, Indiana State senior William Staggs, Ole Miss sophomore John Kendricks and High Point freshman Ricardo Montes de Oca.

Then it was the turn of Ole Miss junior Robinson-O’Hagan, who unleashed an attempt of 68 feet, 5 inches to win the men’s shot put while breaking the old Hodges Stadium mark of Florida’s Stipe Zunic (67 feet, 7 inches) from 2014.

Finished with the records? Not yet. Godbless, an Olympian for Nigeria in 2024 in Paris, then ran 10.91 for LSU in the first heat of the women’s 100. Moments later, Ohio State’s Leah Bertrand followed with a 10.92 that would have equaled the previous stadium best of Cambrea Sturgis from North Carolina A&T.

Appropriately, the night ended with a fourth facility record when N.C. State’s Grace Hartman ran 32:32.80 in the women’s 10,000, beating the 2021 mark of 33:06.83 from Alabama’s Mercy Chelangat.

DOLPHIN SOARS IN LONG JUMP

Going by the numbers, JU junior Sue-Kam-Ling entered as a decided long shot to punch a ticket for the June 11-14 national finals in Oregon. She was competing from an unseeded flight, ranking outside the top 30 long jumpers in the event.

But the junior from Nesconset, N.Y. broke through on her third and final attempt, leaping 20 feet, 2 1/4 inches to climb into second place.

Sue-Kam-Ling then faced a tense wait as the meet’s 24 highest-seeded jumpers tried to overtake her mark. Only nine succeeded, leaving the Dolphin with the 11th of the 12 qualifying berths.

UNF’s Kolbe remained smoothly on course in her 800 heat, leading nearly wire to wire in 2:02.29. Her time ranked fifth among all first-round participants ahead of the May 31 second round.

Former Bishop Kenny runner Ka’Myya Haywood moved on with the No. 9 time in the women’s 800, but Kolbe’s UNF teammate, Ella Chandler, placed 39th in the race, one of several others with local ties not advancing to the next stage.

For JU, Cassidra Thompson placed 27th in the women’s 400 heats, only 0.13 from the last at-large spot, and Cassie Thompson came in 29th in the women’s 200, just 0.12 away. Also in individual events were Miami’s Brittney Jennings (Creekside, 41st in women’s 100 hurdles), South Florida’s Terren Peterson (Mandarin, 38th in women’s 200), Navy’s Layne Rivera (Bolles, 48th in women’s javelin) and South Florida’s Skyler Watts (Episcopal, 39th in women’s 400).