The 2025 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship was an abnormal meet for the Gators. The women’s team finished 31st, while the men were only represented by one entry. If anything brought a sense of normalcy to Florida’s performance, it was Anthaya Charlton’s presence on the women’s long jump podium.
Florida has had a first-team All-American selection in the women’s long jump at NCAA Indoors each year since 2017, and Charlton continued the streak with her fourth-place finish Friday afternoon. The junior from Nassau recorded her best jump of 6.71 meters in the fifth round, collecting five points for the Gators. Her best mark was equal with Stanford junior Alyssa Jones, but Jones won the tiebreaker by merit of her second-best jump surpassing Charlton’s.
“I’m really proud of how I did this season,” Charlton said. “Last year I didn’t even make it to indoor nationals, and the year before I didn’t make it to the finals. So to make it to finals, come fourth with a 6.71… I’m really proud of myself.”
Baylor senior Alexis Brown won the competition with a best mark of 6.90 meters, making her the seventh-best competitor in NCAA history indoors.
According to her Instagram story after the meet, Charlton will travel to Nanjing, China, next weekend to represent The Bahamas at the World Athletics Indoor Championships. It will be Charlton’s first time representing her country at the senior level. With her season’s best of 6.98 meters from January, she’ll enter the competition with the best seed mark. She’ll be going head-to-head with former Florida teammate Claire Bryant, who will represent the United States.
Junior Hilda Olemomoi also picked up points for the Florida women with her seventh-place finish in the 5000 meters.
Entering the race as the second-fastest athlete in the field and third-fastest in collegiate history, Olemomoi was in the thick of a slower, tactical affair throughout the middle kilometers. As the race wound down, Alabama sophomore Doris Lemngole and BYU Lexy Halladay-Lowry ramped up the pace to the point where only the two of them could stay with, as Olemomoi and the rest of the pack fell behind.
The Kenya native crossed the line in 15:11.33, marking the second time a Gator has been named a first-team All-American in the event after Parker Valby became the first last year.
Action for the women’s team also included a 10th-place finish in the triple jump by freshman Asia Phillips and a 16th-place finish in the mile by junior Beth Morley. Phillips entered the competition seeded 15th and exceeded expectations with a best mark of 13.11 meters.
After junior Wanya McCoy and redshirt senior Jenoah McKiver were forced to withdraw from their respective individual events due to injury, the 4x400 meter relay squad was the only men’s entry left standing.
The quartet of freshman Vance Nilsson, sophomores Rios Prude Jr. and Malique Smith-Band, and senior Ashton Schwartzman were involved in the most dramatic race of the weekend, ultimately finishing eighth in 3:06.93, collecting a point for the Gators.
The men’s team title came down to the relay in a showdown between USC and Arkansas. There was contact after 200 meters that forced the leadoff leg for the Razorbacks to step off the track for a moment, and they’d go on to finish last.
Arkansas filed a protest that was successful in disqualifying Texas A&M, who impeded them, but officials ruled not to rerun the race after nearly an hour of deliberation. With Arkansas failing to score, USC secured the team title, the first by the Trojan men indoors since 1972.
Oregon won the women’s team title, with Georgia and USC finishing second and third, respectively.
The Gators will now refocus for the outdoor season. They’ll open in Tallahassee at the FSU Relays on Mar. 27 and 28.
Contact Paul Hof-Mahoney at phof-mahoney@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @phofmahoney
Paul is a junior sports journalism major who is covering the track and field beat in his first semester with the Alligator. In his free time, he enjoys watching commentary Youtube channels and consuming every medium of track and field content imaginable.
