Track & Field | 6/14/2025 11:38:00 PM
EUGENE, Ore. – The 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field ended on Saturday with junior North Carolina A&T Spirit Morgan proving she is one of the 10 best high jumpers in the nation.
The second day of competition at the NCAA nationals included the women going after event national championships, which included two Aggies. Morgan competed in the high jump, and junior teammate Olivia Dowd competed in the triple jump.
On Saturday, Morgan finished in a ninth-place tie with Southern Utah's Aja Hughes at 6 feet, ½ inches. For her efforts, Morgan will earn second-team All-American honors. It tops off a fantastic season for the University of Cincinnati transfer. Before coming to A&T, Morgan qualified for the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round twice at Cincinnati.
She came to A&T and won the 2025 Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) indoor title in the high jump by jumping 5 feet, 10 inches. She jumped into the top five nationally during the outdoor season when she jumped 6 feet at A&T's Aggie Invitational at Marcus T. Johnson Track on April 19. A month later, she won the CAA outdoor high jump title with a personal record of 6 feet, ¾ inches.
On Saturday, Georgia's Elena Kulichenko won the national title in the high jump, clearing the bar at 6 feet, 5 inches. Morgan joins men's 400-meter hurdler Xzaviah Taylor as the only two Aggies to earn second-team All-American honors after NCAA nationals.
Meanwhile, Dowd, the first A&T women's track and field athlete to qualify for outdoor nationals in the women's triple jump, placed 23rd on Saturday with her best leap measured at 40 feet, 10 ½ inches. After a foul on her first jump, Dowd went out to 39 feet, 7 ¾ inches before her final jump.
Two weeks ago, she jumped a personal-record 43 feet, 4 ½ inches at East Prelims to qualify for nationals. Dowd also won the CAA outdoor triple jump title in May at Marcus T. Johnson Track. The Aggies completed a season where the men won the CAA indoor and outdoor track and field championships. The men's and the women's programs combined to qualify 24 student-athletes for the East Prelims before qualifying 11 for NCAA nationals.
The women also had some first. They qualified for two student-athletes for throw events at the East Prelims for the first time in program history. They had a thrower – Julieth Nwosu – qualify for two throwing events at regionals for the first time in program history.
