Track & Field | 5/30/2026 11:36:00 PM
LEXINGTON, Ky – A month after
Allen Johnson became director of track and field at North Carolina A&T, a lady approached him as he entered Truist Stadium during the AAU Track and Field Nationals at the Marcus T. Johnson Track and Field Complex in summer 2022.
She informed him that her daughter would attend A&T and asked whether her daughter could join the team. Her daughter's name was
Olivia Dowd. As he set about structuring a women's and men's track and field program, Johnson allowed her to join the team as a walk-on.
Dowd chose A&T despite Johnson being a first-time head coach, asking her to walk on, and the Aggies not yet having a jumps coach hired. It still all paid off. The conversation with Dowd's mother in 2022 blossomed into Saturday night during the final day of the 2026 NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round at the University of Kentucky's Outdoor Track and Field Complex.
Last year, Dowd became the first female Aggie to qualify for NCAA nationals in the triple jump. Now, she returns for a repeat performance, joining senior teammate
Spirit Morgan in Eugene, Ore., June 10-13, at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships hosted by the University of Oregon at Hayward Field. Morgan qualified for NCAA nationals in the high jump for the second straight season. Last season, she earned second-team All-American honors in Eugene.
Dowd heads West after jumping a program-record 43 feet, 5 inches to place eighth in Saturday's quarterfinals, putting her among the top 12 East jumpers to qualify for nationals.
"The great part is, she picked us," Johnson said of Dowd. "My first year, I coached almost everything and was stretched thin, but she showed great potential. I promised her I'd get a jumps coach."
Johnson fulfilled his promise in the fall of 2023 when he hired
Aniis Hopkins as his jumps coach.
"They started working together, and she was just determined to get better and better," said Johnson. "If you ask her what her goal is, how far she wants to jump, her answer is always whatever my body is going to allow me to do. When I look up a couple of years later, after she gets a jumps coach, she is an NCAA qualifier and an All-American. But that's been her attitude. She wants to come out every day, work hard, and get a little bit better each day. A lot of athletes, regardless of talent, don't have her type of dedication."
In 2023, Dowd jumped between 15 and 17 feet in the long jump and barely 39 feet in the triple jump. Now, she qualified for the East Prelims long jump with a 20-foot, 6 ½-inch leap, the program's second-best, and broke her own triple jump record with Saturday's 43-foot, 5-inch mark.
Morgan transferred from the University of Cincinnati. In two seasons at A&T, she's become the program's top high jumper in history. On Saturday, she jumped 5 feet, 11 ½ inches to tie for second place. She aims to add to her A&T accomplishments after winning the CAA indoor title twice and the outdoor title once (she was injured in 2026). Morgan holds six of the program's seven best high jumps.
A&T had one other competitor on Saturday. Senior
Taylor Reagor finished outside of the top 12 in the shot put. Reagor placed 39th with a throw of 159 feet, 4 inches.
The NCAA outdoor nationals field is now set for the A&T men and women. The male events joining Dowd and Morgan in Oregon at nationals include the 110-meter hurdles (
Jason Holmes), the 400H (
Isaiah Taylor and
Xzaviah Taylor), the triple jump (
Xavier Partee), the 4x400-meter relay, and the 4x100-meter relay.
As Dowd's career ends in Oregon, hopefully with a national triple jump title, Johnson is reminded: mother knows best.
