Georgia’s track and field teams open the 2026 NCAA Outdoor Championships on Wednesday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, with the top-ranked Lady Bulldogs and third-ranked Bulldog men carrying a 2025 women’s title and a 2018 men’s title back to the same venue. The four-day meet runs June 10-13. Georgia qualified 27 individuals in 16 events through the East First Rounds in Lexington, Kentucky, plus a heptathlete and decathlete on auto-qualifier status. Below the team rankings sits a freshman and newcomer class that swept the SEC’s annual outdoor awards announced Monday.
On the women’s side, Georgia is the defending champion after a 73-point runaway in 2025, its first NCAA outdoor title in program history. The men are hunting a second outdoor crown and their first since 2018. The SEC carried 146 women’s entries and 145 men’s entries into the championships, the most of any conference on both sides. Coverage airs across ESPN networks starting at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday, per the 2026 meet preview, schedule, and broadcast windows. The 2026 edition is the 17th time the outdoor championships have been held in Oregon, and the first of three consecutive Nationals at Hayward Field.
The Stage at Hayward Field
The 2026 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships will run 42 events over four days, 21 men’s and 21 women’s, ending with the women’s 4×400-meter relay on Saturday night. The schedule splits cleanly along gender lines: men on Wednesday and Friday, women on Thursday and Saturday. The combined events break the pattern. The men’s decathlon stretches from Wednesday into Thursday, and the women’s heptathlon runs Friday into Saturday.
Ten of the 12 NCAA outdoor meets between 2013 and 2025, with the 2020 edition canceled due to COVID-19, were already held in Eugene. The 2026 version is the first of three more consecutive championships at the University of Oregon campus. It is the 104th NCAA Division I men’s outdoor championships and the 44th women’s edition. The venue sits in TrackTown USA, where Hayward Field has hosted every U.S. Olympic Trials since 2008 and the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
The roster cut that got Georgia here started at the East First Rounds in Lexington on May 27-30. The top 12 finishers in each individual event and the top 12 teams in each relay event advanced to the final site. Other Georgia programs also navigated the East path; Georgia State track and field turned Sun Belt depth into four NCAA First Round entries of its own. Final championship selections were announced on June 1.
Georgia’s 27 Entries and Where They Land
Georgia’s 27 individual qualifiers, plus three relay alternates, will be split across 16 events, with the heptathlete and decathlete accounting for two more entries. The school’s depth is built to score in sprints, horizontal jumps, and middle-distance relays, three of the meet’s highest-scoring event groups. The Bulldogs’ entry into the 2026 NCAA Outdoor Championships is the program’s largest individual qualifier haul since 2018.
Action opens Wednesday for Georgia at 4 p.m. ET, when Maximus Tucker starts his first five decathlon events: 100 meters, long jump, shot put, high jump, and 400 meters. On the track, Le’Ezra Brown makes his Nationals debut in the 110-meter hurdle semifinal at 9:08 p.m. Jordan Davis and Nick Reynolds get field-event action underway in the javelin at 9:15 p.m. The Lady Bulldogs open Thursday with the 4x100m relay semifinal at 8:05 p.m., and the only field event entries for Georgia on women’s day one are Kelsie Murrell-Ross and Nina Ndubuisi in the shot put at 10:10 p.m.
| Athlete | Event | 2026 Best | SEC Award |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kimani Jack | High jump | 2.31m | Men’s Newcomer Field Athlete of the Year |
| Adaejah Hodge | 200m | 21.92 | Women’s Freshman Runner of the Year |
| Jonathan Simms | 400m | 44.02 | Men’s Freshman Runner of the Year |
The Freshman Class That Swung the SEC Votes
Three Bulldogs swept the SEC indoor and outdoor annual awards for their respective categories, per the release naming Jack, Hodge, and Simms as SEC honorees. The sweep is unusual in scope, covering one men’s newcomer, one men’s freshman, and one women’s freshman in the same year. All three honorees are competing in their first or second year of collegiate eligibility.
Junior Kimani Jack, a London, England, native, won the SEC Men’s Newcomer Field Athlete of the Year after sweeping the indoor and outdoor conference high jump titles. He won the SEC outdoor crown with a clearance of 2.23m/7-3.75 and earlier in the season leaped a school-record 2.31m/7-7 at the Torrin Lawrence Memorial. That mark stood as the NCAA lead at the time and ranks No. 22 in collegiate history, the eighth-best jump by a British athlete in world history. Jack is in his first season of SEC outdoor competition.
Redshirt freshman Adaejah Hodge, a British Virgin Islands native, won SEC Women’s Freshman Runner of the Year after taking the 200-meter dash title in 21.92, a finish that ranks No. 4 in the current 2026 world standings and No. 4 in collegiate history. She also ran a 10.77 in the 100m at Florida’s Tom Jones Memorial, the fastest time of 2026 and No. 2 in collegiate history. Hodge won the 200m at the 2026 NCAA Indoor Championships during the indoor season. She has competed at the 2023 World Athletics Championships and the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. She also ran the second leg of the women’s 4x100m relay that won SEC silver in 42.61.
Freshman Jonathan Simms, an Allen, Texas, native, was voted SEC Men’s Freshman Runner of the Year, per the release on Simms’ 44.02 school record. He earned SEC outdoor bronze in the 400m final in 44.16, and his season best of 44.02 from the Torrin Lawrence Invite in April stands as the school record. Simms will contest the 400m and 4x400m relay at the championships.
All three athletes finished ahead of established upperclassmen in their SEC voting categories, and all three will be factors in the individual event finals at Hayward Field this week.
Defending a 73-Point Title, Chasing a 2018 Repeat
Georgia’s women are chasing a second straight outdoor title after a 73-point runaway in 2025, a 26-point margin over runner-up Southern California. The 2025 title was the program’s first NCAA women’s outdoor championship, won under Caryl Smith Gilbert in her second season directing the program.
The Lady Bulldogs return most of the contributors from that 73-point effort, with Hodge, the SEC indoor 200m champion, now added to the sprint relay pool. The men are trying to become the first repeat men’s champion in their own history since 2018, when the Bulldogs won the outdoor title at the same Hayward Field with 52 points, 10 clear of Florida under then-coach Petros Kyprianou. The current men’s roster enters as the third-ranked team nationally by USTFCCCA.
A men’s title in 2026 would be the program’s second outdoor championship and its first in eight years. Both squads are part of a deep SEC footprint that came out of the East First Rounds and the West First Rounds in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The SEC carried 146 women’s entries and 145 men’s entries into the championships, gaps of 53 and 41 over the next-closest conference in each division. The conference depth is the structural reason both Georgia teams enter the final site with realistic title shots.
Coverage Windows on ESPN
ESPN carries the entire 2026 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships across its family of networks. Each evening session anchors at 8 p.m. ET, with earlier field-event and combined-event windows available on ESPN+. The primetime linear blocks condense the day’s most decisive finals, while ESPN+ carries the bulk of field events and full decathlon and heptathlon coverage throughout each day.
- Wednesday, June 10, Men’s Day 1: 8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN2
- Thursday, June 11, Women’s Day 1: 8 p.m. ET, ESPN2
- Friday, June 12, Men’s Day 2: 8 p.m. ET, ESPN2
- Saturday, June 13, Women’s Day 2: 8 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Combined events run earlier each day. The decathlon is Wednesday and Thursday, the heptathlon Friday and Saturday. Live results are posted at georgiadogs.com, and updates from the Bulldog track and field and cross country programs are available on X and Instagram at @UGATrack.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does Georgia start competing at the 2026 NCAA Outdoor Championships?
Georgia opens the meet at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday, June 10, with Maximus Tucker taking the first five decathlon events. The 110m hurdles semifinal is at 9:08 p.m. ET and the men’s javelin at 9:15 p.m. ET. The Lady Bulldogs begin Thursday, June 11, with the 4x100m relay semifinal at 8:05 p.m. ET.
Where is the 2026 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships?
Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, Oregon, where the venue has hosted every U.S. Olympic Trials since 2008. The 2026 edition is the 17th time the outdoor championships have been held in Oregon and the first of three consecutive championships at the same site.
Who are the top Georgia athletes to watch?
High jumper Kimani Jack cleared 2.31m at the Torrin Lawrence Memorial, ranking No. 22 in collegiate history. Sprinter Adaejah Hodge won the SEC 200m title in 21.92, currently No. 4 in the 2026 world standings, and ran 10.77 in the 100m, the fastest 100m of 2026 in college. Quarter-miler Jonathan Simms owns a school record 44.02 from the Torrin Lawrence Invite.
How can I watch the championships on TV?
ESPN and ESPN2 carry each evening session starting at 8 p.m. ET from Wednesday, June 10 through Saturday, June 13. Earlier field-event and combined-event coverage runs on ESPN+ throughout the day. Live results are posted at georgiadogs.com.
Did Georgia win the 2025 NCAA women’s outdoor title?
Yes. Georgia’s women won the 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championship with 73 points, 26 ahead of Southern California, for the program’s first outdoor women’s title. Caryl Smith Gilbert, in her second season as head coach, led the team. The Lady Bulldogs enter 2026 as defending champions.
