For the first of four occasions in 2026, the Florida track and field teams will be toeing the line with titles up for grabs this weekend at the 2026 SEC Indoor Championships. The meet returns to the Fasken Indoor Track and Field Facility at Texas A&M for the second year in a row, where the region's best runners, jumpers and throwers will do battle from Feb. 26-28.
The Gators don’t have fond memories of this track, having registered the worst team finishes in program history on the men’s and women’s sides at last year’s SEC Championships. The past is in the past; however, as Florida enters this year’s meet with a head full of steam. According to the USTFCCCA’s TFRI metric, the Gator men rank third in the conference, and the women rank second.
While the significance of conference glory cannot be understated, this meet also provides a final opportunity for the Gators to secure qualifying marks for the NCAA Indoor Championships. The top 16 athletes in individual events and the top 12 relay teams in the country will advance to compete in Fayetteville, Arkansas, from March 13-14.
With one weekend left for the national lists to solidify themselves, here’s how the Gators stack up and what that means for Florida’s SEC Championship pursuits in College Station:
Currently qualified athletes
Wanya McCoy, No. 5 in men’s 200 meters: McCoy is returning to the same track and the same meet where his season ended last February, as he suffered a quadricep injury in the 200-meter final at the 2025 SEC Indoor Championships. The Bahamian senior has only raced the one-lap distance once this season, but he made it count. His 20.50-second clocking from the Razorback Invitational on Jan. 30 was the second-fastest time in the nation when he ran it, and has held up throughout February as fifth on the national list. Three of the four men who sit ahead of him are also in the SEC and separated by less than a tenth of a second, setting up an epic clash in Saturday’s final.
Miguel Pantojas, No. 16 in men’s 800 meters: After taking over a second-and-a-half off of his indoor personal best with a 1:46.49 performance at the Tyson Invitational on Feb. 13, Pantojas is precariously sitting in the final national qualifying spot. The junior’s best finish at the SEC Championships came outdoors last season, where he finished fifth. If he can better that placement in Saturday’s final, it may also come with a time that locks in his spot at nationals a bit more comfortably.
Kelvin Cheruiyot, No. 5 in men’s 5,000 meters: Cheruiyot’s 13:15.57 run in Seattle on Feb. 13 not only shattered his own school record, but it essentially sealed his ticket to Fayetteville. Without needing to stress about national qualification, the freshman can set his sights solely on securing the second SEC title of his young career. He’ll face stiff competition from Alabama sophomore Dismus Lokira, who was the runner-up in this event last year and finished fifth to Cheruiyot at the SEC Cross Country Championship in November.
Men’s 4x400-meter relay, No. 2: The mile relay at the SEC Indoor Championships is always one of the best races of the indoor season, and that will be no different this year. The five fastest teams in the nation all will converge in College Station, with the Gators’ quartet of McCoy, Justin Braun, Nicholas Spikes and Jayden Horton-Mims sitting a strong second among that group at 3:02.15. Florida’s spot at nationals is secure, but winning a 10th SEC title in this event will prove a monumental challenge, as South Carolina ran the second-fastest time in collegiate history two weeks ago in Clemson.
Temoso Masikane, No. 4 in men’s long jump: Masikane solidified his place as one of the best jumpers in the country with an 8.11-meter effort at the Tyson Invitational. Conference week will provide the South African freshman with an early glimpse of what the national stage will look like. Four of the five men to jump over 8.10 meters this winter compete for SEC programs, including Oklahoma junior Kennedy Stringfellow, the national leader at 8.29 meters.
Jarno van Daalen, No. 16 in men’s shot put: Van Daalen is in a position similar to Pantojas, as the difference between qualifying and not qualifying for nationals for him is just eight centimeters right now. A promising sign for the hulking Dutch freshman is that he’s improved in each of his three competitions this season, with his best mark coming at the Tyson Invitational on a 19.33-meter toss. He’ll be pushed by one of the best conferences in the nation, as four other SEC athletes are currently in the quota for nationals. Leading the way in that group is Ole Miss senior Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan, whose best mark of 21.18 meters is over a meter ahead of anyone else in the NCAA.
Gabby Matthews, No. 10 in women’s 60 meters: Just like she showcased during the outdoor season last spring, Matthews knows how to run her best when the lights are brightest. Last year, came from running a significant personal best in back-to-back races to qualify for the NCAA final in the 200 meters. To this point in the indoor season, it has come from running a personal best of 7.19 to win the Tyson Invitational and put herself in a great position to qualify for her first NCAA Indoor Championships. Georgia’s sprinting contingent will prove to be Matthews’ biggest challenge in College Station, as the Bulldogs have three athletes who have equalled or bettered her 7.19-second mark.
Claire Stegall, No. 11 in women’s mile: Stegall is the fastest miler in SEC history after running 4:25.91 at the BU David Hemery Valentine Invitational on Feb. 14, earning the mantle of favorite as she approaches her first collegiate postseason on the track. There is a major difference in race tactics that comes in the shift from a paced time trial in Boston to a conference championship final, so how the freshman from Tennessee handles that stylistic difference will be the key in Saturday’s final. South Carolina junior Salma Elbadra will be the only other woman on the start line who’s broken 4:30 this year, but the defending SEC champion and Stegall’s teammate, senior Tia Wilson, can’t be overlooked.
Hilda Olemomoi, No. 14 in women’s 3,000 meters and No. 8 in women’s 5,000 meters: Despite sitting near the edge of the qualification bubble in the 3,000 meters, Olemomoi’s position is somewhat protected by the slower, more tactical nature of championship racing. Last year, just one of the 16 national qualifying times in this event was run at a conference championship. It’s a welcome change for the senior from Kenya, as last year she found herself trying to squeeze out a top-16 time in this meet and fell short. Olemomoi should be the favorite in the 5,000-meter final on Thursday but will be tested in Saturday’s 3,000-meter final by the aforementioned Elbadra and Alabama junior Doris Lemngole, the collegiate record holder.
Judy Chepkoech, No. 12 in women’s 5,000 meters: Chepkoech enters her first SEC Championships on the track as an absolute wild card. The Kenyan sophomore has a comfortable spot inside the qualifying window, but hasn’t raced since attaining that 15:12.57 mark at the BU Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on Dec. 6. If she can showcase that same form in College Station, it’ll be a huge boost to the Gators in the team races on the conference and national levels.
Women’s 4x400-meter relay, No. 4: After not contesting the women’s 4x400-meter relay at all during the 2025 indoor season, this freshmen-fueled squad has been a sight to see for the Gators this winter. Junior Quincy Penn and the rookie trio of Sydney Sutton, Tyra Cox and Malia Campbell got the baton around in 3:28.37 at the Tyson Invitational, which stands as the second-fastest time in program history. Just like in the men’s relay, each of the five fastest teams in the nation this season will be locking horns in College Station, meaning the talented but young quartet will be thrown firmly into the flames of postseason action.
Asia Phillips, No. 12 in women’s triple jump: Phillips made both national championship meets as a freshman in 2025, and the Ontario native is well on her way to keeping that streak alive this season after jumping 13.33 meters at the Tyson Invitational. Consistency is the name of the game for Phillips, as she finished sixth at both the SEC Indoor and Outdoor Championships last season. Coming into this championship meet, she sits second on the conference list, signifying that she could be due for a breakthrough.
Alida van Daalen, No. 5 in women’s shot put: Van Daalen was forced to miss this meet last February as she nursed a shoulder injury, but her track record on this stage is stellar. She threw a personal best of 18.66 meters to win the SEC Indoor title as a freshman in 2023 and launched the second-best mark of her career in 2024 to finish runner-up. The Dutch senior kicked off the month with a 17.96-meter mark in Gainesville on Feb. 6, her best throw in 21 months. In College Station, van Daalen will face a formidable opponent in Auburn senior Megan Hague, who leads the conference with a mark of 18.42 meters. There are also two more SEC athletes just behind van Daalen who trail her by a combined seven centimeters.
Can qualify with a good day
Wanya McCoy, No. 42 in men’s 60 meters: McCoy’s return to the track in the 60 meters hasn’t gone as smoothly as it has in his longer race, but he showed improvement between the Razorback and Tyson Invitationals and has plenty of experience in the event. He was the runner-up at the SEC Indoor Championships in 2024 before going on to finish fourth at the national meet. Before his injury last season, he had run the third-fastest time in program history at 6.53. McCoy might need to run a national qualifying time just to make the eight-man SEC final on Saturday, as 10 men on the start list are inside the current qualifying mark of 6.58.
Jayden Horton-Mims, No. 17 in men’s 400 meters: In the unlikely event that the top 16 don’t change over the course of conference weekend, Horton-Mims will end his freshman campaign in the cruelest spot imaginable: one-hundredth of a second off earning a lane at nationals. The Philadelphia native has already run a sizable indoor personal best of 45.69 this season. Even in the event Horton-Mims doesn’t manage to shave off the requisite time in his individual event, he’ll still earn a return trip to Fayetteville as the Gators’ stalwart anchor on the 4x400-meter relay team.
John Luke Witte, No. 19 in men’s weight throw: In his fifth and final SEC Indoor Championships, Witte will be seeking a 14-centimeter improvement on his season’s best at a minimum to secure a spot on the national championship start list. The Gainesville native has scored at this meet each of the last three seasons, finishing fourth in both 2023 and 2024 while competing for LSU. Witte has been steadily increasing his marks over the last two meets, landing a 21.98-meter throw at the Tyson Invitational. That throw appeared to be marked short of where it truly landed by the officials, showing that Witte may be in the form necessary to score important conference points for the Gators and qualify for his second national meet.
Gabby Matthews, No. 27 in women’s 200 meters: Matthews is still relatively new to the indoor 200 meters, with her 23.24-second clocking at the Tyson Invitational representing her first race at the distance in exactly two years. Her 60-meter performance from that meet proved that she’s in shape to run fast right now, and the added competition from a stacked SEC field should help propel the outdoor First-Team All-American from June to a qualifying mark.
Sydney Sutton, No. 45 in women’s 200 meters: Sutton’s potential in this event isn’t immediately apparent when looking at this year’s top lists, but she actually ran faster than Matthews at the Tyson Invitational before being disqualified for a lane violation. Sutton garnered more accolades over 400 meters throughout her high school career, and she’ll be contesting both events in College Station, but it may turn out that the shorter distance is where she shines most in her first season.
Women’s distance medley relay, No. 23: The Gators are set to run back their same first three legs from the Razorback Invitational – Stegall on the 1,200-meter leg, Campbell on the 400-meter leg, and junior Layla Haynes on the 800-meter leg – with the sole exception of senior Beth Morley stepping in for Olemomoi on anchor. The quartet was on pace for a school record and an easy national qualifying time last month through 2,400 meters, and Morley taking over the 1,600-meter leg should be enough juice to get them there. She’s run 4:32 twice this spring in the open mile. Slot that in at the end of the race at Razorback, and the Florida school record is taken down by five seconds, and the Gators are a top 10 team in the nation.
Gracelyn Leiseth, No. 22 in women’s shot put: Two trends come into stark conflict with each other when assessing Leiseth’s odds to make an impact at the conference level and extend her season another two weeks. On one hand, the 16th-best mark in the nation sits at 17.01 meters before conference weekend commences, a distance that Leiseth has managed to throw in nine collegiate competitions. On the other hand, Leiseth has never thrown that far indoors, and the conference meet has resulted in her worst mark of the season each of the past two years. If the junior can buck that trend, she’s more than capable of joining van Daalen on the SEC scoring table and at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Pauline Bikembo, No. 41 in pentathlon: The national qualifying mark in the pentathlon currently sits at 4,052 points, a total that Bikembo easily surpassed in each of her three pentathlons last season as a freshman at Iowa. That mark is surely to be bumped up this weekend, as nine of 16 qualifiers last season earned their mark at their respective conference championships, but it should still be something within the wheelhouse of last year’s fourth-place national finisher. The French sophomore will have a handful of impressive competitors to chase throughout the competition, led by Texas A&M sophomore Sofia Iakushina, the SEC and NCAA runner-up in the event last season.
Contact Paul Hof-Mahoney at phof-mahoney@alligator.org and follow him on X at @phofmahoney.
Paul is a senior in his fourth semester on the track and field/cross country beat for The Alligator. In his free time, you can increasingly see him jogging around Gainesville or endlessly falling deeper down the rabbit hole that is track Twitter.
