Another sport that’s reaching crunch time in it’s respective season is college track and field. Last week, the regional rounds of the NCAA Championships took place, with the best performers in the East and West region fields advancing on to nationals, which will begin June 10th.
The Tar Heels competed in the East regional, which was held in Lexington, Kentucky last week. Several of them earned the right to compete at nationals, which will be at historic Heyward Field in Eugene, Oregon in a few days.
Let’s run down [Editor’s note: heh] which Carolina athletes are headed on to nationals.
Makayla Paige has been arguably the standout UNC track athlete in recent years, including winning the 2025 indoor NCAA championship in the 800 meters. Not shockingly, she’ll get the chance to add the outdoor crown to her collection, as she won the East regional and qualified with the second best overall time in the 800m.
Also qualifying as the #2 seed in their respective event is Sydney Masciarelli. She finished just a little over a second back of the top overall time in the 3000 meter steeplechase, and was one of only two qualifiers who broke the 9:40 mark in that event.
Carolina will have two runners in the women’s 5000 meters race, as both Vera Sjoberg and Brynn Brown advanced to nationals. They finished as the #19 and #23 qualifiers among the 24 who advanced to Eugene for the finals.
Over on the field, Kosi Umerah will be amongst the finalists vying to be crowned the national champion in the women’s hammer throw. She’ll be joined in the field events by Spencer Young, who made the top 24 in the javelin.
As for the UNC men, unfortunately only one Tar Heel athlete will be advancing on. Tomer Tarragano will be in the 24-runner field in the men’s 10000 meter event in Eugene. He got in as the #18 qualifier in that event, finishing 23 seconds back of the top time. While he’ll be up against it, UNC has had excellent results in long distance events in recent years, with Parker Wolfe winning the 2024 national title in the 5000 meters, so maybe Tarragano can ride that magic.
It’s highly unlikely, but on the women’s side, if UNC can get a couple individual titles they could possibly make an unexpected run at a team national championship. They would need everything to go perfectly, but at least there’s a shot. With only Tarragano going for UNC, there’s no such chance on the men’s side of things.
As mentioned, the finals are set to begin on June 10th up in Eugene, Oregon. Best of luck to all the Tar Heels who will be advancing on and trying to bring an individual national championship back to Chapel Hill.
