Heading into her final NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Britton Wilson said she wanted to see if she could do something that no one else has done before.
On Saturday, June 10, the University of Arkansas junior set out to become the first collegian to win NCAA titles in the 400 meters and the 400-meter hurdles in the same meet. The kicker? The races in Austin, Texas, were only 25 minutes apart.
It was an audacious goal. And it didn’t work out.
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At 9:02 p.m. CT, she finished second in the 400 meters to Rhasidat Adeleke of Texas, who broke the meet and facility record by running 49.20, coming within 0.07 seconds of Wilson’s collegiate record (49.13). Wilson followed, well back, in 49.64.
From the stands at Mike A. Myers Stadium, Wilson’s mother, LeYuani Wilson, cheered her daughter on, her hands shaking from nerves. As she watched Wilson finish second, she said, “It’s okay. She has one more.”
With minutes to recover and get ready for the hurdles, Wilson slowly made her way past the finish line and through the mixed zone, stopping to sit briefly before circling back to the track.
At 9:27 p.m. CT, Wilson returned to the track for the 400-meter hurdles. But she looked completely spent while trying to clear the barriers. She placed seventh in 55.92, far behind NCAA champion Savannah Sutherland of Michigan who crossed the line in 54.45. Wilson was well off the time she ran in the preliminary, 54.67.
Wilson had tears in her eyes when she finally met her mother off the track, where they shared a long embrace. Later, Arkansas was announced as taking third place in the team championship, and Wilson was a few minutes late to join her teammates. They all rushed to hug her in a huddle on the infield.
In her first event of the night, Wilson finished second in the 400 meters.
Wilson has been so dominant on the track this season—three times lowering the collegiate record in the 400 meters and winning the 400-meter hurdles by huge margins—it seemed like a foregone conclusion that she would win the double.
“It stings, it hurts a little, but I’m glad I just got out there and tried my best,” Wilson told Runner’s World at the meet’s end. “Sometimes it just doesn’t work out the way you planned. I gave what I could.”
The quick turnaround between events proved to be difficult in the finals compared to the preliminaries, which were 30 minutes apart on Thursday. “It was just a lot, you know, physical pain and mental pain,” Wilson said. “So, just trying to stay composed and go out there and try.”
She explained that ongoing issues with her left shin have affected her these last few weeks. Wilson said she dealt with stress reactions in both shins earlier this year.
Her coach, Chris Johnson, believed the timeframe was too short to win both. “It’s a tough double, that’s why it’s probably never been attempted before,” he said. “Twenty-five minutes is not enough time. Obviously, she got it done the day before with 35 minutes, so 25 minutes wasn’t quite enough.
“But, you know, congrats to the kids that got it done,” he continued. “We understood that that was part of it when we came into the meet.”
Her competitors were full of praise for Wilson, too.
“[Wilson] is an insane, amazing athlete,” Sutherland said. “That was really adventurous of her to go do [the double], and she did amazing in both races.”
Wilson wasn’t the only athlete who was attempting a rare double. North Carolina State’s Katelyn Tuohy, who is the collegiate record holder in the indoor mile and outdoor 5,000 meters, was trying to win the 1500 meters and 5,000 meters in Austin.
She finished seventh in her first event, the 1500, and scratched for the 5,000, the event she won last year. Tuohy didn’t speak to the media.
Both athletes have a few weeks to rest, recover, and get ready for the U.S. championships, which will be held in early July and will pick the team to represent the U.S. at the world championships in August in Hungary.
Last year, Wilson, fresh off her first NCAA outdoor crown in the 400-meter hurdles, made Team USA for the world championships in Eugene, Oregon, and finished fifth in the 400-meter hurdles before contributing to the United States’ gold medal in the 4×400-meter relay.
Track is unpredictable. Sometimes the favorites falter—and then make comebacks. Wilson has a lot of racing ahead of her.
Said her coach, Chris Johnson: “We’re very proud of her. I just think she had a phenomenal meet, a phenomenal season. We look forward to the future.”
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
