USTFCCCA News & Notes
By USTFCCCA Communications, USTFCCCA
December 5, 2025  
Shey Taiwo came within a single centimeter of erasing the
old guard from the collegiate record book – at least on the women’s side – when
she won the weight throw at the 2022 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field
Championships in Birmingham, Alabama.
Taiwo capped a remarkable indoor season with an NCAA-winning toss of 25.55m (83-10), a mark that cemented the former Ole Miss standout at No. 2 in collegiate history, just behind Brittany Riley of Southern Illinois at 25.56m (83-10¼). That year, Taiwo produced three all-time top-ten performances in the event, including efforts that now sit at Nos 4 and 7.
From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Records & Lists
Had Taiwo equaled – or surpassed – Riley’s collegiate
record, every women’s championship-event record would have been set post-2020, effectively
ushering in a new era. Instead, Riley’s mark endures nearly 19 years later,
with Minnesota’s Annie Nabwe the closest active challenger at 24.22m (79-5½),
which slots her as the eighth best performer in collegiate history.
Interestingly, none of the current women’s collegiate
records were set in 2022 – an outlier in the post-COVID era. Since then, the
record book has been anything but quiet: four fell in 2025, two more in 2024, a
staggering eight during the historic 2023 season, and another two in 2021.
By comparison, the men’s record book is decidedly ancient.
Seven current men’s collegiate marks predate 2020, including three that go back
even further than 50 Cent’s “In da Club” topping the Billboard Year-End Hot 100
in 2003: Miguel Pate’s long jump of 8.59m (28-2¼) from 2002, and Paul Ereng’s 800-meter
record of 1:44.84 alongside Hollis Conway’s high jump of 2.37m (7-9¼), both set
in 1989.
To illustrate, the closest anyone has come to toppling Conway and Pate were past winners of The Bowerman, achieving those marks while claiming NCAA titles: Derek Drouin cleared 2.35m (7-8½) in 2013, and JuVaughn Harrison soared 8.45m (27-8¾) nearly five years ago. Meanwhile, no man has broken 1:45 indoors other than Ereng.
Records, in general, could start falling as soon as this weekend, as stars from the cross country season hit the 200-meter oval at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener in Boston.
