Four Cavaliers Qualify for 2023 NCAA Indoor Championships
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country Committee announced Wednesday (March 1) the participants who will compete in the 2023 Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Friday, March 10 and Saturday, March 11. Four Cavaliers made the cut including Owayne Owens, Conor Murphy, Alix Still and Margot Appleton.
Owens makes his third consecutive trip to the NCAA Championships in the triple jump. Virginia’s veteran jumper logged a personal-best in his season debut clearing 16.63 meters (54’6.75”) to earn the sixth seed in the competition.
The Cavaliers will send two milers to the NCAA Championships as Conor Murphy and Margot Appleton each qualified for the event. Murphy’s seed time of 3:55.24 places him in 10th among the field. Murphy’s time set a Virginia record and came as a part of a spectacular showing for the Cavaliers as five runners broke the four-minute barrier on the same day in Boston. Murphy will make his first-ever appearance at an NCAA Championship meet.
Appleton will enter as the nation’s 16 seed with her time of 4:33.82. Running at the same meet where the Virginia men put five runners under four minutes, Appleton put forward an impressive performance knocking four seconds off her personal best. Her seed time is just .28 seconds from the Virginia record in the mile. Appleton competed at the NCAA Indoor Championships in 2022 as a part of Virginia’s distance medley relay team where she earned first team All-American honors.
Alix Still punches her second ticket to the NCAA Indoor Championships competing in the pentathlon. Still earned the 11th seed in the competition after a historic performance at the ACC Indoor Championships where she set both a Virginia record and the Scottish national record finishing second in the pentathlon with 4,177 points.
ESPN+ will stream the championships live starting at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time Friday, March 10 and starting at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time Saturday, March 11. There will be two re-airs of the meet. The first re-air will take place starting at 6 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, March 12 on ESPNU. The second re-air of the championship will take place starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time Monday, March 13 on ESPNU.