CHARLOTTE, NC – The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA®), the nation’s oldest historically black conference, opens its 2023 Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships this weekend at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, NC. The two-day event features 11 women’s and eight men’s teams competing for CIAA titles. Competition begins Sunday, February 12 at 10:30 a.m. through Monday, February 13.
This year marks the 43rd year the CIAA has sponsored indoor track & field as a women’s sport and the 46th for the men.
Leading the way in the women’s field is the two-time defending conference champions Fayetteville State University. The Broncos, led by coach Inez Turner, are currently ranked No. 6 in the Atlantic Region Poll of the US Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). In 2019, its first year of existence as a university-sponsored track & field program, Fayetteville State finished third in the championship meet before winning titles in 2020 and 2022. (The 2021 season was canceled due to COVID-19.)
The team features a pair of top CIAA performers in M’Smyra Seward and Tracy Idugboe. Seward, a sophomore from Youngsville, NC, enters the conference meet with the third-best mark (6.10m) in the long jump in Division II. In addition to the long jump, Seward is an NCAA Division II provisional qualifier in the triple jump. Idugboe, a senior from Norfolk, VA, has provisionally qualified for the triple jump and she has qualified for the 4x400m relay as part of a quartet that features Jessica McQueen, Teanna Bell, and Queen Burnett.
In order to claim their third consecutive conference championship, the Broncos will need to outpace a field that features three other CIAA schools ranked in the top 20 of the Atlantic Region by USTFCCCA. Johnson C. Smith University (14th), Winston-Salem State (16th), Lincoln (PA) (17th). The last women’s team to earn three consecutive league titles was Saint Augustine’s when it won 14 straight from 1997 to 2010. The Falcons are ranked 24th in the Atlantic Region.
On the men’s side, Virginia State, led by coach Frank Hyland, is looking to repeat as conference champions. After coming up tied with St. Augustine’s for first place in 2018 and 2020, the Trojans won their first outright indoor conference title last season. The Virginia State win snapped Saint Augustine’s 23-year streak of either winning outright or sharing the CIAA men’s indoor crown.
The Falcons, looking to return to the top with Bershawn “Batman” Jackson at the helm, enter the championship meet as the conference’s top-rated team in the Atlantic Region at No. 6. St. Augustine’s boasts Terrell Robinson, the CIAA’s top performer in the 60-meter (6.66 seconds) and 200-meter (21.90 seconds) dashes. The freshman from Winston-Salem, NC is an NCAA provisional qualifier in the 60-meter dash, and he ranks second in Division II in the event. The Falcons also have Isaiah Rozier, a sophomore from Raeford, NC, who provisionally qualified for the triple jump with a mark of 14.73 meters.
In addition to the Falcons and Trojans (22nd), four other men’s programs rank within the top 25 of the Atlantic Region. Livingstone is ranked 10th, Lincoln (PA) is slotted at 14th, Johnson C. Smith is 15th, and Claflin sits at 17th.
Other top CIAA student-athletes with NCAA Division II provisional qualifying performances entering the conference championship include 2022 All-American Glenn Butler Jr. (high jump and long jump) from Lincoln (PA), Johnson C. Smith junior Ja’Qun Wilkins (long jump), and Livingstone freshman Cameron Snead (triple jump) on the men’s side. The women’s field includes Johnson C. Smith junior Jordyn Head (60m), Claflin sophomore Zoe Adams (400m), and Winston-Salem State junior Kennedy Alexander (high jump). Adams and Alexander were the 2022 CIAA’s Track and Field Athletes of the Year, respectively.
Live results will be available at SnapTiming.com. Championship meet information and updates can also be found on the 2023 CIAA Indoor Track & Field Championships page. The championship is open and free to the public.
Requests for media credentials and interviews should be made in advance to Ja’Shawn Steward-Johnson at jjohnson@theciaa.com and/or the institution’s sports information director.
For more information on the CIAA, visit theciaa.com. You can also like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and on Twitch.
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