LEXINGTON, Ky. — Ole Miss secured three berths to the NCAA Outdoor Championships on the third and final day of the 2026 NCAA East First Round.
Sophomore Jordan Urrutia delivered a career day and reigning national champion Arvesta Troupe began his title defense in style.
The national meet is set for Eugene, Oregon, and Ole Miss is bringing company.
Troupe Clears Bar With Room to Spare
Troupe, a senior and three-time All-American, didn’t waste any time making his intentions clear.
The reigning NCAA Outdoor high jump champion was clean over every bar he attempted and tied for the lead in the prelims at 2.16 meters (7-1).
He’s heading back to the big stage to defend the crown he won last June when he became the first athlete in Ole Miss history to win a national high jump title.
That win added a major chapter to an already decorated résumé.
Troupe carries three career All-America awards and 16 total NCAA points into what’ll be his final meet as a Rebel. He’s got unfinished business in Eugene.
Urrutia Turns in a Monster Day
If Troupe’s performance was steady and experienced, Urrutia’s day was a flat-out sprint from start to finish — literally.
The sophomore was attempting the 100/200/4×100-meter triple after advancing in the first round on Wednesday. He ran three races across the afternoon and evening.
First came the 4×100-meter relay, where Urrutia joined Dekell Minor, Wesley Todd and Tarique Wright in a time of 38.87 seconds. That put the Rebs fourth in a very fast third heat but still fast enough to grab one of three time-qualifier spots into the national meet.
That time would’ve set a school record as recently as two weeks ago. But this Rebel relay squad already broke it themselves.
They ran a 38.65 at the SEC Championship, the fastest by an Ole Miss 4×100 group since 2011 and the first time in school history the unit has broken 39 seconds.
In five chances this season, they’ve never run slower than 39.20. Every single one of those performances would’ve been a school record a year ago, when the mark stood at 39.34.
This also marks the first time Ole Miss has booked back-to-back national qualifying berths in the men’s 4×100 since the 2014-15 stretch.
About 90 minutes after the relay wrapped up, Urrutia was back in spikes for the 100-meter quarterfinals.
He ran a personal-best 10.14 into a -0.1 wind — tied for sixth in school history — but finished 13th, just two hundredths of a second shy of punching his first individual ticket to nationals.
Roughly an hour after that, Urrutia lined up for the 200-meter quarterfinals.
He came through in the second spot in his heat at a wind-legal personal record of 20.34 (+0.9). That was good for an automatic qualifier spot to Eugene, the first individual 200-meter qualifier on the men’s side at Ole Miss since Olympian Isiah Young finished as the NCAA runner-up in 2013.
That’s a 13-year gap filled by a sophomore who’d just run three events in one afternoon.
The Relay Makes History Again
The 4×100 squad’s trip to nationals deserves its own moment. This group — Minor, Urrutia, Todd and Wright has been one of the more consistent relay units the Rebels have put together in years.
They’ve made the NCAA Championships two years in a row for the first time since 2014-15, and they’ve done it while rewriting the program’s record book in real time.
Running 38.65 at the SEC Championship was the headline moment, but the follow-up run of 38.87 here still stands as a mark that would’ve been the school’s best as recently as last season.
Close Calls and Career Performances
Not everything went the Rebels’ way on Friday, though.
Sophomore Max Armstrong had a narrow escape from nationals that didn’t go his way. Armstrong finished 13th in the 800-meter quarterfinals at 1:46.67, less than two-tenths of a second out of a qualifying spot.
Still, he’s wrapping up his sophomore year as one of the best 800-meter runners in program history, sitting fourth all-time at his personal-record 1:46.06 set at the SEC Outdoor Championships.
Freshman Ashton Hearn came up just short in the discus, finishing 13th at 57.03 meters (187-1), just two feet shy of qualifying.
Junior Sterling Scott had an even tighter miss in the triple jump, falling just 2.25 inches short of a qualifying mark at 15.77 meters (51-9).
Ole Miss also closed out the night with its first appearance in a regional 4×400-meter relay since 2014.
The foursome of Todd, Carson Turner, Cade Flatt and Armstrong ran 3:06.52, good for 10th in school history outdoors.
Senior distance runners Aiden Britt (14:05.76, 22nd) and Kidus Misgina (14:10.58, 26th) both competed in the 5K, closing out their careers as Ole Miss athletes.
Sophomore Sergio Del Barrio ran a 9:03.16 for 33rd in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Day One Started It All
It’s worth remembering that Friday’s three qualifiers weren’t Ole Miss’s only national tickets from the East Regional.
On Day One, Logan Kelley qualified for the national meet in the pole vault, clearing 5.35 meters (17-6.50) to tie for 10th.
The Rebels came out of Lexington with four men’s qualifiers heading to Eugene.
What’s Next
Ole Miss wraps up its stay in Lexington on Saturday, with the Rebels women taking the track for the final day of competition starting at 4 p.m. in the 4×100-meter relay.
The NCAA Outdoor Championships are set to begin June 10.
