SAN ANTONIO – Freshman jumper Ida Breigan will represent UTSA in national competition at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, set to compete in the long jump in the evening on Friday, March 8, at The TRACK at New Balance in Boston.
Hailing from Fredrikstad, Norway, Breigan will commence only her fourth collegiate jump competition on Friday, qualifying for the national field with her record-breaking performances from her collegiate debut forward this spring. The women’s long jump is scheduled to take the runway at 6 p.m. Central Time on the first day of the two-day championship competition. She is slotted to be fourth in the 16-jumper rotation.
NCAA Live Results from the Championships can be found here. The live stream on ESPN+ of the March 8 evening session at the Championships can be found here.
A two-time Norwegian National Champion, Breigan has produced an almost unreal rookie indoor campaign, breaking the UTSA and American Athletic Conference record in her first collegiate appearance in Flagstaff, Arizona, then following up by breaking the Norwegian National Indoor record from 1967 on her second outing. The third time around, Breigan rose to the first real challenge at the AAC Indoor Championships - SMU’s Funminiyi Olajide bested Breigan’s AAC mark, only to watch Breigan use her fifth pass to leap 6.58m (21-7.25) for AAC gold. Breigan’s AAC mark places her third among NCAA indoor performances this season and in a tie for 25th in the world this year. For her efforts, she was named AAC Women’s Freshman of the Year and received AAC Women’s Outstanding Field Performance honors.
The Roadrunner rookie will go toe-to-toe with the nation’s elite performers, just behind Texas’ Ackelia Smith at 6.85m (22-5.75) and Florida’s Claire Bryant at 6.72m (22-0.75) – not to mention Texas A&M’s Joniar Thomas and Baylor’s Alexis Brown just one inch behind Breigan’s top mark at 6.56m (21-6.25). Smith’s top mark enters the week ranked sixth in the world, while Bryant’s is 18th.
Extending a national meet succession in the event for the Roadrunners, Breigan’s qualification marks the third consecutive year that UTSA will have a women’s long jumper at the NCAA Indoor meet, following Oreoluwa Adamson (2023) and Ingeborg Gruenwald (2022). It’s the fourth overall appearance, starting with Tameka Roberts in 1996 – notching the best UTSA finish in the event with a sixth-place mark of 6.21m.
Breigan has her sights on becoming the program’s 16th female All-American and the fourth to earn those honors in the long jump. Last year, Adamson captured second-team All-America accolades after finishing 15th via a 15.99m (19-8) measurement in Albuquerque, N.M. The prior year, Gruenwald collected second-team All-America accolades after finishing 13th with a measurement of 6.24m (20-5.75) in Birmingham, Alabama. Roberts was a three-time All-American in the long jump, placing fifth at the 1995 NCAA Outdoor and 11th the following year to go with a sixth-place leap of 6.21m (20-4.5) at the 1996 NCAA Indoor.
UTSA has collected a total of 29 All-America certificates on the women's side, including nine at an NCAA Indoor Championships. Five of those honors have come since 2019.
- UTSA -