‘We’re Headed In The Right Direction’

26TRK Frierson Feature - Women's Indoor Track NCAA Champions

March 16, 2026 | Track & Field, The Frierson Files

By John Frierson
Staff Writer

Hearing her program described as becoming a "massive powerhouse" during an interview last month, a couple of days before the dedication of the new University of Georgia Track & Field Complex, Caryl Smith Gilbert had a look of surprise on her face.

"Is it like a massive powerhouse? Getting to be?" Georgia's Director of Men's and Women's Track and Field asked. "I'm in it, so I feel we're little ants with a long way to go."

The ants aren't so little.

"I still feel that way, or maybe we're worker bees," Smith Gilbert said Monday, two days after the Georgia women's team captured its second NCAA title in less than a year.

Last June, the Bulldogs dominated at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore., winning the program's first outdoor title by 26 points. At the NCAA Indoor meet in Fayetteville, Ark., over the weekend, the Bulldogs again ran away with the title, winning by 11.

"It feels like we're headed in the right direction," she said. "I've always said I'd rather be an elite program than a good team, so maybe this is along the lines of building a program that, year-in, year-out, is challenging for the top three or four positions every time. We always want to win, but if we fall short, we're still top three or four. That's what we're trying to do."

It is that approach that has Smith Gilbert's track and field programs among the best in the country. The same could be true of the only Georgia sport that has won more national championships in the past two years. The women's tennis team has won two ITA National Team Indoor titles and last May's NCAA title. Both will go for more championships later this year.

What's perhaps most impressive about track's NCAA Indoor title is how different the list of scorers is from last May's Outdoor championship. Gone are high jump champion Elena Kulichenko, 400-meter champion Aaliyah Butler, as well as several others who contributed to the championship. The only holdovers from last spring's scorers that also scored at the Indoor meet are 400-meter sprinter Dejanea Oakley and triple jumper Skylynn Townsend.

"It says we're recruiting kids that belong at Georgia," Smith Gilbert said of the new scorers this season. "They're the ones that we've been able to coach successfully, and it shows that they are buying into what we're doing."

Oakley placed second in the Outdoor 400 last year and won the Indoor event with a time of 50.47, setting a new Jamaican national record. Oakley won every heat she ran during the indoor season. She also helped Georgia's 4x400 relay team, which included Shaquena Foote, Skylar Brazzell and Vimbayi Maisvorewa, to a second-place finish in the meet's final event. Foote also placed fifth in the 400.

"I think I'm most thrilled for her," Smith Gilbert said of Oakley. "I think what people miss is Dee didn't lose a race all year. She's undefeated in her heat, and I think that was overlooked. She came out and did very well."

One of the stars of the entire Indoor meet was redshirt freshman Adaejah Oakley, who won the 200 and placed second in the 60. She scored 18 points by herself, which would have tied with Ole Miss for 14th place in the team standings. Hodge ran 22.28 in her preliminary heat, .04 seconds faster than her previous best, and topped that with a school-record time of 22.22. It was the fourth-fastest time in NCAA history.

"I've seen her do things like that every day," Smith Gilbert said. "I was so surprised by (Hodge) every day in practice, that I'm not surprised by what she did in the meet. She'd run so fast that I asked (assistant coach Kyle Stevenson), 'Are you guys sure you marked that right? That's so fast, I've never seen that before.' We do a lot of remeasuring when it comes to her in practice."

Georgia also got points from Nina Ndubuisi, who was third in the shot put with a school-record throw of 59 feet 2.25 inches, sprinter Kaila Jackson (sixth in the 60), Maddi Cooper (sixth in the 60 hurdles), and Townsend (eighth in the triple jump).

On the men's side, Georgia's SEC champion high jumper Kimani Jack placed third, long jumper Jayden Keys placed eighth, and Jonathan Simms came in fourth in the 400. The men finished 25th overall.

For Smith Gilbert, who also led USC's women to NCAA Outdoor titles in 2018 and 2021, this is her first Indoor national championship. It's an achievement she's proud of for a variety of reasons, starting with the fact that the NCAA Outdoor meet starts with regional events for the top 48 in each event. At the Indoor meet, there are no regionals, and only the top 16 in each event get invited. The Bulldogs also won despite not having an indoor track facility.

"It's so hard to make it to the meet," she said. "I don't want to say it's harder than outdoor, but it is harder to make the meet, in general. ... We're racing against people that have (an indoor facility), so we're racing against people that are just real comfortable with it.

"Our team is built more for outdoor; when you recruit in Georgia, they don't run indoor track; kids in Texas, Florida, they don't run indoor track — so we're built for outdoor."

The Georgia men and women now quickly transition to the outdoor season, with the distance runners competing at the Yellow Jacket Invitational at Georgia Tech on Friday. The Bulldogs will compete on their new track for the first time starting April 9, when they host the Spec Towns Invitational.

Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.