With 35 points, the Knights earned the best finish by a non-BCS team since 2000 (BYU, 4th place). They more than doubled their previous program-best point total (16 points, 2011) at an NCAA Outdoor Championship meet to take fifth place behind perennial powers national champion Kansas, Texas A&M, Oregon and LSU.

“This is the best finish in Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ history so I’m very excited about it,” Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert said. “It was a big year. It was an exciting year. It was a year full of surprises. More than the finishes, the records and the championships – all of the things and injuries we overcame is (an even bigger deal) to me. Everyone stepped up and pulled through. Everyone on the team started believing that we could make things happen.”

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ entered the final day of competition with three scoring opportunities up for grabs in the 4×100 relay and 200 meters.

Alexis Faulknor, Aurieyall Scott, Afia Charles and Octavious Freeman finished runner-up to SEC Champion Texas A&M in the relay with their time of 43.36. Freeman blitzed down the final stretch, blowing by the field while hunting down the Aggies to give the Knights their best relay finish at the meet in school history, first team All-America status and eight points toward the team standings.

Roughly 30 minutes later, Freeman and Scott were at the blocks again ready to challenge LSU’s Kimberlyn Duncan – the two-time defending champion – in the 200-meter finals. Although Duncan successfully repeated, Scott earned her best finish in an individual outdoor championship final with her third-place, all-conditions personal-best of 22.48 (+3.5).

The NCAA indoor 60-meter national champion collected three first team All-American honors at this year’s meet, bringing her career total to an unparalleled 14 distinctions.

Freeman finished seventh in the race in 22.92, also picking up her third first team All-American honor of the meet. She now boasts nine career awards.

Throughout the four-day meet, the Knights brought in four medalist performances from Jen Clayton (long jump), Scott (200M), Freeman (100M) and the 4×100 relay in front of a combined attendance of 40,446.

Several Knights will set their sights on the Junior and Senior USA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, held June 20-23.

Freeman earned the best finish by a Knight in any event of the NCAA Outdoor Championships in school history with her second-place, personal best time of 11.00 (+0.9) to break her own school record. The performance ties for the eighth-best mark in collegiate history.

She finished four-hundredths of a second behind defending champion English Gardner of Oregon, who clocked the second-best time (10.96) in the history of the meet.

Scott crossed the finish line in fourth place at 11.14, just two-hundredths of a second shy of her personal best. Combined, Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s dynamic duo hauled in 14 points in front of a national television audience while picking up All-American First Team honors. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ is the only team in the country that boasted two top-five finishers.

The Knights have 19 points and currently stand in seventh place heading into the final day of the meet with three scoring opportunities still up for grabs. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ has already tallied more points than any team in school history at the outdoor championships.

Freeman and Scott will compete in the 200 meters and have also qualified for Saturday’s 4×100 relay along with freshman Alexis Faulknor and junior Afia Charles after breaking the school record in the event in the semifinals.

And all of this was just in day one of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Junior Jen Clayton made history as the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ track and field team’s highest finisher in a jumps event at the championships thanks to her third-place, wind-aided leap of 6.42m/21-00.75 (+3.3). She is just the second long jumper in school history to earn first team All-American laurels.

Meanwhile on the track, the 4×100 relay improved upon the school record set earlier this season and boasted two automatic qualifiers for Friday’s 100-meter finals.

Sophomore Octavious Freeman’s strong final leg of the 4×100 relay helped her team automatically qualify for Saturday’s finals. Alexis Faulknor, Aurieyall Scott, Afia Charles and Freeman edged SEC Championship runner-up LSU for the fastest time of the third heat (43.15) and were second only to Texas A&M for the day. The group now appears at No. 8 among all-time collegiate performers in the event.

The quartet aims to become Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s first team to medal in a relay event in program history.

Freeman and Scott set the 100M semifinals ablaze with the two-fastest qualifying times of the day thanks to their all-conditions personal bests.

Freeman jetted to her first sub-11 performance with a wind-aided 10.99 (+2.8) to edge defending NCAA champion English Gardner. Scott clinched her heat, as well, by besting Pac-12 champion Jenna Prandini of host Oregon in 11.00 (+2.6). Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ and Oregon are the only two programs in the country with multiple entries in the finals.

Running alongside SEC champion Kimberlyn Duncan of LSU in the 100M’s final heat, Faulknor fell short of qualifying for the finals by three-hundredths of a second but earned All-American Second Team distinction with her time of 11.37 (+2.3) for 14th place.

Sophomore Sandy Jean racked up All-American Second Team laurels in the 400 hurdles with her time of 58.38 to just miss out on the finals in 10th place.

Scott and Freeman will represent the Black and Gold in Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s only event Thursday, the 200 meters. They enter the race, which will air on ESPN3, as the top-two regional qualifiers looking to clinch their spot in Saturday’s final.

Visit for a complete guide detailing how to follow the Knights at the NCAA Championships.

June 6 – ESPN3 (Watch)

(Top two of each heat plus next two best times overall advance to finals)

Freeman proved unstoppable once again by topping the 200-meter school record with the world’s top wind-legal time this year, 22.57 (+0.1). The world’s current 100-meter leader edged three-time World Champion and two-time Olympic medalist Lauryn Williams in a photo finish to claim first place.

Logan catapulted herself into the NCAA’s top 25 this year with the best performance by a Knight in the 800M since 2009, finishing third in 2:06.37. She shaved nearly three seconds off her previous season best and continues to reign as Conference USA’s top 800M runner in 2013.

After a lengthy weather delay that sidelined the field athletes for more than four hours and pushed back the race schedule by 30 minutes, the 4×100 relay opened the meet with a performance that was worth the wait. Afia Charles, Aurieyall Scott, Alexis Faulknor and Freeman combined to cross the finish line in 43.58 for the third-best time in the NCAA this season. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ and Texas A&M are currently the only two programs in the country to boast multiple times in the event that rank among the nation’s top 10.

Charles had a breakthrough in the 400 meters with her fastest race in more than a year, clinching first place with a time of 53.77. Charles moved up on the NCAA East Region leaderboard to No. 15.

Scott etched her name on the NCAA’s top-10 leaderboard this season in her first 100-meter race since her gold-medal finish at the NACAC U-23 Championships last July. She won the second heat in 11.30 and finished second overall only to Lauryn Williams. Senior Amanda Leland produced the second-best wind-legal time of her career (11.85) in the race before topping her personal best in the 200M soon after with a time of 24.64 (+0.0).

Junior Erica Winston clocked a new personal-record 2:10.55 in her best 800M race in two years to finish seventh. Freshman Caroline Pauls won the second heat of the event in 2:13.24, which was good enough for ninth place.

Sandy Jean emerged as the top collegiate finisher in the 400 hurdles with her time of 59.20, marking her second time of 2013 that ranks among the East Region’s top 15. Freshman Rayeisha Lowe-Chin recorded the best time of her career at 1:03.60.

Three Knights finished among the top five in the 1500 meters. Sophomore Amelia Williams led the way in third place by improving her personal best for the second time this season (4:45.07). Sophomore Cody Castillo finished fourth in 4:51.58 and freshman Rachel Petrik was close behind in fifth with a time of 4:55.17.

Freshman Jocelin Adona capped the races as the Knights’ lone representative in the 3,000- meter finals and cruised to third place with a personal-record time of 11:00.56.

Freshman Megan Patterson boasted the best finish by a field athlete of the day with a second-place toss of 14.21m/46-07.25 in the shot put. The Knights also earned two top-three finishes from Erica Weiss in the pole vault after clearing 3.60m/11-09.75, and Precious Ogunleye in the discus with a mark of 45.75m/150-01.

Ogunleye led three Knights in the hammer throw with a fourth-place showing of 53.43m/175-03 for another mark that ranks among Conference USA’s top five this season.

Up next, the Knights will visit Gainesville for the second time in three weeks when they compete at the Tom Jones Invitational on April 20.

Last year, Octavious Freeman announced her presence in her collegiate outdoor debut with a Florida Relays meet record in the 100 meters with the then-world’s fastest time. On Friday, she decided to one-up herself by besting her meet record and rewriting a 15-year-old Percy Beard Track record in her first 100M race of 2013.

Her first-place, personal-best and new-school-record 11.02 (+1.2) is currently the fastest time in the world this year. It not only leads the NCAA but also matches the ninth-best time on the all-time collegiate performance list.

And her day wasn’t over, yet.

Freeman also shined in the 200 meters two hours later when she matched the NCAA’s top time this season with a wind-legal 22.85 (+1.8). She held off three-time World and Olympic gold medalist Natasha Hastings for first place.

Freshman Anne-Marie Blaney made quite a statement in the first 5000-meter race of her career by setting a new school, freshman and personal record. Her fourth-place time of 16:40.31 erased the 14-year-old school record by more than 23 seconds and currently ranks third in Conference USA. Her classmate Heather Classe also improved her personal record by roughly 30 seconds, crossing the line in 17:43.13.

Despite facing a headwind, Sonnisha Williams won the university division long jump for the second-straight year with a season-best leap of 6.15m/20-02.25 (-1.1), which ranks third in C-USA and among the NCAA’s top 20.

Sophomore Precious Ogunleye recorded the second-best discus throw of her career with a fourth-place finish of 46.03m/151-00 to jump into the top 10 of the C-USA standings.

Junior Ne’Ausha Logan continued her strong start to the outdoor season by improving upon her C-USA-best 800M time for the third-straight week, crossing the finish line in 2:09.27 for 15th place.

Sandy Jean posted the best performance by a runner in C-USA this season and jumped into the NCAA’s top-25 list this year. She narrowly missed her personal best with a season-best time of 58.96 for ninth place.

Junior Afia Charles held on firmly to her No. 2 spot among Conference USA leaders this season in the 400M with a season-best 54.01 for 18th place.

Freshman Alexis Faulknor finished 12th in the 100M with a wind-aided time of 11.61, and junior Jen Clayton produced an all-conditions personal-best 11.87 (+2.1).

Senior Erica Weiss matched the second-best mark of her career in the pole vault, breaching C-USA’s top-five leaders this season by clearing 3.75m/12-03.50 to tie for ninth place.

The sprint medley group of Freeman, Alexis Faulknor, Afia Charles and Ne’Ausha Logan smashed a 4-year-old school record with a second-place time of 3:46.52. Freeman and Faulknor blazed through their 200-meter legs, and although Charles stumbled just before the curve at 200 meters of her 400-meter leg, she recovered quickly and pushed through to hand off to Logan for the final 800 meters. Together, they shed more than six seconds off the previous program best.

All three throwers representing Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ in the shot put advanced to the finals. Freshman Megan Patterson paced the group with a collegiate-best 14.31m/46-11.50 for third place, marking the best finish in any event of her career. Sophomore Precious Ogunleye finished eighth (13.82m/45-04.25) and Destinee Romain was close behind with a toss of 13.80m/45-03.50.

Two Knights also advanced to the hammer throw finals where Kalen Hambrick recorded a new personal record for the second-straight week. Hambrick hit a PR on her first attempt before topping that mark in the finals with a seventh-place throw of 51.95m/170-05. Meanwhile, Ogunleye took ninth place (51.11m/167-08).

Sonnisha Williams, Jen Clayton, Amanda Leland and Sandy Jean comprised Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s 4×200 relay that finished second among collegiate teams and fourth overall with a time of 1:34.71.

The Knights next head to Miami for the Hurricane Alumni Invitational on April 13.

The Knights captured the title with 132.5 points, besting runner-up Memphis by 39.5 points. Junior Aurieyall Scott earned Performance of the Meet, Alexis Faulknor won Freshman of the Meet and Caryl Smith Gilbert earned her fifth C-USA Coach of the Year honor.

In perhaps the most defining moment of the day, the sprinters swept the podium of the 60 meters. Scott bested the meet record, the school record and her personal record with a blistering performance of 7.13, which ranks as the NCAA’s new leading time. Octavious Freeman earned silver at 7.22 and Faulknor clinched the first medal of her career with a bronze finish and new PR time of 7.43. Senior Lutisha Bowen also scored points in seventh place at 7.52, giving Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ a whopping 26 points in the event.

Scott continued to impress in the 200 meters with her second meet record in the event in as many days. This year’s world leader posted the second-best time of her career (22.91) for gold. Freeman’s season-best time of 23.35 picked up a silver medal, and Faulknor hit a new personal best 24.10 to score points in fifth place.

Bowen earned her first C-USA medal with her runner-up finish in the 60 hurdles with a time of 8.27.

Junior Afia Charles rewrote her own school record in the 400 meters with a personal-best 54.02, which won her heat and was six-hundredths of a second short of the leader. Her time was better than the previous meet record.

The throwers excelled with a school-record performance and two personal bests in the shot put. Precious Ogunleye captured her second school record of the weekend with a monster personal best of 15.17m/49-09.25 for fourth place. Destinee Romain topped her personal record with a mark of 14.06m/46-01.50 to tally more points in seventh place.

Freshman Anne-Marie Blaney picked up her second school record in as many days, shaving time off her precious 3,000-meter record with a sixth-place finish of 9:43.59.

The 800-meter runners had a productive day, as well, as Ne’Ausha Logan secured a bronze medal with the second-best time of her career, 2:09.77. Erica Winston fell in step behind her at 2:10.88, shaving nearly three seconds off her previous personal record.

Two jumpers added points in the high jump for the Knights. Freshman Allison Lampert produced a career-best day with a sixth-place showing of 1.68m/5-06.00. Sonnisha Williams missed her personal best by half-an-inch with a season-best leap of 1.68m/5-06.00.

Scott, Charles, Sandy Jean and Logan comprised the 4×400 relay that capped the day with a first-place finish with its second-best time of the season, 3:40.83.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ now sets its sights on the NCAA Indoor Championships behind held at Arkansas on March 8-9. A season ago, the Knights earned their highest finish in school history (eighth place) at the meet.

WOMEN’S TEAM FINAL

1. Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ – 132.5

2. Memphis – 93

3. UAB – 83 4. East Carolina – 59

5. SMU – 52

6. UTEP – 46

7. Houston – 44

8. Tulsa – 37

9. Southern Miss – 30

10. Tulane – 29

11. Rice – 28

12. Marshall – 26.5

“Every time I raced (this year), I had them in the back of my mind saying, `I’ve got to do good so I don’t let the girls down.’ I think that’s been a driving force behind me,” Trotter said. “It means so much to me to have had to opportunity to be an inspiration to these girls. They have been an inspiration to me.

Trotter, who trained with head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert for the last eight months at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, will compete in the 400 meters Friday. She is not the only athlete Smith Gilbert has helped earn an appearance at this year’s Summer Games.

Current Knight Afia Charles became Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s first track and field Olympian when she was invited to compete as a member of Antigua’s national team. Charles’ mother, Ruperta, ran for the country in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, so her daughter has dual citizenship.

Charles and Trotter run in round one of the 400 meters at 7 a.m. EDT hoping to advance to Saturday’s semifinals (3:05 p.m.) and finals (4:10 p.m.). NBC will begin airing coverage of track and field events Friday at 10 a.m.

Trotter earned a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens with the 4×400 relay team. She spent much of 2009 and 2010 still battling effects from a knee injury but finally broke through this past year after moving to Orlando to train with Smith Gilbert. She credits much of her success to the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ track and field team.

“I was trying to transition myself into a new level of motivation because I was down. When I got here, they worked so hard and their level of work ethic and being out here with young ladies that are extremely talented, they just lifted me up,” Trotter said. “They looked up to me in a way that I felt a sense of responsibility to them. When I’m running, they are part of the motivation that keeps me wanting to do better.

“They have made this journey even better because watching them grow, sharing my knowledge, being able to work with them on a day-to-day basis, it was definitely destiny that we came together.”

The Knights have been equally as inspired by their mentor. This year, four student-athletes competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials capped by Aurieyall Scott’s appearance as one of two collegiate athletes who advanced to the nationally televised 200-meter finals.

Trotter has high expectations for the track and field team and believes that soon, the Knights will be adding a national championship to their many conference titles.

“The real potential of this team – I’m a professional track runner, I run on championship teams, Tennessee was a championship team when I was there, I know what champions look like and this team has it. And I’m not just saying that because I train with them every day,” Trotter said. “I’m saying that because they have the talent, they have the work ethic and they have the coach.”

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ alumnus Phil Dalhausser and student Afia Charles are among the competitors vying for the gold this summer. Opening ceremonies for the London Olympics are Friday, July 27, and the games run through Aug. 12.

Dalhausser, who graduated from Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, will compete in beach volleyball. The volleyball pro lives in Ventura, Calif. He and his volleyball doubles partner, Todd Rogers, won gold medals in beach volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Dalhausser was born in Switzerland and lived there for a year before moving to the United States.  He played basketball and tennis at Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, and took up volleyball his senior year.

Dalhausser was a member of the Men’s Volleyball Club at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, which competes locally and nationally, and he has been named Beach Male Athlete of the Year by USA Volleyball for the past four years.

The preliminary phase of the beach volleyball Olympic tournament will be Saturday, July 28.

Rising junior Charles is Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s first track and field Olympian. Charles, who holds dual-citizenship with Antigua, will be competing for the island nation in the 400-meter dash. Charles has raced for Antigua since she first picked up running in high school.

Charles trained at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ alongside U.S. Olympian DeeDee Trotter – an already an Olympic bronze and gold medalist –  who is coached by Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ track and field head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert. The women will compete in Round 1 on Friday, Aug. 3.

Dalhausser and Charles aren’t the only Knights representing Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ in London.

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ soccer player A.J. Nelson won’t be competing in the games, but he will be in London working as a video logger for NBC Sports. The senior forward is spending more than 20 days in London watching events and cutting highlight tapes as part of a summer internship.

The Olympic spirit will be hitting the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ campus, too. On-campus celebrations include:

Ruperta, a native of Antigua, was a four-year letterwinner as a sprinter for Howard University in the early 1980s and capped her career at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, competing in the 100 and 200 meters and the 4×400 relay.

Charles, who just finished her sophomore year at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, was aware of her mother’s success but never paid much attention to it. Little did she know that nearly three decades after her mother’s appearance at the Summer Games, she would be following in her footsteps.

“When I was younger I didn’t really think it was a big deal. The first time I really ever sat down and watched the Olympics was 2008,” Charles said. “I would never have imagined in the next four years that I’d be going. It hasn’t hit me yet, but when it hits me, I’ll probably end up crying.”

A dual-citizen with Antigua, Charles will head to London on July 26 as part of the country’s national team to compete in the 400 meters as Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s first track and field Olympian. The news that she would be headed to London came as quite a shock.

After helping Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ to its third-straight Conference USA Outdoor championship and competing in the NCAA East Preliminaries, Charles thought her season was finished so she went home for a break. She watched her teammates and her training partner, DeeDee Trotter, compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials from her living room before returning to Orlando for Summer B classes.

Then she received a phone call from her mother, who said that Antigua invited Charles to travel to London as part of its national team. Charles has raced for Antigua since high school when she first picked up the sport, and her biggest international achievement to date was capturing the bronze medal at last year’s CARIFTA Games.

She was hesitant about accepting the offer because she had stopped all training for nearly a month and didn’t know if she would be ready in time to compete. Her mother urged her to go.

“I said it’s a good opportunity, just go and do your best. The only thing they ask of you is to PR. Just PR and take it as far as you can go. Enjoy every minute of it. There’s nothing like going to the Olympics,” Ruperta said. “My experience overall was very humbling and was well worth all the training and time and effort that was put into preparing for the Games.”

Even though she had a lot of lost time to make up for, she had one of the best possible resources in her corner: Trotter.

Knights track and field head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert has been training Trotter, an Olympic gold and bronze medalist, since October at the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ Track and Field Complex to prepare her for her third Olympic Games. As the only consistent 400-runner on the team, Charles has served as Trotter’s running partner for the past eight months.

“She has been a fantastic training partner,” Trotter said. “We push each other. There are days that I don’t feel great and Afia is handing me left and right whoopings in the blocks and the 100s. On those days, I need her. And on every other day she needs me. We’ve definitely been encouraging to one another.”

Trotter said Charles has come a long way from the timid-style of a runner she was when she first met her.

“She was cruising through her day-to-day routines without any drive or motivation. That all changed when I came out there and whipped her butt a few times,” Trotter said with a smile. “I think one day we were running a 500 and I don’t really run 500s, but this young lady has a history of running 500-meter workouts. One day she finally beat me in a 500. I think she felt good about that. In my mind I’m saying, that’s cool but you know that’s never going to happen again. It really caused her to step up her game when she had someone to run with and that person wasn’t going to let her coast around the track. She had to work. She didn’t shy away from it.”

Their relationship is hardly just business. It is also one of emotional support and growth. They have leaned on each other with had numerous talks over the past year, and Trotter hopes her role as a mentor has helped spark Charles to chase her goals.

“I want her to recognize her capability and her true level of talent. I think she’s starting to see her true self and now she won’t accept anything less,” Trotter said. “I hope what came out of all our talks is that she can do pretty much anything she puts her mind to and that if she works really hard she will reap the benefits to that. I think that message has gotten across to her.”

With the Olympics less than two weeks away, Charles steps onto Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½’s track every day for her early-morning workouts focused on the task at hand and careful to not look too far ahead. Still, it’s hard not to dream about the experience.

“I’m most excited about having fun and running my best race. Just to soak it all in,” Charles said. “To see people that are considered the greats. I can be there. I just have to make sure that I run my race, focus on me and not overthink.”