EUGENE, Ore. — Christopher Morales Williams is a two-time national champion.
The sprinter from Ontario, Canada set an all-time world best record in the 400-meter back in the 2024 indoor season earlier this year on his way to his first NCAA national championship.
Now, after a victory at the NCAA Outdoor Championships on Friday, he’s become the first Bulldog to sweep an event. He now holds trophies from the indoor and outdoor 400-meter races.
The sophomore is among the top names in Georgia track and field history. He’s the third Bulldog to win an indoor and outdoor event in the same season and the first sprinter to ever do so. He joins Andras Haklits and Karel Tilger in that exclusive honor.
Tilger won the heptathlon indoor championship and decathlon outdoor championship in 2021, while Haklits won the weight throw indoor championship and the hammer throw outdoor championship in 2001. However, unlike his predecessors, Morales Williams is still the only Bulldog to win the same event in both the indoor and outdoor seasons.
The race wasn’t easy, however.
Alabama’s Samuel Ogazi and Florida's JeVaughn Powell were with him the whole way. The three were neck and neck until Morales Williams got out just in front of the Crimson Tide sprinter and earned a 44.47 second time. This was just barely faster than the times of Ogazi Powell, who finished with 44.52 and 44.54 seconds, respectively.
Despite his win, Morales Williams isn’t the first national champion Georgia had this weekend. Javelin thrower Marc Minichello easily took the top spot and his own national championship — the second of his collegiate career.
The pair were the only two men to come away from the event with hardware. Their efforts gave Georgia its seventh straight top-10 performance. Florida’s men’s team came away with the win, as their 41 points barely edged out Auburn’s 40.
High jumper and freshman Riyon Rankin placed seventh in the finals of men’s high jump and earned an expected First Team All-America certificate. His jump of 2.17 meters was the second-best finish of a competitor in the SEC.
While Rankin and thrower Alex Kolesnikoff’s top finishes didn’t contribute as much to the point total as Morales Williams and Minichello’s victories, they were still key for another top-10 performance.
While the men are finished, the women have one final day to compete.
Nationally second-ranked Elena Kulichenko will compete in the high jump on Saturday, as the junior competes in the first event of the final day. Meanwhile, sophomore Kaila Jackson will run in the 100-meter final before a less than two-hour break to run in the 200-meter final.