Mizzou throwers lean on consistency entering NCAA Outdoor Championships

Consistency is one of the truest metrics for success.

Sports are often defined by singular moments — a game-winning shot or a walk-off hit. But consistency is measured differently. Unlike talent or luck that might create the spark, consistency is a behavior you can control. It’s refined through repeated performance, when expectations are high but results follow just the same.

Few teams in collegiate track and field have embodied the meaning of consistency quite like Mizzou’s women’s javelin squad.

Since the USTFCCCA’s national event squad rankings were first published April 28, the Tigers have occupied the No. 1 spot. And with the NCAA Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, looming, the Tigers will look to transform their consistency into some hardware.

“I haven’t felt that as a pressure,” Skylar Ciccolini said of her squad’s high ranking. “I think instead of adding pressures, it just kind of added this excitement level that we’ve been kind of carrying all season as a team that Valentina and I get to take into one last meet.”

Behind Valentina Barrios and Ciccolini, Mizzou’s javelin contingent has been a force to reckon with. The duo has consistently ranked in the nation’s top 10 and has raked in numerous individual titles. Morgan Cannon and Val Galligan have given the group the depth it needs to top the charts.

Ahead of the final bout in Eugene, Barrios sits in third in the nation with a season-best throw of 191 feet, 3 inches, a mark that earned her the conference title at the SEC Outdoor Championships. Ciccolini holds fifth nationally with a personal-best mark of 188-5 that she recorded to win the individual title at the Yellow Jacket Invitational.

“We’ve been teammates for the past four or five years now, and every year she pushes me like crazy to be better,” Ciccolini said of Barrios. “It’s always great to have someone that’s just right at your level, or even a little better than you. It’s great to have somebody to chase.”

Ciccolini, a grad student pursuing a Ph.D. in natural resources, is entering her fourth NCAA Championships appearance, with her highest placement being fifth in 2023. Barrios is tasked with defending her title. In 2025, the product of Colombia took the national crown with a program-record throw of 203-5.

Should Barrios defend her title, she’d be the second Mizzou woman to ever earn more than one national title, after MU legend Karissa Schweizer earned five across her career.

In Eugene, Ciccolini and Barrios will contend with the best in the NCAA. Bucknell’s Evelyn Bliss leads the nation with a season best throw of 201-2, followed by Rice’s McKayla Van Der Westhuizen with a mark of 193-9. As their last meet as Tigers, Ciccolini said they will put their best foot forward.

“I want to walk away knowing that kind of whatever the results, whatever the throws, that I put everything out there,” Ciccolini said. “I gave everything I had, and if I do that, I’m not going to walk away too disappointed.”

Representing the men’s team is Sam Innes, who is primed for his first-ever NCAA Outdoor Championships appearance. The Battle alum advanced to the finals with a hammer throw of 222-6 at the NCAA West First Round. Innes ranks ninth nationally with a season-best mark of 235-0 that earned him second at the SEC Championships.

Innes is also the only Tiger this year to compete in both the indoor and outdoor nationals. He finished sixth in the weight throw at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March.

Innes competes in the hammer throw finals at 4:30 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, and Barrios and Ciccolini kick off the javelin finals at 8:15 p.m. in Eugene.

Other Missouri athletes in the mix

Former Mizzou athletes Alicia Burnett and Jonathan Seremes are also vying for national prowess. Burnett owns three MU program records, including the indoor 100- and 200-meter dash and the outdoor 100. Seremes claims the indoor triple jump record, a mark he recorded to claim the 2025 indoor title.

Seremes won the indoor title again this season repping Texas Tech, his destination after transferring from Mizzou last year. He’s entering the NCAA Outdoor Championships in pursuit of a season sweep of both indoor and outdoor titles. Burnett, meanwhile, is competing in the 100 for Ole Miss.

SE Missouri senior and Fort Zumwalt North alum Sullivan Gleason is competing in the men’s pole vault, and UMKC junior and Oak Park alum Tory Lanham is facing off in the 200.