NEW ORLEANS – Ole Miss track & field All-Americans Akaoma Odeluga and Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan have each won their respective South Region Field Athlete of the Year awards, as handed out by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association on Thursday afternoon.
Odeluga is the fourth Rebel woman to win the award for the indoor season, joining Brittney Reese (2007-08), Raven Saunders (2016) and Jalani Davis (2024). Odeluga – who also won SEC Women’s Field Athlete of the Year and a share of the SEC Cliff Harper Trophy following her two conference silver medals – scored the first NCAA points of her career last week at the NCAA Indoor Championships, and did so in superb fashion.
Odeluga was the NCAA runner-up in the shot put and took fourth place in the weight throw, scoring 13 of Ole Miss’ 18 total points at the national meet. Her SEC runner-up distance of 18.69m/61-4 in the shot put moved her to 13th in collegiate history indoors, and she enters the 2026 outdoor season as one of only two women in collegiate history at 62 feet in the shot and 210 in the hammer.
Robinson-O’Hagan – also the SEC Men’s Field Athlete of the Year and the sole winner of the men’s SEC Cliff Harper Trophy following his third straight conference sweep – scored all 16 national points for the 15th-place Rebel men after winning his third consecutive indoor national title in the shot put and finishing third in the weight throw.
Robinson-O’Hagan’s three-peat made him one of only three in Division I men’s history to claim three indoor shot put titles in a row alongside Kansas’ Karl Salb (1969-71), UTEP’s Hans Hoglund (1973-75) and Arizona State’s Ryan Whiting (2008-10). He ended his spectacular indoor career at Ole Miss with those three national titles, seven First-Team All-America awards and an astounding 50 career NCAA Indoor points scored.
Ole Miss track & field opens its outdoor season at home this weekend with its annual Ole Miss Classic, which is set to run March 20-21 at Prefontaine Stadium.