Canadian men charge to NCAA titles
Will Floyd and Matthew Erickson delivered thrilling performances in the 400m and 800m
Photo by:
Kevin Morris
B.C.’s Matti Erickson and Will Floyd continued Canada’s standout streak over the weekend at the 2025 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Virginia Beach, Va. Both took home NCAA titles: Erickson in the men’s 800m, and Floyd in the men’s 400m.
Erickson, representing the University of Oregon, clinched the men’s 800-metre title in 1:46.43. “I was prepared to run it from a lot of different ways,” Erickson told FloTrack post-race. From the front, from the midpack, from the back…I just tried to stay as relaxed as I could and got to the line as soon as possible.”
Erickson held off his fellow Canadian, Abdullahi Hassan of Scarborough, Ont., who competes for Mississippi State University and was surging in the final 50 metres. This marked the first time two Canadian men claimed the top two spots in a middle-distance event at an NCAA Championship.
Just after his successful 2024 NCAA season ended, Erickson clocked a personal best of 1:45.74 at the Portland Track Festival, placing him in the top 10 among Canadian men over 800m in history. He followed this by finishing third at the Canadian Olympic Trials, only narrowly missing a spot on Team Canada for Paris. ​In October of last year, the now-22-year-old from Nelson, B.C. became the first Canadian track athlete to sign a Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deal with U.S. sportswear giant Nike, marking a milestone for Canadian collegiate athletes.
Competing for the University of Georgia, 20-year-old Will Floyd emerged victorious in the men’s 400 meters, narrowly edging out Baylor’s Nathaniel Ezekiel with a winning time of 45.43. Before this, he earned a silver medal at the SEC Indoor Championships with a personal PB of 45.24, the fourth-fastest in Georgia’s history. Floyd followed in the footsteps of his Canadian teammate and training partner Christopher Morales Williams who won the men’s NCAA 400m indoor title last year.
In 2022, Floyd represented Team Canada at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Colombia, taking fourth in the 400m and capturing a bronze medal in the 4×400 relay.
Ceili McCabe and Savannah Sutherland make history
Canadian women also shone at the NCAAs, with Vancouver’s Ceili McCabe becoming the first Canadian woman to ever win an NCAA title in the 3,000m event (indoors), in her final collegiate indoor race. The moment marked the first NCAA title of McCabe’s long career at West Virginia University (WVU). McCabe’s time of 9:01.64 was a new facility record, and she became the first WVU athlete to win the event at a national championship.
Vancouver’s Ceili McCabe crowned NCAA champion in women’s 3,000m
Borden, Sask. native Savannah Sutherland finished fourth in the women’s 400m final in a new Canadian record time of 51.29 seconds. The University of Michigan sprinter ran her fastest 400m time ever (across indoors and outdoors) to lower her previous national record of 51.60 by three-tenths of a second.
For full results from the 2025 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, head here.
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