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Since taking over and unifying the Alabama men’s and women’s track and field/cross country program in June of 2011, Dan Waters has completely remade and revitalized the Crimson Tide. Over his first decade at the helm, The Crimson Tide has made extraordinary strides, transforming into one of the nation’s best overall programs, featuring top student-athletes in all disciplines and teams that can score from anywhere on the track.
The 2020-21 season was an extraordinary example of the overall success that Waters and his staff have cultivated at The University of Alabama. In a year that was vastly different due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Crimson Tide kept its focus and battled through to amazing results.
The women’s cross country team vaulted to second at the Southeastern Conference Championships and went on to make its first appearance at the NCAA Championships since 1994. Powered by Mercy Chelangat’s NCAA title, the Tide women took eighth place, the second-highest finish in team history after sixth-place finish in 1988. It was the second top-10 team finish in program history. In addition to winning UA’s first individual NCAA cross country title, she won its first Honda Award for Cross Country, was named the USTFCCCA Cross Country Athlete and Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was one of three UA All-Americans.
During the indoor season, Amaris Tyynismaa, Jami Reed, Christal Mosley and Lauren Turner set the SEC record on the way to winning the distance medley relay title while Isaac Odugbesan won the men’s shot put at the SEC Championships after breaking a 40+ year old school record. On the national front the men took seventh and the women were 16th at the NCAA Indoor Championships, with 20 student-athletes earned 22 All-America titles. It was the men's fourth top-10 indoor finish in a row and highest finish since taking sixth in 2014 and the women's sixth top-20 finish since 2013. Eliud Kipsang led the way for the men with a second-place finish in the mile, while Tamara Clark led the women with a second-place finish in the 200 meters.
Alabama went into the 2021 outdoor season on roll. At the SEC Championships, the men took second and the women third. It was the men's best SEC outdoor finish since also finishing second in 1985 and the highest for the women since winning the title since 1994. Chelangat (5,000/10,000 meters) and Clark (100/200 meters) won two events each to pace the women, while Vincent Kiprop (10,000 meters/3,000-meter steeplechase), Robert Dunning (110-meter hurdles) and Odugbesan (shot put) all won individual events to lead the men. Chelangat’s wins both came in SEC championship-record times.
At the NCAA Outdoor Championships, the women posted their best finish in 30+ year, making it to the podium with a fourth-place finish, paced by a pair of top-three finishes from Clark (100/200 meters) and a pair of top-five finishes from Chelangat (5,000/10,000 meters). Dunning exploded to the NCAA title in the 110-meter hurdles to propel the UA men to 13th place, their fourth-consecutive top-15 finish. Overall, Alabama finished the outdoor season with 26 student-athletes earning 34 All-America certificates.
During the summer of 2021, 13 past and present Crimson Tide athletes competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials with three, Quanesha Burks (long jump), Daniel Haugh (hammer) and Shelby McEwen (high jump) earning a spot on Team USA. In all, nine past and present Crimson Tide track and field athletes took part in the Tokyo Olympiad, including eight that competed for UA during the Waters era. Two of those nine earned medals including Remona Burchell (gold/Jamaica/4x100-meter relay) and Kirani James (bronze/Grenada/400 meters).