ISU sprint great Holli Hyche selected for Collegiate Hall of Fame

Apr. 26—Only three athletes in collegiate track and field history — male or female — have won four NCAA sprint-event championships in one year.

Indiana State legend Holli Hyche is among that elite handful.

That accomplishment, logged 30 years ago in the Sycamores' 1993 season, is one of many outstanding feats for Hyche. She even broke a record held by Florence Griffith.

Fittingly, she's been selected for induction into the Collegiate Athlete Hall of Fame for track and field, and cross country. Her selection was made by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The group announced Hyche's selection Wednesday afternoon.

Hyche is one of 14 inductees for the class of 2023, which is chosen on accomplishments while competing as a collegiate athlete and displays excellence in collegiate track and field and cross country at its very best, an ISU sports information news release stated.

The Collegiate Athlete Hall of Fame induction ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 14 in Hult Center for the Performing Arts at Eugene, Ore., two days prior to the 2023 Diamond League Final, the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene.

A two-time NCAA Track Athlete of the Year and two-time Honda Award recipient, Hyche's career at ISU ranks among the greatest ever by a collegiate sprinter, male or female. She won seven individual national championships in a two-year span, the most by a sprinter in NCAA history.

She came to ISU from Perry Meridian High School in Indianapolis, where she also won four state titles.

Hyche won four of her seven NCAA titles as an ISU junior in 1993, becoming the first woman since LSU's Dawn Sowell in 1989 to complete the indoor 55-200 double, followed by the outdoor 100-200 double in the same year. Hyche was particularly crushing in the outdoor 200, winning in 22.34 to eclipse the meet's low-altitude best of 22.47 set by Griffith of UCLA 10 years earlier.

As a senior, Hyche added to her legend with three more crowns. Indoors, she doubled up in the 55 and 200 again, joining Texas' Carlette Guidry as the only other female athlete with such a pair of sweeps. The Sycamore was exceptionally historic in the 200, where she turned in a 22.90 performance to lower Sowell's five-year-old meet record of 22.90. Hyche added another outdoor title that season in the 100.

A 10-time NCAA All-American, Hyche was also a five-time MVC Indoor and Outdoor Track MVP and was a 14-time Gateway Conference/Missouri Valley Conference Champion while with the Sycamores. At the end of her collegiate career, Hyche was the MVC and ISU record holder in the 55-meter, 60, 100, 200 and 400 events at the time of her graduation.

Beyond her time at Indiana State, Hyche was a two-time Olympic Trials participant in preparation for the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games.

Hyche was inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame in April 1999 and was inducted into the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame in August 1999.