The Lake Wales, Fla., native signed with Icon Management after the USA Championships in June. They represent numerous U.S., World and Olympic champions including LaShawn Merritt, Duane Soloman, Jeneba Tarmoh and William Claye.

“I love Â鶹ԭ´´ and my teammates, and I’m really proud of everything we achieved,” Freeman said. “I’m thankful for everything my coaches did to help me get to this point. Right now, I’m just focused on getting ready for Worlds, and I’m really happy and excited to start this next part of my life. I will always be a Knight.”

In just two years at Â鶹ԭ´´, Freeman left a lasting legacy. She is a nine-time First Team All-American. A two-time Conference USA Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year. A four-time C-USA individual champion and an eight-time medalist that helped Â鶹ԭ´´ clinch three team championships during her tenure.

She was the first true freshman considered for collegiate track and field’s highest honor, the Bowerman Award, and a seven-time appointee to the watch list.

At the 2013 NCAA Outdoor Championships, she earned the best finish by a Knight in any event of the meet in school history with her second-place time of 11.00. The performance tied for the eighth-best mark in collegiate history and the third-best in meet history.

She capped her collegiate career at the USA Championships at the end of June by clinching silver in the 100-meter finals with the No. 2 all-time, all-dates collegiate best (10.87). As a result, she will represent Team USA at the IAAF World Championships this weekend in Moscow, Russia.

She was a part of two top-five team finishes at the NCAA Championships and a member of Â鶹ԭ´´’s first top-10 national ranking during the outdoor regular season.

She ranked among the world’s fastest women in both 2012 and 2013, appeared in Sports Illustrated’s Faces in the Crowd, on ESPN and has been dubbed a USA and USTFCCCA Track and Field Athlete of the Week.

“I’m very excited to have Ms. Freeman as part of the Icon branding,” her agent, Kim Holland, said. “She’s an excellent addition to our already stellar roster. I’m honored to work with such a tremendous talent.”

With 35 points, the Knights earned the best finish by a non-BCS team since 2000 (BYU, 4th place). They more than doubled their previous program-best point total (16 points, 2011) at an NCAA Outdoor Championship meet to take fifth place behind perennial powers national champion Kansas, Texas A&M, Oregon and LSU.

“This is the best finish in Â鶹ԭ´´ history so I’m very excited about it,” Â鶹ԭ´´ head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert said. “It was a big year. It was an exciting year. It was a year full of surprises. More than the finishes, the records and the championships – all of the things and injuries we overcame is (an even bigger deal) to me. Everyone stepped up and pulled through. Everyone on the team started believing that we could make things happen.”

Â鶹ԭ´´ entered the final day of competition with three scoring opportunities up for grabs in the 4×100 relay and 200 meters.

Alexis Faulknor, Aurieyall Scott, Afia Charles and Octavious Freeman finished runner-up to SEC Champion Texas A&M in the relay with their time of 43.36. Freeman blitzed down the final stretch, blowing by the field while hunting down the Aggies to give the Knights their best relay finish at the meet in school history, first team All-America status and eight points toward the team standings.

Roughly 30 minutes later, Freeman and Scott were at the blocks again ready to challenge LSU’s Kimberlyn Duncan – the two-time defending champion – in the 200-meter finals. Although Duncan successfully repeated, Scott earned her best finish in an individual outdoor championship final with her third-place, all-conditions personal-best of 22.48 (+3.5).

The NCAA indoor 60-meter national champion collected three first team All-American honors at this year’s meet, bringing her career total to an unparalleled 14 distinctions.

Freeman finished seventh in the race in 22.92, also picking up her third first team All-American honor of the meet. She now boasts nine career awards.

Throughout the four-day meet, the Knights brought in four medalist performances from Jen Clayton (long jump), Scott (200M), Freeman (100M) and the 4×100 relay in front of a combined attendance of 40,446.

Several Knights will set their sights on the Junior and Senior USA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, held June 20-23.

Freeman earned the best finish by a Knight in any event of the NCAA Outdoor Championships in school history with her second-place, personal best time of 11.00 (+0.9) to break her own school record. The performance ties for the eighth-best mark in collegiate history.

She finished four-hundredths of a second behind defending champion English Gardner of Oregon, who clocked the second-best time (10.96) in the history of the meet.

Scott crossed the finish line in fourth place at 11.14, just two-hundredths of a second shy of her personal best. Combined, Â鶹ԭ´´’s dynamic duo hauled in 14 points in front of a national television audience while picking up All-American First Team honors. Â鶹ԭ´´ is the only team in the country that boasted two top-five finishers.

The Knights have 19 points and currently stand in seventh place heading into the final day of the meet with three scoring opportunities still up for grabs. Â鶹ԭ´´ has already tallied more points than any team in school history at the outdoor championships.

Freeman and Scott will compete in the 200 meters and have also qualified for Saturday’s 4×100 relay along with freshman Alexis Faulknor and junior Afia Charles after breaking the school record in the event in the semifinals.

And all of this was just in day one of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Junior Jen Clayton made history as the Â鶹ԭ´´ track and field team’s highest finisher in a jumps event at the championships thanks to her third-place, wind-aided leap of 6.42m/21-00.75 (+3.3). She is just the second long jumper in school history to earn first team All-American laurels.

Meanwhile on the track, the 4×100 relay improved upon the school record set earlier this season and boasted two automatic qualifiers for Friday’s 100-meter finals.

Sophomore Octavious Freeman’s strong final leg of the 4×100 relay helped her team automatically qualify for Saturday’s finals. Alexis Faulknor, Aurieyall Scott, Afia Charles and Freeman edged SEC Championship runner-up LSU for the fastest time of the third heat (43.15) and were second only to Texas A&M for the day. The group now appears at No. 8 among all-time collegiate performers in the event.

The quartet aims to become Â鶹ԭ´´’s first team to medal in a relay event in program history.

Freeman and Scott set the 100M semifinals ablaze with the two-fastest qualifying times of the day thanks to their all-conditions personal bests.

Freeman jetted to her first sub-11 performance with a wind-aided 10.99 (+2.8) to edge defending NCAA champion English Gardner. Scott clinched her heat, as well, by besting Pac-12 champion Jenna Prandini of host Oregon in 11.00 (+2.6). Â鶹ԭ´´ and Oregon are the only two programs in the country with multiple entries in the finals.

Running alongside SEC champion Kimberlyn Duncan of LSU in the 100M’s final heat, Faulknor fell short of qualifying for the finals by three-hundredths of a second but earned All-American Second Team distinction with her time of 11.37 (+2.3) for 14th place.

Sophomore Sandy Jean racked up All-American Second Team laurels in the 400 hurdles with her time of 58.38 to just miss out on the finals in 10th place.

Scott and Freeman will represent the Black and Gold in Â鶹ԭ´´’s only event Thursday, the 200 meters. They enter the race, which will air on ESPN3, as the top-two regional qualifiers looking to clinch their spot in Saturday’s final.

Visit for a complete guide detailing how to follow the Knights at the NCAA Championships.

June 6 – ESPN3 (Watch)

(Top two of each heat plus next two best times overall advance to finals)

Sprinter Octavious Freeman is featured in the long-running segment “Faces in the Crowd,” which highlights standout amateur athletes.

Freeman was chosen for her world-leading performances earlier this month at both the Florida Relays and the Miami Hurricane Invitational.

The No. 12 Â鶹ԭ´´ track and field team is back in action this weekend at the Arkansas Invitational in Fayetteville.

Scott measured up against world-class competition last weekend at the Tom Jones Memorial Classic in Gainesville. She led the Knights in the 100 meters with a first-place finish and season-best time of 11.27 (+0.9), ascending to No. 8 among the NCAA this season. The Greenbelt, Md., native shined against a field that included 2011 USA champion Shalonda Solomon and 2008 World Championships bronze medalist and two-time Olympian Tahesia Harrigan-Scott.

She later blazed to a wind-aided 22.73 (+2.6) for her fastest season-opening 200-meter race. With the fourth-best time in the NCAA this year, she finished runner-up to seven-time Olympic medalist and nine-time World Championships medalist Veronica Campbell-Brown, who clocked the new all-conditions world-best time of 2013 (22.18).

This award marks Scott’s fourth-career conference athlete of the week distinction (indoor and outdoor) and her third of 2013. Â鶹ԭ´´ has won four of the five weekly awards handed out so far in the outdoor season.

The Knights are the only Conference USA team present in the national team rankings and are second only to Florida (No. 6) among programs in the state. Texas A&M edged Kansas for the No. 1 spot and is followed by Arizona, LSU and Arkansas in the top five.

Coupled with the outdoor season, Â鶹ԭ´´ has not fallen out of the top 25 dating to April 26, 2011. Moreover, Â鶹ԭ´´ currently boasts eight marks that stand among the NCAA’s top 20 in their respective categories this year.

Â鶹ԭ´´ travels next to the Arkansas Invitational on April 26-27. The trip marks the Knights’ return to Fayetteville for the first time since Scott became the NCAA 60-meter champion and 200-meter runner-up and Freeman earned two bronze medals at the 2013 Indoor Championships.

Â鶹ԭ´´ in the NCAA Rankings

Athlete, Event, Mark, Rank

Freeman proved unstoppable once again by topping the 200-meter school record with the world’s top wind-legal time this year, 22.57 (+0.1). The world’s current 100-meter leader edged three-time World Champion and two-time Olympic medalist Lauryn Williams in a photo finish to claim first place.

Logan catapulted herself into the NCAA’s top 25 this year with the best performance by a Knight in the 800M since 2009, finishing third in 2:06.37. She shaved nearly three seconds off her previous season best and continues to reign as Conference USA’s top 800M runner in 2013.

After a lengthy weather delay that sidelined the field athletes for more than four hours and pushed back the race schedule by 30 minutes, the 4×100 relay opened the meet with a performance that was worth the wait. Afia Charles, Aurieyall Scott, Alexis Faulknor and Freeman combined to cross the finish line in 43.58 for the third-best time in the NCAA this season. Â鶹ԭ´´ and Texas A&M are currently the only two programs in the country to boast multiple times in the event that rank among the nation’s top 10.

Charles had a breakthrough in the 400 meters with her fastest race in more than a year, clinching first place with a time of 53.77. Charles moved up on the NCAA East Region leaderboard to No. 15.

Scott etched her name on the NCAA’s top-10 leaderboard this season in her first 100-meter race since her gold-medal finish at the NACAC U-23 Championships last July. She won the second heat in 11.30 and finished second overall only to Lauryn Williams. Senior Amanda Leland produced the second-best wind-legal time of her career (11.85) in the race before topping her personal best in the 200M soon after with a time of 24.64 (+0.0).

Junior Erica Winston clocked a new personal-record 2:10.55 in her best 800M race in two years to finish seventh. Freshman Caroline Pauls won the second heat of the event in 2:13.24, which was good enough for ninth place.

Sandy Jean emerged as the top collegiate finisher in the 400 hurdles with her time of 59.20, marking her second time of 2013 that ranks among the East Region’s top 15. Freshman Rayeisha Lowe-Chin recorded the best time of her career at 1:03.60.

Three Knights finished among the top five in the 1500 meters. Sophomore Amelia Williams led the way in third place by improving her personal best for the second time this season (4:45.07). Sophomore Cody Castillo finished fourth in 4:51.58 and freshman Rachel Petrik was close behind in fifth with a time of 4:55.17.

Freshman Jocelin Adona capped the races as the Knights’ lone representative in the 3,000- meter finals and cruised to third place with a personal-record time of 11:00.56.

Freshman Megan Patterson boasted the best finish by a field athlete of the day with a second-place toss of 14.21m/46-07.25 in the shot put. The Knights also earned two top-three finishes from Erica Weiss in the pole vault after clearing 3.60m/11-09.75, and Precious Ogunleye in the discus with a mark of 45.75m/150-01.

Ogunleye led three Knights in the hammer throw with a fourth-place showing of 53.43m/175-03 for another mark that ranks among Conference USA’s top five this season.

Up next, the Knights will visit Gainesville for the second time in three weeks when they compete at the Tom Jones Invitational on April 20.

Last year, Octavious Freeman announced her presence in her collegiate outdoor debut with a Florida Relays meet record in the 100 meters with the then-world’s fastest time. On Friday, she decided to one-up herself by besting her meet record and rewriting a 15-year-old Percy Beard Track record in her first 100M race of 2013.

Her first-place, personal-best and new-school-record 11.02 (+1.2) is currently the fastest time in the world this year. It not only leads the NCAA but also matches the ninth-best time on the all-time collegiate performance list.

And her day wasn’t over, yet.

Freeman also shined in the 200 meters two hours later when she matched the NCAA’s top time this season with a wind-legal 22.85 (+1.8). She held off three-time World and Olympic gold medalist Natasha Hastings for first place.

Freshman Anne-Marie Blaney made quite a statement in the first 5000-meter race of her career by setting a new school, freshman and personal record. Her fourth-place time of 16:40.31 erased the 14-year-old school record by more than 23 seconds and currently ranks third in Conference USA. Her classmate Heather Classe also improved her personal record by roughly 30 seconds, crossing the line in 17:43.13.

Despite facing a headwind, Sonnisha Williams won the university division long jump for the second-straight year with a season-best leap of 6.15m/20-02.25 (-1.1), which ranks third in C-USA and among the NCAA’s top 20.

Sophomore Precious Ogunleye recorded the second-best discus throw of her career with a fourth-place finish of 46.03m/151-00 to jump into the top 10 of the C-USA standings.

Junior Ne’Ausha Logan continued her strong start to the outdoor season by improving upon her C-USA-best 800M time for the third-straight week, crossing the finish line in 2:09.27 for 15th place.

Sandy Jean posted the best performance by a runner in C-USA this season and jumped into the NCAA’s top-25 list this year. She narrowly missed her personal best with a season-best time of 58.96 for ninth place.

Junior Afia Charles held on firmly to her No. 2 spot among Conference USA leaders this season in the 400M with a season-best 54.01 for 18th place.

Freshman Alexis Faulknor finished 12th in the 100M with a wind-aided time of 11.61, and junior Jen Clayton produced an all-conditions personal-best 11.87 (+2.1).

Senior Erica Weiss matched the second-best mark of her career in the pole vault, breaching C-USA’s top-five leaders this season by clearing 3.75m/12-03.50 to tie for ninth place.

The sprint medley group of Freeman, Alexis Faulknor, Afia Charles and Ne’Ausha Logan smashed a 4-year-old school record with a second-place time of 3:46.52. Freeman and Faulknor blazed through their 200-meter legs, and although Charles stumbled just before the curve at 200 meters of her 400-meter leg, she recovered quickly and pushed through to hand off to Logan for the final 800 meters. Together, they shed more than six seconds off the previous program best.

All three throwers representing Â鶹ԭ´´ in the shot put advanced to the finals. Freshman Megan Patterson paced the group with a collegiate-best 14.31m/46-11.50 for third place, marking the best finish in any event of her career. Sophomore Precious Ogunleye finished eighth (13.82m/45-04.25) and Destinee Romain was close behind with a toss of 13.80m/45-03.50.

Two Knights also advanced to the hammer throw finals where Kalen Hambrick recorded a new personal record for the second-straight week. Hambrick hit a PR on her first attempt before topping that mark in the finals with a seventh-place throw of 51.95m/170-05. Meanwhile, Ogunleye took ninth place (51.11m/167-08).

Sonnisha Williams, Jen Clayton, Amanda Leland and Sandy Jean comprised Â鶹ԭ´´’s 4×200 relay that finished second among collegiate teams and fourth overall with a time of 1:34.71.

The Knights next head to Miami for the Hurricane Alumni Invitational on April 13.

On Wednesday, Scott became the third-straight Knight to clinch the conference’s highest honor. Hurdler Jackie Coward (2011) and sprinter Octavious Freeman (2012) have been saddled with the award in previous years.

Scott became Â鶹ԭ´´’s first NCAA champion of any sport by matching her NCAA-leading time and school record 7.13 in the women’s 60-meter dash final. She also picked up a silver medal at nationals in the 200m clocking 22.71.

Scott won gold in the 60M, 200M and 4×400 Relay at the C-USA Indoor Championships in February. The junior has been recognized as a USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week and a two-time C-USA Track Athlete of the Week.

She won six-of-seven finals this season at both 60M and 200M. With 11 All-American honors to her name, she is Â鶹ԭ´´’s most decorated student-athlete.

Scott and the rest of the No. 11 Knights will be in action in their final home meet of the season on Friday and Saturday at the Â鶹ԭ´´ Track and Field Complex. Admission is free.