Adrian Powell

Born: San Gabriel Valley, California  |  Hometown: Las Vegas, Nevada  |  School: Utah Valley University (Orem, Utah)  |  Class: Sophomore (2025–26)  |  Events: 100m, 200m, 400m  |  High School: Centennial High School, Las Vegas

Speed From the Start

Adrian Powell grew up in the competitive world of Nevada prep track, coming out of one of the state’s most decorated programs and carrying a third-place finish at the Nevada state championships in the 100-meter dash before she ever laced up a pair of collegiate spikes. Now a sophomore sprinter at Utah Valley University, she has already shown a pattern of steady, season-over-season improvement that signals she is just getting started in what figures to be an interesting college career.

Born in California’s San Gabriel Valley — the sprawling suburban expanse east of Los Angeles that has produced generations of West Coast athletes across nearly every sport — Powell grew up to become a Las Vegas athlete, developing her sprinting talent within the intense competitive ecosystem of Nevada’s Class 5A track and field landscape.

Centennial: A Tradition of Winning

To understand what Powell came out of, consider this: Centennial High School’s girls track and field program has won the Nevada state championship in 2002, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2024, and 2025. The Bulldogs are, quite simply, the dominant force in Nevada girls track and field, with head coach Roy Sessions having built a program that routinely sends athletes to Division I programs across the country. For any sprinter to develop at Centennial means competing against and being pushed by some of the best young talent in the state, year after year.

Powell joined that program and made an immediate mark. At the 2022 Nevada state championships, as a sophomore or junior — competing in the highest classification in the state — she finished third in the girls 100-meter dash. That result was a significant individual achievement in its own right, coming at a state championship against Nevada’s best sprinters, and it reflected the kind of natural speed that would eventually draw collegiate recruiting attention.

She was also part of two Nevada state championship teams at Centennial — the program’s title squads in 2022 and 2024 — meaning she experienced what winning at the highest level of prep competition looks and feels like, and she did it twice. Beyond track, Powell was also a softball player during her high school years, illustrating the kind of multi-sport athleticism that often signals a competitor with genuine foundational tools.

Choosing Utah Valley

When the time came to make her college choice, Powell landed at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah — a program that has built real momentum in recent years. The UVU track and field program competes in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and has established itself as one of the stronger programs at that level, sweeping both the men’s and women’s team trophies at the 2025 WAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

For a sprinter coming out of Nevada, the geographic connection is natural — Orem is roughly a five-hour drive from Las Vegas, and the Mountain West’s competitive track circuit provides consistent opportunities to compete against quality opposition. UVU’s coaching staff and the WAC environment offered Powell a chance to build on her high school foundation at a program with genuine conference-level ambitions.

Freshman Year: Building the Base (2024–25)

Powell’s freshman campaign at UVU covered both the indoor and outdoor seasons, with a total of 12 meets across the full year — a solid first-year workload that gave her broad exposure to collegiate competition without overextending a young sprinter still adapting to a new environment and training system.

Her freshman season produced personal bests in all three sprint events she contested: 12.40 in the 100 meters (set at the SUU Collegiate Coliseum Championships on May 1, 2025), 25.72 in the 200 meters (set at the Utah Spring Classic on April 12, 2025), and 8.21 in the 60 meters indoors (set at the Stacy Dragila Open on February 7, 2025). Those marks gave her a foundation to build from — competitive times within the WAC framework that showed she could hold her own against collegiate competition while still clearly having room to develop.

Her outdoor season arc was particularly instructive. Opening the 2025 outdoor campaign with times in the 12.88–12.90 range at the Utah Tech Invitational and the home UVU Collegiate in late March, she steadily tightened her marks as the season progressed. By the Utah Spring Classic in mid-April she was at 12.47. By the SUU Coliseum Championships on May 1 she had lowered to 12.40. A week later at the Utah Last Chance meet she ran 12.55 in the 100 and 25.91 in the 200 — suggesting she was finding her best form right as the season wound toward conference championships.

She competed at the 2025 WAC Outdoor Championships in both the 100 and 200, logging times of 12.94 and 26.24 on the championship stage — results that reflect the added pressure and competition level of a conference meet, but also experience that pays dividends going forward.

Sophomore Season: The Improvement Becomes Clear (2025–26)

The jump Powell has made from her freshman year to her sophomore campaign is the kind of improvement that signals a sprinter finding her stride in the college game. Across both the indoor and outdoor portions of her second year, she has posted personal bests in every event she’s entered, and done so with increasing consistency.

The indoor season of the 2025–26 year opened in January 2026 with a meet at the Weber State Invitational (January 9–10), where she ran the 55 meters in 7.43 seconds — a good opening-of-year benchmark in that uncommon indoor distance. At the Snake River Open College meet on January 15–16, she clocked a 60m time of 7.90 — a clear improvement on her freshman best of 8.21. She continued to show progress through the Roman Ruiz Speed and Power Meet (January 30–31) and the Mountain States Games in mid-February, where she ran 26.18 in the indoor 200.

Earlier in December 2025 — the bridge between the two academic year seasons — she had competed at the BYU December Invite, running 7.95 in the 60m and a notable 42.78 in the 300 meters, an event that gives coaches useful data about a sprinter’s threshold between pure speed events and the start of the longer sprint demands.

The 2026 outdoor season has been where Powell’s progress has really crystallized. On March 21, 2026, competing at the Utah Tech Invitational, she ran on UVU’s 4x100m relay team that posted 46.78 — a solid relay time, and a sign that the UVU sprints group is building real collective depth. Five days later, at UVU’s own home invitational (the 2026 Utah Valley Collegiate Invite on March 26), she ran a 12.17 in the 100 meters — a massive jump from her previous best of 12.40 — and a 25.38 in the 200. The 12.17 was wind-aided (+4.4 m/s), but even discounting the wind assistance, the underlying physical improvement that enables a 12.17 attempt is real. On that same day, the UVU 4×100 relay that included Powell posted a 46.62.

Then, at the UNLV Rebel Elite meet on April 3–4, 2026, she ran a 25.23 in the 200 meters — a new lifetime best — and a 58.81 in the 400 meters, the first significant 400m result of her collegiate career and a very solid opening benchmark in that event. She also contributed to UVU’s 4×100 relay running 46.40. Just a week later at the Weber State Spring Classic, she clocked a 59.47 in the 400m, confirming her range as a sprinter extends well into the longer sprint.

The 2026 Mt. SAC Relays appearance (April 15–18) — one of the most prestigious invitational track meets in the country, held annually in Walnut, California — saw Powell running a leg of UVU’s 4x400m relay, which placed 12th in the event with a 3:52.68. Being part of a relay squad at Mt. SAC, competing against programs from across the country, is a meaningful step in any collegiate sprinter’s development.

The Bigger Picture: A Program on the Rise

Powell is developing within a UVU program that has established genuine conference credibility. The Wolverines swept the 2025 WAC team trophies — men’s and women’s — against a competitive field that includes Grand Canyon University, UT Arlington, Tarleton State, and others. The UVU women’s sprint group has produced conference-level performers, and Powell is part of a relay unit that has shown the depth to compete at named invitational meets like Mt. SAC.

At the individual level, the 2025–26 season has shown a sprinter who has knocked nearly a second off her best 100m time (from 12.40 to 12.17), improved her 200m to 25.23, and shown that she can contest the 400m at a competitive collegiate level (sub-59 seconds) — none of which was established knowledge heading into her sophomore campaign. That kind of across-the-board development in a single year is exactly what college coaches look for when projecting what a sprinter’s trajectory looks like in years three and four.

College Bests

• 55 Metres (indoor): 7.43 (January 9–10, 2026 — Weber State Invitational)
• 60 Metres (indoor): 7.90 (January 15–16, 2026 — Snake River Open College)
• 100 Metres: 12.17 (March 26, 2026 — 2026 Utah Valley Collegiate Invite; wind +4.4)
• 200 Metres: 25.23 (April 3–4, 2026 — UNLV Rebel Elite; wind +3.7)
• 300 Metres (indoor): 42.78 (December 10–11, 2025 — BYU December Invite)
• 400 Metres: 58.81 (April 3–4, 2026 — UNLV Rebel Elite)
• 4x100m Relay: 46.40 (April 3–4, 2026 — UNLV Rebel Elite)
• 4x400m Relay: 3:52.68 (April 15–18, 2026 — 66th Annual Mt. SAC Relays)

High School Highlights

• 3rd place, Nevada Class 5A State Championships — 100-meter dash (2022)
• Member of Nevada state championship teams at Centennial High School (2022, 2024)
• Prep career at Centennial High School, one of Nevada’s most decorated track and field programs
• Also competed in softball at the high school level

Social Media and Sponsorships

No confirmed public social media profiles or commercial sponsorships are identified for Adrian Powell at this time. As a current collegiate athlete competing under NCAA regulations, any NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) arrangements would be governed by those rules. Updates on her competitive career can be followed through Utah Valley University Athletics (gouvu.com) and the UVU track and field program’s official channels.

Adrian Powell is a sophomore sprinter at Utah Valley University competing in the 100m, 200m, 400m, and relay events for the UVU Wolverines. Born in California’s San Gabriel Valley and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, she is a two-time Nevada state championship team member from Centennial High School. In her sophomore outdoor season (2026), she has set new personal bests in every event while helping UVU’s relay squads compete at venues including the Mt. SAC Relays.