To kick off spring break, the men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Springfield, Ohio, to compete in the two-day NCAC Indoor Championship. The women earned sixth place in a field of eight teams with 45 points, and the men placed seventh in a field of nine with 40 points.
Women: On Feb. 27, the Owls participated in five events on the first day of competition, amassing five points.
Kenyon opened the day in the long jump, where Sadie Olson ’27’s leap of 4.39 meters earned her 21st place. Penelope Artemis ’28 led the Owls in the weight throw, finishing in sixth place overall with a career-high 13.78 meters and adding three points. In the same event, Kenna Kinsch ’29 reset her own personal record, taking home 13th place with 11.88 meters.
On the track, Olivia Ide ’27 was the top finisher for the Owls in the 5,000-meter run, clocking in at 19:01.76 and earning 15th place. In the 4,000-meter distance relay, the quartet of Turner Clark ’29, Claire Pruner ’29, Caeleigh Stamper ’26 and Addilyn Tober ’28 secured two points in seventh place with a time of 13:38.92.
Determined to seize glory, the Owls delivered strong results in the field events the following day. Lia Wahl ’29 recorded a distance of 1.43 meters in the high jump, placing 11th. In the triple jump, Olson’s season-best leap of 9.53 earned her 17th place. Artemis paced the Owls again in the shot put with a fourth-place effort of 11.61 meters, adding five crucial points to the team’s score.
In the distance events, Anna Brown ’26, who had recently received her first NCAC Athlete of the Week honor of the season, proved to be an indomitable force. Brown snagged a podium finish with a time of 4:59.10 seconds in the mile run, beating her own record once again for bronze. But she was far from finished, as Brown claimed Kenyon’s sole gold medal of the weekend in the 800-meter run with yet another personal indoor record-breaking time of 2:15.05 seconds. Brown’s standout performances gave Kenyon 16 additional team points.
Ari Sobel ’28 followed up Brown’s success with a silver-medal finish in the 400-meter dash, where she recorded a personal-best 57.61 and narrowly missed the top of the podium by just .17 seconds. Sobel’s stellar run added eight points to the team’s score. In the 60-meter dash, Noa Helmbrecht ’28 was the first Owl to cross the finish line, earning sixth place with a time of 7.89 seconds. Georgia Yatrakis ’29 and Wahl followed closely behind, placing 13th and 14th, respectively.
The Owls’ strong momentum continued in the team events. Helmbrecht, Tober, Yatrakis and Sobel finished fourth in the 4×200-meter relay with a season-best time of 1:44.29 seconds, improving upon the previous Kenyon indoor record of 1:47.21. In the 4×400-meter relay, Tober, Sobel, Helmbrecht and Brown shattered another Kenyon record with a fifth-place time of 4:02.20 seconds, bringing home four points and rounding out the team’s impressive performances. The women placed sixth overall in the final NCAC standings.
Following the conclusion of the championship, both Brown and Sobel received NCAA All-Region awards for their outstanding achievements. Brown claimed the honor in the 800-meter run and the mile run, while Sobel was noted for her 400-meter showings.
The following week, on March 7, Brown and Helmbrecht represented the women’s team in the Tufts Final Qualifier in hopes of competing in the 2026 NCAA DIII Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships. In her signature 800-meter run, Brown took second place with a time of 2:15.52 seconds. Helmbrecht placed fifth in the 60-meter dash after crossing the line in 8:10. Neither made the cut to qualify.
Men: On Feb. 27, the first day of competition, Kenyon earned 10 points across four events to improve its standings, earning a tie for the fifth-place spot. Thanks in part to the six points Josh Greville ’26 had secured earlier on Feb. 21 in the heptathlon event with his impressive third-place finish, Kenyon ended the day with a total of 16 points.
In the 5,000-meter run, Colt Murphy ’26 and Owen Rodstrom ’26 combined for six points with fourth- and eighth-place finishes, setting new personal records with times of 15:07.68 and 15:19.82. Caleb Low ’28 also claimed a top-10 spot, crossing the line in 15:29.83. In the 4,000-meter distance medley relay, Kenyon’s quartet of Dylan Ryznar ’28, Julius Thompson ’26, Champ Blose ’29 and Charlie Menzel ’28 finished in 10:26.02, earning fifth place and four additional points.
The Owls found less success in the field events, failing to add to their score. In the long jump, Kashi Tomic ’29 placed 11th with 6.38 meters, while Graham Yeager ’28’s 13.92-meter mark, a personal best, earned him 16th place in the weight throw.
With more points still in reach, the men returned to competition the following day on Feb. 28. In the mile run, Charlie Blackmer ’28 notched a podium finish, crossing the line in 4:15.76 and narrowly missing the gold medal by .59 seconds. Menzel was close behind, finishing in 4:24.59 seconds, good for 12th. A few events later, Blackmer displayed another dominant performance in the 800-meter run, bringing home silver and shaving .23 seconds off the previous Kenyon record of 1:53.50, which was also his personal best. In the 3,000 meter, Murphy and Rodstrom continued their onslaught, adding six points to the team’s score and taking home fifth and seventh place with times of 8:44.48 and 8:45.27. Noah Bartlett ’29, Ryznar, Blose and Greville competed in the 4×400-meter relay, earning two additional points with a time of 3:29.86 seconds. The men concluded the championship with 40 points, placing seventh in the final NCAC standings.
Blackmer left for the Tufts Final Qualifier on March 7 to represent the men’s team. He participated in the 800-meter run and finished eighth in 1:53.90. Unfortunately for the Owls, his time was not good enough to earn a place in the national field.
This weekend, the Owls will head south to compete at Emory University (Ga.) to kick off the outdoor season.