Day 1 of the 2026 KCAC Indoor Track & Field Championships started out with a “bang,” as the championships returned to Wichita State’s Heskett Center 200m flat track.  
 

Three new KCAC Indoor meet records were set in the opening session of field events.  Aaliyah Ramirez (Friends) broke her own meet record while winning her third-straight women’s KCAC Indoor Pole Vault title with a national qualifying height of 3.65m (11’11.75”).  Meanwhile in the men’s Long Jump, Tyler Holmes (Saint Mary) broke the sand on his second attempt of the competition with a national qualifying mark and meet record distance of 7.26m (23’9.75”).  The women were not to be denied, though, as JayOnna Perry (Ottawa) then took down the women’s Long Jump meet record, spanning 5.86m (19’2.75”), currently #7 on the 2026 NAIA national list, breaking the previous record set in 2018.  With Kara Alexander (McPherson) winning her 2nd straight KCAC title and Lamar Gordon (McPherson) winning the men’s event, the Bulldogs swept the Shot Put titles.

Only two events contested on the track on Friday were finals.  Josie Tyrrell (Saint Mary) won the 5,000m Run in 18:16.69, making 2026 the 11th straight KCAC meet where a University of Saint Mary woman has won the longest distance event while Jake Cruz (Kansas Wesleyan) turned back a trio of Saint Mary Spires in winning the Coyotes’ first ever win in the indoor 5,000m Run. 
 

In the 4x800m Relay final, the women of Kansas Wesleyan won their first ever KCAC Indoor title in the event, ending a streak of six straight wins by Saint Mary, followed by the men of KWU winning the event for the 4th straight year.
 

Preliminaries on the track to determine the finalists for Saturday finals saw Tiyna Ridge (Friends) lower the meet record in the women’s 60m Dash to 7.49.  JayOnna Perry picked up her second meet record of the day, when she tied the old 60m Hurdles record with her time of 8.64.

 

Saturday morning opened with a KCAC meet Record in the Triple Jump, as Charles Jones (Sterling) won his second-straight conference title with a leap of 14.61m (47’11.25”).  Delaney Miller (Evangel) defended her KCAC championship in the High Jump with a clearance of 1.72m (5-07.75).  Julian Winters (Friends) took the men’s Weight Throw title with an NAIA top 10 mark of 18.64m (61’2”).  Charles Jones (Sterling) picked up his second title of the day and meet, winning the men’s High Jump with a height of 2.01m (6’7.25”).

With the field events all completed, the meet moved onto the track with Friends leading the team title chase in both divisions.  The Friends women had built a 27-point margin, keyed by their three wins in the field events while the Friends men carried a 37-point lead, thanks largely to their overall field event depth.
 

Fien Molenberg (Friends) opened the track session with a meet record time of 1:34.51 in the women’s 600m Dash, ahead of defending champion Autumn Nold (Evangel) who also dipped under the previous record set in 2016 by Taylor Needham (Southwestern) on the more friendly 300m oval of the Plaster Center of Pittsburg State.  Carly Holadia (Saint Mary) followed in the 1,000m Run with another meet record, defending her championship of 2025 while finishing in 2:57.51 to better her own KCAC record set last year in Omaha by 1.9 seconds.  Julianna Maxfield (Tabor) also finished under the old record and became just the second KCAC women to dip below 3-minutes for the 1,000m.  In the men’s 1,000m Run, Wyatt Johnson (Kansas Wesleyan) led Brian Facket (McPherson) across the finish line as both broke the old meet record with times of 2:27.27 and 2:27.62.

JayOnna Perry (Ottawa) won her second event and set her third meet record of the weekend as she won the 60m Hurdles in a time of 8.58, bettering the previous meet record she had tied in Friday’s preliminaries.  Omarion Udell (Saint Mary) won the Spires’ first ever KCAC title in the men’s 60m Hurdles.

Tiyna Ridge (Friends) broke her own 60m Dash meet record of 7.49 set in Friday’s preliminaries as she crossed the finish in 7.39.  In second place, Roy’Janae Brown’s (Ottawa) time of 7.57 would have broken the previous meet record of 7.60 set in 2025.  In the men’s 60m Dash, Kristian Paronto (Kansas Wesleyan) won the Coyotes’ first ever title in that event.

Josie Tyrrell (Saint Mary) won her second event of the meet, defending her championship from 2025 in the 1-Mile Run with a time of 5:17.44.  Austin Schaeffer (Kansas Wesleyan) broke a 7-meet win streak by the Spires of Saint Mary by winning the men’s 1-Mile Run in a time of 4:23.68.

The women’s 400m Dash saw JayOnna Perry (Ottawa) win her third individual title of the weekend as she crossed the finish in a time of 56.26, the fastest KCAC Indoor Championship time ever on a 200m flat track.  Fien Molenberg (Friends) picked up her second gold medal of the weekend with her 2:18.45 win in the 800 meters while Wyatt Johnson (Kansas Wesleyan) picked up his second gold with a 1:56.41 win in the men’s 800m.

JayOnna Perry (Ottawa) continued her rewriting of the meet record book as she tied the KCAC indoor record of 24.53, set originally by Corrssia Perry (Sterling) in the preliminary rounds of 2022, for her third event win and fourth meet record.  Ottawa teammate Domonic Atkinstall (Ottawa) picked up his second win (22.11) in the indoor 200m after previously winning the event in 2024.

Josie Tyrrell (Saint Mary) picked up her third individual title of the meet, winning the 3,000m Run in 10:34.56, the ninth straight win by Saint Mary, and completing her sweep of the three distance events (1-Mile/3,000m/5,000m) while becoming the sixth Spire to do so joining Lorena Moreno (2018), Kaitlyn Shoemaker (2019), Brittany White-Dold (2020), Alyssa Armendariz (2022 & 2023) and Reagan Hiebert (2024).  Evan Pearce (Kansas Wesleyan) picked up Kansas Wesleyan’s first ever individual KCAC Indoor title in the men’s 3,000m Run in a time of 8:50.91.

Evangel (T. Collins, L. Wiles, G. Pitts, A. Nold) wrapped up the women’s portion of the meet with a new 4x400m Relay meet record of 3:57.82 bettering the old record of 3:57.95 set by Avila in 2019 on the oversize, 300m flat track of Northwest Missouri State.  Friends’ men won the 4x400m for the third time in four years with a time of 3:21.52, the men’s top KCAC meet mark since 2020.
 

The University of Saint Mary women went home with their fourth straight team championship, out distancing Friends by 40 points, 170.5 to 130.5.  Friends’ men lived up to the pre-meet hype by taking the men’s team championship by 17 points over Kansas Wesleyan, 168 to 151, with Saint Mary closing at 141.

The athletes of the KCAC found the newly-laid Heskett Center 200m flat track to their liking as they set or tied 13 new KCAC Indoor meet records (10 women; 3 men) and posted 39 NAIA national championships qualifying marks (30 women; 9 men) over the two days of competition.  Women set or tied meet records in the 60m Dash (twice), 200m Dash (tied), 600m Dash, 1,000m Run, 60m Hurdles (tied & broken), 4x400m Relay, Pole Vault, and Long Jump.  The men’s records were set in the 1,000m Run, Long Jump, and Triple Jump.

Three women were winners of multiple individual event titles included an amazing performance by JayOnna Perry (Ottawa) as she won four events, the 200m Dash, 400m Dash, 60m Hurdles, and Long Jump.  Josie Tyrrell (Saint Mary) was a triple winner, sweeping the 1-Mile, 3,000m, and 5,000m Runs.  Fien Molenberg (Friends) won 600m and 800m Runs.  On the men’s side, only two were multiple individual event champions: Wyatt Johnson (Kansas Wesleyan) won the 800m and 1,000m Runs while Charles Jones (Sterling) won the High Jump and Triple Jump.

Aaliyah Ramirez (Friends) won her third straight title in the women’s Pole Vault while Carly Holadia (Saint Mary) won her second straight 1,000m Run and teammate Josie Tyrrell (Saint Mary) won her second straight 1-Mile Run.  Joining Ramirez as a multi-year winner in the field was Kara Alexander (McPherson) who won her second straight Shot Put title.  The only man to defend a championship from last season was Charles Jones (Sterling) in the Triple Jump.
 

New KCAC meet records set were:

Women

• 60m Dash (twice)
  • 7.39 by Tiyna Ridge (Friends) in the finals after setting a meet record of 7.49 in the preliminaries bettering the old record of 7.60 set by Gretchen Raney in the 2025 preliminaries.
• 200m Dash
  • 24.53 by JayOnna Perry (Ottawa) tied the meet record of 24.53 set by Corrssia Perry (Sterling) in the 2022 preliminaries.
• 600m Dash
  • 1:34.51 by Fien Molenberg (Friends) bettering the 1:35.71 set by Taylor Needham (Southwestern) in a 300m track in 2016.
• 1,000m Run
  • 2:57.51 by Carly Holadia (SaintMary) bettering the 2:29.41 she had set in 2025.
• 60m Hurdles (twice)
  • 8.58 by JayOnna Perry (Ottawa) bettering the old record of 8.64 of Mariah Fede (McPherson) set in 2024 and which was tied by Perry in the 2026 preliminaries.
• 4x400m Relay
  • 3:57.82 by Evangel (T. Collins, L. Wiles, G. Pitts, A. Nold) bettering the old meet record of 3:57.95 set by Avila on the 300m flat track at the Hughes Fieldhouse of Northwest Missouri State.
• Pole Vault
  • 3.65m/11’11.75” by Aaliyah Ramirez (Friends) bettering her own meet record of 3.60 (11’9.75”) set in 2025.
• Long Jump
  • 5.86m/19’2.75” by JayOnna Perry (Ottawa) bettering the old record of 5,76m/18’10,75” by Chelsea Baker (Friends) set in 2018.

Men

• 1,000m Run
  • 2:27.27 by Wyatt Johnson (Kansas Wesleyan) bettering the old record of 2:27.73 by Luis Perez (Saint Mary) set in 2024.
• Long Jump
  • 7.26m/23’9.75” by Tyler Holmes (Saint Mary) bettering the old record of 7.18m/23’6.75” by Eryk Kyser (Kansas Wesleyan) set in 2023.
• Triple Jump
  • 14.61m/47’11.25” by Charles Jones (Sterling) bettering the old record of 14.57m/47’9.75” by Mikkel Tarver (Friends) set in 2024.

At the meet’s conclusion, women KCAC athletes ranking the NAIA top 20 for 2026 include:

• 60m Dash
  • Tiyna Ridge (Friends) #2
  • Roy’Janae Brown (Ottawa) #12t
• 200m Dash
  • JayOnna Perry (Ottawa) #2
  • Roy’Janae Brown (Ottawa) #5
• 400m Dash
  • JayOnna Perry (Ottawa) #6
  • Deslyne Cooper (Saint Mary) tied for #19t
• 600m Dash
  • Fien Molenberg (Friends) #5
  • Autumn Nold (Evangel) #7
• 800m Run
  • Fien Molenberg (Friends) #10
• 1,000m Run
  • Carly Holadia (Saint Mary) #9
  • Juianna Maxfield (Tabor) #13
  • 1-Mile Run: Josie Tyrrell (Saint Mary) #15
• 3,000m Run
  • Josie Tyrrell (Saint Mary) #7
• 5,000m Run
  • Josie Tyrrell (Saint Mary) #14
• 60m Hurdles
  • JayOnna Perry (Ottawa) #2
• 4x400m Relay
  • Evangel #13
  • Saint Mary #14
• 4x800m Relay
  • Kansas Wesleyan #7
  • Saint Mary #18
• Distance Medley Relay
  • Saint Mary #8
• High Jump
  • Delaney Miller (Evangel) #3
  • April Phillips (Evangel) & Belle Barnett (Sterling) tied for #12
• Pole Vault
  • Aaliyah Ramirez (Friends) #13
• Long Jump
  • JayOnna Perry (Ottawa) #6
  • Gabrielle Pitts (Evangel) #14
  • Aneesa Sheppard (Friends) #17
• Triple Jump
  • Aneesa Sheppard (Friends) #3
  • April Phillips (Evangel) #6
• Weight Throw
  • Abby Green (Friends) #18.

KCAC men ranked in the NAIA top 20 include:

• 200m Dash
  • Domonic Atkinstall (Ottawa) #15
• 600m Dash
  • Spencer Hines (Friends) #14
  • Ian Russell (Friends) #16
• 800m Run
  • Wyatt Johnson (Kansas Wesleyan) #15
• 1,000m Run
  • Wyatt Johnson (Kansas Wesleyan) #2
  • Brian Fackert (McPherson) #4
  • Ethan Smith (Evangel) #10
  • Austin Howell (Saint Mary) #15
• 4x800m Relay
  • Kansas Wesleyan #9
  • Evangel #14
  • Friends #17
• High Jump
  • Daniel Blout (Ottawa) #3
• Long Jump
  • Tyler Holmes (Saint Mary) tied for #15
• Triple Jump
  • Charles Jones (Sterling) tied for #12
• Shot Put
  • Lamar Gordon (McPherson) #17
• Weight Throw
  • Julian Winters (Friends) #7
  • Lamar Gordon (McPherson) #10

TEAM SCORES

Women

1. Saint Mary 170.5
2. Friends 130.5
3. Kansas Wesleyan 121.5
4. Evangel 118.5
5. Ottawa 91
6. Tabor 39
7. McPherson 33
8. Sterling 9
9. Bethel 8
10. York 7
11. Bethany 6

Men

1. Friends 168
2. Kansas Wesleyan 151
3. Saint Mary 141
4. Evangel 82
5. Ottawa 64
6. Sterling 44
7. McPherson 41
8. Bethany 20
9. Tabor 14
10. Bethel 9
11. Oklahoma Wesleyan 3
12. Tie - Southwestern and York 2

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

Overall Athlete of the Meet: 

Women – JayOnna Perry (Ottawa)

Men – Charles Jones (Sterling)
 

Field Athletes of the Meet:

Women – April Phillips (Evangel) 3rd straight year

Men – Charles Jones (Sterling) 2nd straight year

Track Events Athlete of the Meet:

Women – JayOnna Perry (Ottawa)

Men – Wyatt Johnson (Kansas Wesleyan)

Head Coach of the Year:

Women – Alstin Benton (Saint Mary)

Men – Henry Brun (Friends)

Assistant Coach of the Year:

Women – Garrett Young (Kansas Wesleyan)

Men – Nolan Ryan (Saint Mary) 

Complete results can be found at Heartland Timing: https://milesplit.live/meets/726957.