From Feb. 26 to 28, St. Olaf Men’s and Women’s Track and Field competed in a three-day meet at the 2026 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Indoor Track and Field Championships at Carleton College, with plenty of success on both teams. During the meet, the Women’s team saw two individual MIAC champion finishes, and the Men’s team saw four individual MIAC champions and one MIAC champion relay.
Leading up to the big weekend, there were mixed emotions across the two teams about the competition ahead.
“Everyone was either excited, eager, or nervous,” Ashlyn Jore ’26 said in reference to the Women’s team during an interview with The Olaf Messenger. “Everyone has been performing so well this season, so going into it, we knew that if we just performed as well as we have been the rest of the season, it would go well for us.”
In track and field, everyone competes in individual events and can score points for the team, as well as earn individual awards.
“Baseline, you are thinking about yourself, like this is the race I am running, this is my PR [personal record], this is what I want to beat to better myself,” Jackson Bullock ’28 said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. “Then there is this extra level of scoring points for the team.”
Some of the team members did not compete at the conference.
“Even the girls who weren’t competing, their presence mattered so much, showing up, trying to go see every event and cheer us on,” Jore said. “That might go unrecognized sometimes, but those people really matter and make a world of difference when you are at a big meet, knowing you are being supported by the team.”
The Women’s team scored 136 points, taking second place overall with the second-highest points total the Oles have scored at the indoor conference meet. Isabel Wyatt ’26 took home the win on Friday, Feb. 27, getting a first-place finish in the 800-meter run. This is Wyatt’s second time earning the MIAC indoor champion title in the 800-meter run, and she is now ranked sixth on St. Olaf’s all-time performance list.
Jore also celebrated a first-place win for the Women’s team, becoming St. Olaf’s first MIAC indoor long jump champion since 1994. After placing as the runner-up in 2024, Jore got her winning mark of 5.57 meters on her third jump.
“It was a really great feeling. It felt like a culmination of everything I have been working towards,” Jore said. “It was really nice to experience this with people you have been training with the whole season.”
The Men’s team also took second place overall, becoming tied as the best finish in program history for St. Olaf. On Friday, the team took four first-place finishes, including the distance medley relay (DMR). The DMR team was made up of Aidan McKeever ’29, Austin McInturff ’28, Garret Seppanen ’28, and Bullock.
“The distance medley relay is kind of the pride and joy of distance running in the MIAC, so every team wants to win it,” Bullock said. “Winning it at Carleton made it even better.”
The members of the Men’s team also saw individual wins, with Cullen Moore ’26 in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:53.05 — finishing one thousandth of a second faster than Lance Nemecek Jr. ’26 — and Max Albertson ’27 in the long jump with a jump of 7.02 meters. This is Albertson’s second time placing in long jump.
“Our coaches are always positive … and want to see the best in everyone no matter what,” Albertson said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. “It makes me want to go to practice everyday and do well.”
Kevin Turlington ’26 had a very successful weekend, earning first place in two events and completing the 3K/5K double. After finishing as the runner-up in the 5000-meter run the previous year, Turlington took first-place late in the event, with a time of 15:03.46. On Feb. 28, Turlington competed in the 3000-meter run, winning with a time of 8:16.34, becoming the only first-place finish for St. Olaf on Saturday.
On March 7 and 8, a handful of team members competed in the “Last Chance” meet, an opportunity for competitors who are close to qualifying for nationals, but not quite there, to earn a spot at the 2026 NCAA Division III National Championships. During this meet, Bullock, McKeever, Moore, and Turlington broke a nine-year-old record in the DMR, with the time of 9:56.13, getting third place overall.
Announced on March 9, six members of the St. Olaf Men’s and Women’s track and field teams qualified for the national championships. On the Men’s team, Moore will be competing alongside Nemecek, Christian Fells ’27, and Paxon Myers ’29 in the 800-meter run, and Turlington will once again be competing in the 5000-meter run. For the Women’s team, Wyatt will be racing in the women’s 800-meter run for her second year in a row.
The Division III National Championship will be taking place March 13 to 14.
