2025 KCAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships Preview
By Carol R. Swenson (Meet Announcer)
(This preview is written prior to the final deadline for entries.)
The 2025 Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships return to the campus of Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina, Kan., for the first time since 2019.
Day 1 competition on Thursday will find the High Jump, Long Jump, Hammer Throw, and Javelin Throw opening the meet, beginning at 11:00 a.m. [Note, the throws area is located west of the campus on Claflin Avenue behind Church of the Cross (1600 Rush Street), on the west (far) side of the church.] Track events will begin on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. with the finals in the 3,000m Steeplechase followed by preliminaries of the 100m Dashes, 100m Hurdles & 110m Hurdles. The 4x800m Relays will be Thursday's second final on the track, followed by preliminaries in the 200m Dashes before the finals in the 10,000m Runs for women and men wraps up competition on day one.
The Pole Vault, Triple Jump, Shot Put and Discus Throw will be contested on Friday, starting at 11:00 a.m. All of Friday's track events will be finals only beginning at 3:35 p.m. with the 4x100m Relays. The meet will wrap up with the 4x400m Relays, tentatively scheduled for 7:55 p.m. for women and 8:10 p.m. for men. An awards ceremony recognizing individual and team Champions of Character, high-point Athletes of the Meet, Coaches of the Year and team champions will conclude the meet at approximately 8:30 p.m.
The University of Saint Mary women have won four straight team titles with Ottawa finishing second the last two years. While the April 29th rankings by the USTFCCCA do not have any KCAC women's teams ranked in top 25 nationally, the association has the University of Saint Mary again favored to win the KCAC championship, edging out the Evangel women with Kansas Wesleyan favored to hold off Friends for third in the final KCAC team standings. Ottawa and Tabor look to round out the top half of the final KCAC team race ahead of York. In the South Central region of the coaches' association the Saint Mary women are placed second with Evangel fourth, ahead of Ottawa (6th), Kansas Wesleyan (8th), and Friends (9th).
The University of Saint Mary men have won five consecutive KCAC Outdoor championships with Friends second four of the five years, including 2024. Like the women, the USTFCCA surprisingly doesn't have any KCAC schools ranked in the top 25 nationally. The University of Saint Mary men are a narrow favorite over 2025 KCAC Outdoor host Kansas Wesleyan to win another conference title with Evangel University picked for third over Friends. McPherson, Ottawa, Tabor, Sterling, and York are picked to battle it out for the final spots in the top half of the final KCAC men's standings. In the South Central region of the USTFCCCA, Saint Mary again leads the KCAC schools with a second-place ranking while Evangel ranks fourth, Friends sixth and Kansas Wesleyan seventh in the April 29th regional poll.
Individually, the meet could see 7 women and 9 men are eligible to return to defend titles in individual events they won a year ago. Women eligible to return to defend 2024 KCAC Outdoor championships include double-winners Gretchen Raney (Saint Mary, 100m & 200m), Jordyn Weems (Ottawa, 400m & Long Jump), and JayOnna Perry (Ottawa, 100m Hurdles & 400m Hurdles), along with single event champions Abby Beets (Evangel, Pole Vault), April Phillips (Evangel, Triple Jump), Abby Green (Friends, Hammer Throw), and Allison Thomas (Evangel, Javelin).
Among the women's defending outdoor champions, Raney swept the KCAC Indoor 60m and 200m Dashes while Phillips swept the Long and Triple Jumps.
Six KCAC women scored in this winter's 2025 NAIA National Indoor Championships led by Carly Holadia (Saint Mary) winning the 1,000m Run, Delaney Miller (Evangel) finishing 2nd in the High Jump with Autumn Nold (Evangel) 5th in 600m Run, Anya Walton (Friends) 8th in the Triple Jump, Josie Tyrrell (ainSt Mary) 8th in the 5,000m Run, and Riley Hiebert (Saint Mary, eligibility exhausted for outdoors) finishing 5th in the 1-Mile Run.
Domonic Atkinstall (Ottawa, 100m & 200m) and Mikkel Tarver (Friends, Long Jump & Triple Jump) are the only men eligible to return as multiple-event outdoor defending champions from 2024. Vance Shewey (Tabor) returns as a 3-time defending champion in the High Jump and could become the first 4-time winner in the history of the KCAC outdoor event.
Other men eligible to return after winning a single event a year ago are Dominick Beine (Saint Mary, 5,000m), Ryan Heline (Saint Mary, 10,000m), Daniel Pantoja (Saint Mary, 3km Steeplechase), Xavier Garza (Ottawa, 400m Hurdles), Alphonse Jackson (York, Shot Put), and Koby Graham (Evangel, Javelin).
Atkinstall (60m Dash), Beine (5,000m), and Shewey (High Jump, 3rd straight) were the only men's outdoor defending champions to win KCAC Indoor titles this past winter.
At this winter's NAIA National Indoor meet, 11 KCAC men and one relay team scored, led by Liam Neidig (Saint Mary) winning the 1,000m Run with teammate Luis Perez (Saint Mary) in 3rd and Julian Avila (Kansas Wesleyan) 7th. Tommy Baker (Saint Mary) finished 2nd in the 3,000m Run with Damion Jackson (Kansas Wesleyan) 8th, Devyn Wright (Evangel) 4th in the 400m, Rinaldo Moore (McPherson) 4th in the 60m Hurdles, Jacob Gillies (Evangel, red-shirting this spring) 2nd in the High Jump with Vance Shewey (Tabor) 4th, and Kansas Wesleyan finishing 4th in the 4x800m Relay while Pablo Sanz-Rillo (Friends) was 2nd in the non-KCAC contested 3,000m Race Walk, Carter Gittinger (Friends) 5th in the non-KCAC contested Heptathlon.
Entering the KCAC Championship weekend, a total of four (4) performances by KCAC women and seven (7) by KCAC men have met the NAIA "A" (automatic) qualifying standard plus an additional 16 women and 18 men performances have met the NAIA "B" (provisional) standard for the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships, which will be held at the Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana, May 21-23, 2025.
KCAC athletes ranked among the NAIA's top five performers include one national leader, Vance Shewey (Tabor), 1st in the High Jump with a clearance of 2.16m/7'1".
Delaney Wright (Evangel) currently is tied for 3rd on the NAIA National list in the Women's High Jump while Kansas Wesleyan teammates Mayce Russell and Maddy Wolf are ranked #3 and #4, respectively, in the women's Javelin Throw.
Devyn Wright (Evangel) currently ranks 2nd nationally in the men's 400m Dash while Rinaldo Moore (McPherson) and Kort Sjogren (Bethany) rank 4th in the 110m Hurdles and Javelin Throw, respectively. Dominick Beine (Saint Mary) ranks 5th in the 10,000m Run and Charles Jones (Sterling) is currently ranked 5th in the Triple Jump.
Returning Defending Champions from 2024(Current KCAC ranking): [NM - No 2025 mark in the event]
WOMEN (10 potential returning individual defending champions, 5 are '25 KCAC leaders):
- 100m Dash
- Gretchen Raney (Saint Mary) (#2) (2-time defending champion)
- 200m Dash
- Gretchen Raney (Saint Mary) (=#1)
- 400m Dash
- Jordyn Weems (Ottawa) (#4)
- 100m Hurdles
- JayOnna Perry (Ottawa) (#1)
- 400m Hurdles
- JayOnna Perry (Ottawa) (#1) (2-time defending champion)
- 4x100m Relay
- Saint Mary (#3) (2-time defending champion)
- 4x400m Relay
- Saint Mary (#2)
- 4x800m Relay
- Saint Mary (#4) (2-time defending champion)
- Pole Vault
- Abby Beets (Evangel) (#2)
- Long Jump
- Jordyn Weems (Ottawa) (#1)
- Triple Jump
- April Phillips (Evangel) (#3)
- Hammer Throw
- Abby Green (Friends) (#1) (2-time defending champion)
- Javelin Throw
- Allison Thomas (Evangel) (#3)
MEN (11 potential returning individual defending champions, 2 are '25 KCAC leaders):
- 100m Dash
- Domonic Atkinstall (Ottawa) (#18)
- 200m Dash
- Domonic Atkinstall (Ottawa) (#4)
- 5,000m Run
- Dominick Beine (Saint Mary) (#2)
- 10,000m Run
- Ryan Heline (Saint Mary) (NM)
- 400m Hurdles
- Xavier Garza (Ottawa) (NM)
- 3k Steeplechase
- Daniel Pantoja (Saint Mary) (#1)
- 4x100m Relay
- Ottawa (#3) (2-time defending champion)
- 4x400m Relay
- Friends (#2)
- 4x800m Relay
- Kansas Wesleyan (#1)
- High Jump
- Vance Shewey (Tabor) (#1) (3-time defending champion)
- Long Jump
- Mikkel Tarver (Friends) (#5)
- Triple Jump
- Mikkel Tarver (Friends) (#2)
- Shot Put
- Alphonse Jackson (York) (#2)
- Javelin Throw
- Koby Graham (Evangel) (#2)