WICHITA, Kan. – An exciting opening day of the 2026 KCAC Outdoor Track & Field Championship is in the books from Adair-Austin Stadium.
Julian Winters wasted no time getting things started on the right foot for the Friends University Falcons, winning the KCAC Championship in the Men's Hammer Throw with a PR and NAIA B Standard throw of 56.69m that ranks as the best mark in the league this season.
Abby Green then made it 2-2 in KCAC Hammer Throw titles for the Falcons with a throw of 53.94m. Green's mark ranks second in the conference this season, second only to her own throw of 54.54m at the Falcons' home spring invitational earlier this month.
Aneesa Sheppard provided the Falcons with another KCAC day one championship in the Women's Long Jump, hitting a mark of 5.68m to finish atop the field.
The Falcons weren't quite through collecting championships on the first day and added another in the Men's 4 X 800 relay behind the team of Thomas Burk, Denzel Nyamwela, Ian Russell and Spencer Hines for a winning time of 7:48.07.
To no one's surprise, Tiyna Ridge outdistanced everyone in the Women's 100 Meter preliminaries with a time of 11.56 to comfortably qualify for tomorrow's final. The Edmond, Okla. native wasn't done for the night and clinched a spot in the 200 Meter run final tomorrow with a time of 24.25 to come in second in the preliminary run.
Pius Vokes then ran a PR of 10.56 to finish second in the Men's 100 Meter run and also qualify for tomorrow's final. Vokes later bettered that performance by a spot by finishing on top of the field in the preliminary 200 meter run with a PR run of 21.44 to advance to tomorrow's final.
In the Hurdle events, it was Gabriela Millan coming in first in the Women's 100m Hurdles preliminaries at 14.19 to secure a spot in tomorrow's final event.
Christian Setzer (second, 14.89, PR) and Carter Giittinger (fourth, 15.18) then each ran and qualified for tomorrow's final in the Men's 110m Hurdles.
In the Men's Long Jump, the Falcons occupied two of the top three spots behind Payton Willits in second with a PR of 7.31m and Matthew Bryant in third place at 7.13m.
Millan also recorded a podium finish of third with an Outdoor-tying PR of 1.59m in the Women's High Jump.
At the conclusion of the first day, the Falcon Women are third and the Men are tied for third in the team scores, with the University of Saint Mary Spires currently leading the field in both standings.
The second and final day of the KCAC Outdoor Track & Field Championship is set to begin tomorrow morning (May 1) at 11 am with the field events. The running events are scheduled to start at 3:35 pm.
