2026 D3 Outdoor National Preview

May 20

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For the fifth time in history and first time since 2018, the river-carved backdrop of La Crosse, Wisc. will be the setting for the 2026 D3 Outdoor National Championships. Home to the iconic Grandad Bluff and beloved Midwest gas station chain Kwik Trip, you know as soon as you arrive in La Crosse why the university chose the eagle as their mascot. Situated along the banks of the mighty Mississippi, soars of bald eagles circle overhead on thermal currents. Hop in the car and drive just two miles west under their watchful eyes and you’re in Minnesota, the Land of 10,000 Lakes. The eagles rule La Crosse.

It just might happen that the Eagles do, too. Projected number one on both the men’s and women’s sides, this could be the first year in history that both programs win outdoor national team titles at home.

UWL men, who have at least one athlete in every event except the javelin, will have to hold off indoor champions Rowan, who return deep squads in the high hurdles and high jump, as well as WIAC rivals Oshkosh and Eau Claire. UWL women will need to outperform the WashU Bears, who know how to deliver at a national meet, as well as coast-to-coast foes Johns Hopkins and CMS.

All this and more comprise the storylines to follow this coming weekend. Two hurdle national record holders go for gold–one has three hurdle titles, and one has zero. The first 4x1 relay team in D3 history to break 39 seconds comes back after a devastating DNF. A rising star in the women’s 800 has the opportunity to repeat Esther Seeland’s incredible freshman outdoor title and perhaps set a new freshman record along the way.

D3 Glory Days hits the highlights in this preview. Look for more of our coverage all week long: in the booth, on our social channels, and trackside with athlete interviews.

Marquee event: Men’s 110m hurdles

The record books in the men’s 110m hurdles are being rewritten. Reflecting a broader surge in D3 track and field, five athletes have combined to produce nine of the top 13 wind-legal performances in history within the last two seasons alone.

Leading that movement is UW–La Crosse’s Luke Schroeder, the record holder in both the indoor 60m hurdles and outdoor 110m hurdles. Despite his historic speed, a national title has remained frustratingly out of reach. Schroeder’s history at national meets has been nothing short of turbulent: consecutive DQs in the indoor hurdles in 2023 and 2024, a crash into the first hurdle during the 2024 outdoor prelims, and a fourth-place finish this past indoor season despite entering as the top seed. This weekend on his home track, a big home crowd will all be rooting for him to finally convert record-breaking performances into championship gold.

While Schroeder owns the two fastest outdoor times in D3 history (and four of the top five all-conditions marks including a blistering 13.20 last weekend with +4.9 wind), he faces a field loaded with proven winners. Standing in his way are four athletes who have already accomplished what he has not: winning an individual national title.

The 2024 outdoor champion, Rowan’s Kwaku Nkrumah, understands as well as anyone how quickly fortunes can change. After capturing his 2024 gold, his title defense ended abruptly with a fall in last year’s prelims and a DNF. He bounced back well this past indoors by finishing runner-up in the 60m hurdles and in April produced a new personal best time that now ranks tied for third all-time. His teammate, Jason Agyemang, has become the definition of championship consistency. He has finished in the top four of hurdle events at each of the last five national meets, won the indoor 60m hurdle title in 2025, and has been outdoor runner-up in each of the last two seasons. He will also contest the 400m hurdles alongside teammate and No. 2 seed Angel Gonzalez. Though Gonzalez faces tough competition from No. 1 seed Blake Postler of Eau Claire, the “Hurdle U” designation to Rowan is well deserved and could prove true again this weekend.

As if Schroeder and Rowan’s duo were not enough to make the 110s a must-watch event, two more national champions enter the picture. Central College’s Gunner Meyer shocked the field at these past indoor championships, entering seeded fourth before pulling off an upset victory. But that race carried its own controversy. Nebraska Wesleyan’s Eli Etherton, the 2023 indoor 60m hurdle champion, actually crossed the line first before being disqualified for drifting into the adjacent lane in the final strides. For Meyer, the question is whether the indoors breakthrough was the start of something bigger; for Etherton, it is whether this weekend can bring closure. With records falling, redemption stories unfolding, and national champions stacked throughout the field, the men’s 110m hurdles could end up being the marquee event of the weekend.

Queens of the Hurdles: Champions defending their thrones

The women’s hurdle events at this year’s D3 national championships are set to feature two dominant champions attempting to each win their fourth national title. In the women’s 100m hurdles, the spotlight falls squarely on UMass Boston’s Aryianna Garceau, who enters the weekend as the undisputed queen of the hurdles. Garceau has swept the last three national hurdle titles, winning back-to-back indoor 60m hurdle crowns before capturing last year’s outdoor 100m hurdle championship. Her 2026 season has reached historic territory, as she now owns five of the fastest performances in D3 history, highlighted by a record-breaking 13.40 this past April.

Meanwhile, the women’s 400m hurdles are headlined by the return of Buffalo State’s Natalia Sawyer, a three-time national champion whose résumé rivals anyone in D3. Sawyer claimed the 2023 and 2024 outdoor 400m hurdle titles, including a blazing 58.01 performance that ranks second all-time in D3 history, and added the 2024 indoor 60m hurdle crown as well. After missing all of last outdoor season, Sawyer has returned to championship form, clocking a 59.76 at the Bison Outdoor Classic in April and proving she remains a threat to add a fourth national title.

While both three-time champions enter the weekend as the names to beat, neither path to gold will come easy.

Garceau will likely face her biggest challenge from Allyson Hammond of Pacific (Ore.). Hammond moved to No. 2 on the D3 all-time list after running 13.60 in March and has spent recent national meets chasing Garceau, finishing runner-up at the last two indoor championships. Following a fifth-place finish outdoors a year ago, she enters this weekend searching for a breakthrough moment and her first national title.

Sawyer, meanwhile, will have to contend with Arielle Chechile, who enters as the top seed with a personal-best 59.05 that ranks tenth all-time in D3 history. Chechile’s recent championship experiences have been defined by heartbreak: a disqualification in last year’s outdoor 400m hurdle final and another DQ this past indoor season in the flat 400m after entering the final with the second-fastest prelim time. Now entering as the top seed, she returns with both redemption and a national title firmly in her sights.

Hagan and Richwine take down historical giants

At all levels, middle distance is having a moment. Two massive national records fell this season in the men’s events, and the women’s races are knocking on the doors of some pretty steep records as well.

Ryan Hagan is one of the biggest names of the year in D3. Having broken the men’s 1500m national record twice (and doing so in a bandana), all eyes are on the SUNY Geneseo Knight in this year’s metric mile.

Hagan’s outdoor campaign has been one of dreams; he’s the only athlete in D3 history to have broken a trifecta of distance barriers: sub-1:50 in the 800m, sub-3:40 in the 1500m, and sub-14 in the 5k. His 3:38.67 and eventual 3:37.19 both surpassed the legendary Karl Paranya of Haverford, who was previously the only other D3 athlete to have dipped under 3:40 in the men’s 1500 in 1997. That same year, Paranya won both the 1500m and 800m titles at La Crosse, both events that Hagan will contest this weekend. History could repeat itself nearly three decades later with a new face in a different jersey.

That is as long as emerging D3 great Trevor Richwine of Dickinson doesn’t do something to stop it. More recent history suggests he will. Not only is the senior the twice-defending 800m national champion, but he rides the momentum of a fresh 1:47.21 800m national record all the way from Carlisle to La Crosse. Last week at the Widener Final Qualifier, Dickinson bumped elbows with U.S. finalists and even World Championship qualifiers to cruise to a second-place finish overall and national record that topples D3 legend Nick Symmonds.

On a similar weekend twenty years ago, Symmonds ran 1:47.34 to set a new D3 record. A month later, he ran 1:45.83 to take second at the US National Championship, becoming one of the pioneers of D3 runners in the pro ranks. Though Symmonds’s time now doesn’t hit the auto-qualifying mark for USAs (like we said, midD is having a moment), he showed what is possible after a career becoming the best D3 800m athlete in history.

This weekend, Richwine will be on a quest to put the cherry on top of a storied season. A fellow D3 national record holder is less intimidating when you’ve lined up against post-collegiates and D1 stars, but should also not be counted out. It’s not often you get to see two D3 record holders run wire-to-wire at the same championships. Could Paranya have beaten Symmonds? We’ll never know; but in the 2026 edition—Richwine versus Hagan–we are in for a treat.

Keep a watchful eye on other national champions in this field: Cael Schoemann of UWL in the 800m and Nicholas Lyndaker in the 1500m. Both know the taste of victory enough to grab another helping. Be sure to also follow freshman sensation Caleb Tenney of Johns Hopkins, whose 3:41.56 is a D3 freshman national record.

Schoenegge and Delia: A tale of two freshman champions

Two years ago in Myrtle Beach, Vassar freshman Haley Schoenegge stunned the whole division when she rocketed to the front of a seasoned women’s 1500m national field and never looked back, running an impressive freshman record time of 4:19.46, nine seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Schoenegge has not lost a national 1500m or mile race since, her D3 title count now up to four. Returning to the field with the top seed by four seconds, it is likely Schoenegge racks up a fifth, but just how fast can the now-junior run?

Five years ago in North Carolina, SUNY Geneseo’s Emily Pomainville did something few athletes would be willing to do: she time trialed the 1500m prelim. The result? A seed nearly twenty seconds ahead of the next finisher and a new national record. No one has come close to touching Pomainville’s gutsy performance since, until Schoenegge.

Earlier this season at the Penn Relays, Schoenegge ran the No. 5 fastest 1500m in history at 4:16.13. She’s expanded her range this year, setting new PRs from 2:10 in the 800 to 16:15 in the 5k, a lethal combination of speed and strength for a miler. Schoenegge’s racing history shows she is not afraid to go for it at nationals. With a full day of rest between the 1500m prelim and the 1500m and 5k finals, could we see another national record-setting women’s 1500m prelim? Regardless of if Schoenegge opts to go for it or “survive and advance” and save her big effort for Saturday, she is the competitor in this field that has the best chance of breaking Pomainville’s five year-old record.

Schoenegge’s story inspires the possibility of another this weekend. Indoors, WashU freshman Kate Delia stole the 800-meter crown from a deep field of upperclassman competitors. She returns outdoors with an impressive No. 10 all-time 2:06.46 division-leading seed. Believe it or not, this is not the freshman record. In 2019, freshman and eventual D3 800-meter great Esther Seeland stormed past fading favorite Phoebe Aguiar for the win. Her 2:05.24 captured the national title by four seconds and set a new freshman record.

Could Delia take down this time this weekend? She will feel the heat of three 2:07 seeds behind her, including WashU teammate Caroline Echols. Known for producing great 800m athletes, the Bears of Saint Louis have had five women in program history run under 2:08 outdoors, including notable No. 3 all-time 800m great Emma Kelley. They have never had a freshman running the times Delia has laid down so far this year. She already has a freshman national title; is a freshman national record next? The rookie is surely destined for a decorated career.

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A new era of short sprints

The reign of Sam Blaskowski and Lauren Jarrett is finally over, and new champions will be crowned in the short sprints on the same track that molded the pair of 100-meter national record holders. Who will rise to meet their fame? Returning champions Lamont Victoria, Sydney Radigan, Rajahn Dixon, and Izzy Peterson will all take the outdoor start lines, but only Radigan comes in as a one-seed favorite. The rest will have to fend off steep competition, especially in the men’s 100-meter and 200-meter dashes, which will each showcase its most competitive field to date this weekend.

Radigan is the sprinter to watch this weekend. She will contest in three events: the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay, where she will serve as anchor. It’s possible and even likely Radigan will return to the Mitten State with three shiny trophies. Ranked first in both the 100m and 200m, she’s No. 4 in D3 history in both events. Her most competitive event is the 100m, where she currently holds a lead 0.16 seconds over No. 2 seed Peterson. Perhaps initially to her surprise, Radigan captured the 60m title indoors, but Peterson got the final say in Birmingham.

In a nailbiting finish, Radigan and Peterson took each other to the line in the indoor 200-meter dash with Peterson finishing on top by two hundredths of a second. D3, you are in for another treat in the single-turn event this weekend–the pair comes into the meet separated by a mere hundredth of a second. Will Peterson defend her indoor title, or will Radigan have the final say of the year?

The men’s races will be exciting simply for the fact that there is no clear favorite. Pfeiffer’s Jordan Jones enters the weekend with the top seed in the 100m with a wind-assisted 10.13, but the top seed under legal winds is none other than Rowan’s Dixon, whose 10.31 is No. 9 in D3 this year. Indoor champion Victoria lurks in the mix with the No. 3 seed, a pair of Eagles in Luke Schroeder and Landon Gallun also sit in the top 8. Davian Willems and Landen Liu come to the field with lots of experience, and Dylan Doss and Kai Smith come in motivated, for good or for bad, by their top-3 finishes indoors. Victoria was one of the last ones into the meet before capturing the 60m victory in March. Do not be surprised to see similar stories on the start line in Saturday’s final, especially with the deepest field in history.

Similarly, the men’s 200m is stacked from top to bottom. The rankings look a lot like the 100m but with Salisbury’s Smith leading the way instead of Jones. Smith caught fire indoors when he placed third in the 60m and fourth in the 200m. Outdoors, he has been on a different level. His 20.56 is No. 4 all time, just a hundredth of a second behind D3 legend JP Vaught. Though Smith will be hard to catch, he’s one of four top-20 all-time marks in the field, including No. 8 Schroeder, No. 9 Doss, and No. 15 AJ Wright.

In the 400m, watch for Andrew Rock product Grant Nelson of Bethel, the defending national champion and significant favorite with his No. 7 all-time 46.06. Only four athletes in D3 history have broken 46 outdoors, including Rock, but it could become five this weekend. Hope’s Sara Schermerhorn will look to repeat her indoor victory in the women’s 400m, after an unfortunate scratch from the meet from No. 1 seed Ariella Rogahn-Press. Plattsburgh State’s Grace Yarkosky returns as the No. 11 seed after her impressive indoor finish where she made Schermerhorn work every inch for the title, taking her to the line.

WIAC Champs 2.0

For three years in a row, UW-La Crosse has won the men’s 4x100m relay at nationals. That streak could snap this weekend, however, and it might just take a national record to do it. Last week, at the UWL Final qualifier at La Crosse, WIAC rivals Oshkosh and La Crosse dropped the No. 1 and No. 2 fastest 4x100m relay times in D3 history. Oshkosh won, becoming the first team in history to dip under 39 seconds. Three times, the Titans have faced the Eagles in this event. Three times they’ve won. Can they do it a fourth time on the largest stage in D3? Can they do it at La Crosse’s house? They’ve already done so twice. Last year, they missed advancing to the finals and will likely do everything in their power to get the stick around the track clean in the prelim. Then on Saturday: fireworks.

Shot put men produce deepest field since 2010

16 years ago it took 16.50m to get into the meet in the men’s shot put. This year, it took 16.69m. A new era of men’s shot put has arrived. Leading the field is Concordia-Moorhead senior Cooper Folkestad. His throw of 19.26m moved him to fourth all-time and just the seventh D3 thrower over 19m. Can he stop the UW-Eau Claire reign in the shot put? Eau Claire hasn’t lost a Shot put title in three straight national meets. When you’re coached by a World medalist, you build champions. In 2024, 16.62m was the last All-American spot. Now, that doesn’t even get you into the meet. No matter who comes out of the weekend on top, men’s shot put will go down in D3 history in its best form yet.

Can anyone challenge Charlotte Frere?

In 2023, Charlotte Frere qualified for the national meet for the first time and placed 17th. Since then, she’s gone on to win two straight discus national titles and set the new D3 record of 56.59m. She took down Kristin Kuehl’s record of 55.02, which was set in 1992. She followed it up with a throw of 55.04m at her final home meet on May 14. Frere owns the top two throws in division history, has won two straight titles, and her lowest finish this year was a 7th place finish at Drake Relays. Frere seems ready to go for a third title as the field is nearly 4.5m behind her. An added bonus is that she’ll only be focusing on the discus as she is not competing in any other throwing event.

One last jump for Rivers

If you can, get to the long jump pit this weekend to witness Josh Rivers’s last national meet in his D3 career. The Oshkosh standout has set a new standard for D3 jumps as he became the first man to jump over eight meters. He did that indoors and outdoors last season. At the WIAC conference meet, he jumped the third farthest jump in D3 history with a 7.94m. He now has three of the four top jumps in history. He had a close call indoors, will he have the same battle outdoors? Davare Payne of Hardin-Simmons caught a +3.7 m/s wind to jump 7.85m. He’s the closest to Rivers on the descending order list. However, his next best jump this season is 7.01m. Rivers might be jumping away with another title here.

What does Centre have in store?

Indoors we saw Serena McNeilly and Chloe Hein jump their way to the podium. They’re back again with extra fire power, this time bringing shot putter Zoey Shadhid-Scott with them. Hein is in the 100m, long jump, and triple jump. McNeilly is in the high jump, long jump and triple jump, which is a lighter load for the field star as she is not taking on the multi. It was so cool to see Hein and McNeilly get on the podium indoors, and they have a shot to do it again. Based on entries, Centre is just 4 points away from getting another team trophy.

Team title earned in the field

La Crosse and Rowan were separated by 1 point indoors. The field athletes could play a big role as La Crosse has 15 entries in the field and Rowan has 10. Rowan has four in both the high jump and long jump. If they could squeeze as many points as possible it could shake things up in the team battle.

Steeple champs seek repeat

Last year’s steeple champions, Joey Sullivan and Sophie Bull, will look to repeat their national title victories in 2026.

Photos by Jen Reagan

With a homefield advantage, Sullivan of UW-La Crosse will have to hold off Lance Sobaski of Wartburg in the men’s race. Sobaski started out the season hot at the Wash U Distance Carnival with a personal record of 8:40.85, which is No. 3 all-time in D3 history. Sullivan followed suit weeks later at the WIAC Championships hosted by UW-La Crosse where he ran 8:41.53. Both have loads of national championship experience and the ability to break the championship record of 8:42 set in 2023.

This seems like a race of two clear favorites, but don’t leave out Central College’s Jack Brown, who ran 8:49.10 at the Bryan Clay Invitational. Brown captured a tactically raced national title this indoor season in the mile and looks to have one of the best kicks in the field.

Historically, the last few steeplechase titles and All-American spots have been won within the last two laps, which means with Sullivan and Sobaski’s national experience, along with Brown’s tactically charged kick, we could see quite the last 1000 meters from the field.

2026 might be the year of the Bull. Sophie Bull, that is. The Calvin veteran already has two national titles, including one from this year in the indoor 3k. With her prowess improving on and off the barriers, she could be the first back-to-back national champion in this event on the women’s side since Annie Rodenfels in 2018 and 2019. Bull has a great chance to set the championship record if she decides to run away with the title. Her PR is 10:07.18. The meet record is 10:07.07 set by Evie Miller of Trine back in 2022.

While Bull might be the favorite, Central College’s Peyton Steffen is not far behind. Steffen, who has a wealth of All-American honors, ran 10:17.90 at the Bryan Clay Invitational and is only ten seconds behind Bull on paper. A dark horse is Widener senior Gabriella Nye, who ran 10:19 at Penn Relays. What Nye might lack in national experience in the steeplechase, as this is her first time, she makes up for in talent as she has been on the national stage in the mile and 5k.

Marsyla vs. the world: Will history repeat itself?

CMS’s Elle Marsyla looks to continue the Athena legacy under the bluffs of La Crosse this Saturday. Marsyla not only has the fastest time in D3 this year, but she has the potential to repeat CMS history. The last time that UW-La Crosse hosted the national meet, Bryn McKillop of CMS won the 5k title in 16:36.

Led by Marsyla’s time of 16:13, this year has the potential to be the greatest women’s 5k in D3 history. It is already the deepest that the field has ever been. To qualify in 2025, it took 16:45, yet the last time in this year was 16:41. To quantify how insanely talented and deep this field is, 16:42 was the last all-American in 2025.

Haley Schoenegge of Vassar, Ainara Sainz de Rozas of Concordia University of Wisconsin–who returns with a vengeance after being sidelined indoors and much of cross country– and Kate Tuttle of Williams all have run 16:20 or under and will all contest in this last distance event of the weekend after running in other events. An event often run on fumes, watch for others doubling back like steeplechasers Sophie Bull and Peyton Steffen, miler Grace McDonough of Connecticut College; and 10ker Claire Anderson of Washington & Jefferson. A new champion will be crowned in this event this year, so anything goes.

vanWestrienen leads the distance double

There is no field like that of the men’s 5k; it is a wild bunch of senior veterans, freshmen who race like veterans, and all those in between. Cornell College’s Isaac vanWestrienen leads the way with a 13:53. Along with his leading mark in the 10k of 28:52, he is going in with a massive target on his back, which we are certain he enjoys. Those throwing darts at it will likely be UW-La Crosse’s Aidan Matthai, freshman 5k national record holder Theo Udelson-Nee of NYU, and Wartburg’s Isaiah Hammerand–all of whom have broken 14 minutes–as well as cross country champion Emmanuel Leblond and Loras’s Isaac Bourne, who will do his first distance double.

Matthai will look to do the same as many other La Crosse athletes, and that is to win at home. He’s entered in both the 10k and 5k and is no stranger to being at the top of the pack, if not leading it, as he runs headstrong and fearless.

Farther down the descending order list this year lies a sleeping giant in Chasen Hunt of Lynchburg, who holds the outdoor record of 13:41 set in 2025. Hunt should not be left out of contention as he is one of the few at the top who is not doubling back in the 10k.

The men’s distance titles remain wide open this weekend, especially after a surprising last-minute scratch from returning indoor distance double champion Rowan’s Seth Clevenger. After having a quieter season than he did indoors–Clevenger broke the 5k and 3k records en route to two national titles–he was qualified for outdoors, but has medically scratched from the meet according to Coach Dimit.

Tassey looks for 10k redemption

One of the most dramatic and heartbreaking scenes from the 2025 outdoor champs was the disqualification of Roger Williams’s Nathan Tassey. Tassey has been a prominent figure the last few years and captured his first national title in last year’s 10k. Unfortunately, and to the crowd’s dismay, Tassey was disqualified for a lane violation in the last 150m of his race. This has lit a fire under him that will certainly burn for all twenty five laps. For reference, Tassey was seeded fifth last year and won, while this year he is seeded tenth. Fresh off of a 14:04 5k PR, he is sharp and ready to make it for real this year.

Whether you’re watching live in La Crosse or tuning into the broadcast, this year’s championships are abundant with storylines. From the track to the pit to the mat to the ring to the runway, athletes in all events are bringing their best to D3’s powerhouse nestled along the Mississippi. Like the current, their performances are sure to move you.

D3 Glory Days