Bring on the postseason
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Postseason is here, and what better way to celebrate than with a trio of national records? Both the men’s and women’s 60m hurdle records as well as the women’s long jump record fell this past weekend at respective conference meets all over the country. Luke Schroeder, Aryianna Garceau, and Chloe Hein go down as Division 3’s best with their performances of 7.67 in the men’s hurdles, 8.31 in the women’s hurdles, and 6.46 meters in the women’s long jump.
In addition, the nation saw several of the nation’s best marks in history come out of conference weekend, particularly in the sprints and field events. 20 total top-20 marks were set at conference meets, and four men’s and nine women’s top-10 marks made their way into the history books.
New top-10 All-Time additions:
No. 4. Women’s 60m- Isabel Peterson (UW-Platteville)- 7.46
No. 3 Women’s 200m- Sydney Radigan (Calvin)- 23.98
No. 7 Men’s 400m- Cameron Elliott (Wittenberg)- 47.07
No. 9 Men’s 400m- Jack Kittle (Wittenberg)- 47.08
No. 1 Men’s 60mH- Luke Schroeder (UW-La Crosse)- 7.67
No. 1 Women’s 60mH- Aryianna Garceau (UMass Boston)- 8.31
No. 9 Women’s 60mH- Jill Ambler (SUNY Geneseo)- 8.49
No. 7 Men’s 4x400m relay- TCNJ - 3:11.82
No. 8 Women’s HJ- Avery Becker-Schlendering (Ohio Northern)- 1.79m
No. 10 Women’s HJ- Serena McNeilly (Centre)- 1.78m
No. 1 Women’s LJ- Chloe Hein (Centre)- 6.46m
No. 6 Men’s LJ- Cameron Sample (Fredonia)- 7.66m
No. 6 Women’s LJ- Jill Ambler (SUNY Geneseo)- 6.11m
No. 8 Women’s WT- Erika Ezumba (Johns Hopkins)- 19.59m
Notable additions include Platteville’s Isabel Peterson, who is already No. 9 in the women’s 200m and now rises to No. 4 all-time in the women’s 60m dash, Calvin’s Sydney Radigan, who becomes the third athlete in D3 history to dip under 24 seconds in the women’s 200m and the second to do so on a flat track behind Lauren Jarrett, and Johns Hopkins’s Erika Ezumba, who has gone from never qualifying for in indoor NCAA meet to having the eighth farthest weight throw in D3 history.
National records fall
The only photo we could find of UWL’s Luke Schroeder from nationals last year was one where he crutched to the national champion team podium indoors in 2024 after diving across the finish line to take fifth in the men’s 200m final. A crucial part of UWL’s team success, Schroeder has never scored points for the Eagles in the 60m hurdles at nationals. Despite an unlucky string of disqualifications, the wait has been worth it. Two years later, Schroeder is now the national record holder in the 60-meter hurdles.
In a stunning WIAC prelim, Schroeder pulled away from the field to practically solo a 7.67-second national record. In the final, he repeated this feat, posting a highly consistent 7.68, which also dipped under the previous national record of 7.72, held by one-year-in-D3 freshman phenom Jamir Brown during his time at Rowan.
This weekend was all about the hurdles, as UMass Boston’s Aryianna Garceau broke the women’s 60-meter hurdle record at New England D3 Championships in Boston. Two weeks ago, Garceau came close enough to Gustavus Adolphus’s Birgen Nelson’s 8.33-second record to smell it when she ran 8.37, just 0.02 seconds off of a personal best at the Crimson Open. This weekend, however, Garceau left no doubt. Her 8.31 beat the next finisher by a full half-second and set a new D3 record.
In similar fashion, Centre’s Chloe Hein knows what it’s like to use close-but-not-close-enough as motivation. Two weeks ago, she tied the women’s long jump with her incredible 6.41-meter clearance. Though technically a national record, Hein’s performance was not the outright best in D3 history, as Illinois College’s Melissa Norville cleared the exact same distance over a decade ago in 2013. At the SAA Championships this past weekend, Hein finally became the undisputed best. Her 6.46-meter jump is the farthest in D3 history by five full centimeters.
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Jill Ambler’s incredible Empire 8 weekend
Ironically, Hein and Garceau will both have their work cut out for them at nationals in a few weeks all because of one Jill Ambler from SUNY Geneseo. What a day Ambler had at Empire 8s on Friday! Ambler set D3 top-ten all-time marks in two different events: the long jump and 60m hurdles. She kicked the championships off with a stunning 60-meter hurdle prelim in which she won handily in a speedy 8.49 seconds, the ninth fastest indoor hurdles time in D3 history. She then hurried over to long jump, which was happening concurrently (though she was in flight two), and dropped a massive third jump of 6.11 meters, the sixth farthest leap in D3 history.
With Ambler in either or both events, the women’s 60-meter hurdles and long jump are shaping up to be a competitive battle at nationals. Add to the mix No. 7 Pacific’s Allyson Hammond and No. 11 after this weekend Ithaca’s Rachel Larson and the national hurdle final will have intense depth.
Women’s high jump competition heats up
Another event that could be one of the most competitive national events of the meet, especially after marks from this weekend, is the women’s high jump. National leader and No. 3 all-time Allie Wildsmith traveled to NYC for the USATF Indoor Championships, where she was the only current D3 athlete represented. Her 1.74-meter clearance placed her 8th in the U.S. and gave her valuable experience competing against some of the best in the nation before taking on the best D3 athletes in the nation.
Two more athletes jumped into the top-10 all-time in this event over the weekend as well: Ohio Northern’s Avery Becker-Schlendering and Centre’s Serena McNeilly. Becker Schlendering cleared 1.79 meters at the OAC meet, and McNeilly cleared 1.78 meters at SAAs. Truly an event of centimeters, the three top-10 all-time leaders in this event are separated by a mere three centimeters of one another.
Wittenberg duo impresses in nail biting men’s 400m
When three-time indoor 400m All-American and 2025 indoor 400m national runner-up Basheer Alramahi moved from the OAC, a recently very deep conference in the men’s 400m, to the NCAC, he might not have been expecting to have as much conference competition.
Enter: Wittenberg duo Cameron Elliott and Jack Kittle. In the deepest men’s 400m of any other conference meet (though the WIAC comes close with duo Colin Conzemius and Dylan Doss running a pair of 47’s on a flat 200-meter track), Wittenberg secured an exhilarating 1-2 punch with Elliott and Kittle, who were separated by just one hundredth of a second. Alramahi coasted in at third, less than a tenth of a second back, making this almost a blanket finish. Wabash’s Brock DeBello finished fourth in 47.47, the eighth time in D3 currently. Elliott’s 47.07, Kittle’s 47.08, and Alramahi’s 47.16 jumped to the 3-5 positions on the leaderboards behind Conzemius and Doss.
With Oshkosh’s Tyran Bender and UWL’s Chase Doornick, as well as Wabash’s DeBello and JCU’s Tyler Gast all in the top 12 rankings ahead of nationals, it’s entirely possible that the NCAA final could resemble a WIAC-NCAC dual meet.
With nationals just two weekends away now, the stakes are rising and the competition is stiffening. A lot of emotion is generally placed on conference weekend, producing some of the best performances of the year. The challenge now becomes carrying that conference weekend magic and momentum into the weeks ahead.
Alumni news
This past weekend was also a huge weekend for D3 alums. UW-Eau Claire alum Roger Steen won the U.S. Indoor National Title in the men’s shot put, earning his spot on the world team in Poland later this month. His 21.81-meter toss on his first throw of the finals moved him into a lead that he would hold for the remainder of the competition.
Other D3 alums represented at nationals included Stevenson alum Nathan Williams and Widener alum Alex Kristeller in the men’s weight throw (Williams was third overall and Kristeller fourth) and Carleton alum Matt Wilkinson, who placed sixth overall in a riveting men’s 3k.
Centre alum Annie Rodenfels placed third at the USATF Half Marathon Championships in her half marathon debut. The top three finishers are selected to represent Team USA at the World Championships in Copenhagen in September, but an official lead vehicle directed the field’s top three runners off-course in the race’s last miles. USATF issued a statement that they would not alter the results, but would review the situation ahead of final team selections in May.
Rodenfels posted to Instagram that she did not feel like she finished 3rd, rather 6th, a place she was very happy with, and that she hopes USATF selects the three leaders led off course to Team USA.
Loras alum Kassie Parker shared a few miles with Rodenfels and finished 4th, running 1:10:42, marking another 70-minute half performance. We’re looking forward to her eventual(?) marathon debut!
Central College alum Caroline McMartin finished 31st. On the men’s side, Marywood alum Michael McCann finished 23rd.
This weekend was also Tokyo Marathon weekend, and Ripon alum Sam Forstner finished the men’s marathon in 2:17:18, narrowly missing his 2:16:58 PB from Chicago last year. He is less than a minute from the OTQ standard of 2:16:00. Forstner never qualified for NCAA D3 nationals while an athlete at Ripon.
UChicago alum Abby Shoemaker won the Napa Valley Marathon in 2:35:50 to secure an Olympic Trials qualifying mark for 2028.