First-year Kate Delia runs in the 800-meter prelims on March 13. Delia went on to win the event with a time of 2:07.69. (Lewis Rand | Senior Sports Editor)

After three straight years of runners-up finishes, the WashU women’s track and field team sat in first place going into the last event at the 2026 Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships. Only one team — Williams College — sat within reach of blocking the Bears from clinching the indoor title.

With one lap left in the 4×400 meter relay, sophomore Hailey Weir mounted an attack, surging past the anchor from Colby College to cross the line in 3:44.54. The finish not only set a new Division III record, but clinched a second-ever NCAA indoor championship for WashU’s women’s team. 

The Bears, after three straight years knocking on the door of an indoor title, had finally taken home a first-place finish. The victory comes amidst a spell of recent success for WashU, one of Division III’s best track and field programs. The Bears previously won the outdoor championship in 2024 and swept both the indoor and outdoor crowns in 2017, making this the women’s squad’s fourth ever national title. 

The WashU men’s team also competed at the nationals meet in Birmingham, finishing in eighth place, their best finish at indoor nationals since tying for first in 2022. The Bears scored 17.5 out of their 19.5 points in the pole vault, where junior Peter Lichtenberger, graduate student Tommaso Maiocco, senior George Bourdier, and senior Hayden Kunkel finished third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively.

The members of the women’s 4x400m team — consisting of senior Kylie Spytek, sophomore Quinn Bird, junior Caroline Echols, and Weir — were not the only Bears setting a D-III record over the weekend. Three years after finishing first the last time the national meet was held in Birmingham, the WashU distance medley relay (DMR) team — now consisting of sophomore Lauren Raley, Spytek, sophomore Kalena Riemer, and sophomore Lucinda Laughin — made history with a D-III record of 11:29.59. Led by assistant coach Gorden Reiter, WashU has become a national powerhouse in middle-distance races, and this weekend was no exception.

“The [middle-distance] legacy is huge. I followed it in high school, and it was a big part of my coming to WashU. I wanted to train under Coach Reiter who built up this 400/800 program,” Riemer said in an interview with D3 Glory Days after the race. “So getting to be a part of it and being part of this group specifically with so many amazing friends has been a dream come true.”

Alongside the 4×400 and distance medley relay teams, first-year Kate Delia also took home a national title in the 800-meter run in her first ever national meet. After cruising into Saturday’s finals with a fourth-place finish in the preliminary runs, Delia ran a personal best time of 2:07.69 to take the national title. Junior Cate Christopher also competed in Saturday’s finals, earning All-American honors with a seventh-place finish.

“I definitely was intimidated yesterday at the prelims, but today, me and my teammate were just like, ‘run with no fear,’ and so there was less pressure today,” Delia said in an interview with D3 Glory Days after the race. 

In addition to their middle-distance excellence, the Bears also had a pair of long-distance All-American finishes. Senior Jillian Heth finished fifth in the women’s mile with a personal record of 4:48.83, while Laughlin, one day after anchoring the DMR, took home fifth place in the 3,000-meter with a time of 9:35.00.

Senior Jasmine Wright also earned All-American honors in the 60-meter dash, placing sixth with a time of 7.61 seconds.

WashU also found success in the field events. Senior Jenae Bothe placed third in the shot put with a 13.92 meter throw and junior Olivia Theisen tied her personal best jump of 1.70 meters to claim fourth in the high jump.

The Bears, who entered the meet ranked second in the country, finished with 54 points, 10 more than second-place Williams and 16 more than the pre-meet favorites, the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. WashU will look to carry the momentum into the outdoor season, starting with the Central Methodist Open on March 21 and building up to the outdoor national championships in May.

Editor’s Note: This article was most recently updated at 3:41 p.m. on March 15 to add a photo. The article had previously been updated to add minor grammatical edits and clarify that Tommaso Maiocco is a graduate student and Caroline Echols is a junior.