Pictured: senior Madelynn Straus (left) and sophomore Aaden Ackley (right)

Men's Track and Field 5/8/2026 9:00:00 AM Clayton Messerle, Assistant Athletic Director

CCC Championships Preview – Warrior Track & Field Programs Primed for Competitive 2026 Conference Championship Field

LA GRANDE, Ore. – The Corban University Men's and Women's Track & Field programs will kick off the 2026 Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) Championships later this afternoon at Community Stadium on the campus of Eastern Oregon University, where 36 unique student-athletes will be participating in 33 different events via 50 CCC qualifying marks that were either met or designated during the past spring regular season that the Warriors wrapped up last week at the OSU High Performance and Linfield Open meets.

"Our teams are excited to be at the conference championships," explained Warriors' head coach Todd Bos. "We have been talking about how we need to be 'locked in' over the next couple of days and make sure our efforts are the absolute best we have. After that, we will leave the results to God and be content. We are grateful to Him to be able to represent Corban at this meet."

To view the two-day meet schedule as announced by the CCC office, click HERE.

To view the meet program that contains the qualifiers competing in each of the CCC championship events, click HERE.

Relays

Bos and his staff have submitted four different relay teams to the CCC office for competition across the weekend schedule, with a men's and women's team set to participate in both the 4x100m and 4x400m relay races. In the short distance relay, a handful of underclassmen on both the men's and women's side will step up in an attempt to earn podium placements. On the women's side, junior Kirsten Kuenzi will lead three freshmen in Julia Duncan, Ava Barnett, and Ella Grubbs with sophomore Julianna Bell listed as an alternate. In the men's race, junior Jackson Cook represents the lone upperclassmen alongside sophomores Abimael Salinas and Aaden Ackley, while freshman Trent Bentz is listed as the anticipated anchor. Freshmen Lemuel Foksha and Ethan Medyanik are registered as alternates.

The 4x400m relay that will conclude the track events for the weekend on Saturday features Kuenzi, Barnett, Duncan, and Grubbs again on the women's side, while sophomore Josie Rothman and redshirt sophomore Shannel Killorn join the relay team fold. The men's seven-man squad will once again feature Cook, Ackley, and Medyanik, while senior DJ Armstead, junior Braydon Lee, junior Benjamin Krebs, and sophomore Julius Pokorny provide depth for day-of relay assignments.

Sprints

A Warrior is scheduled to run in the final heat of both the men's and women's 100m sprints, highlighted by Armstead who is looking to earn back-to-back All-Conference finishes as he enters with the sixth-fastest qualifying time of 10.66 coming out of lane seven. In the women's race, Kuenzi is tied for fifth in the final heat with a school record 12.25 mark that she will hope to improve upon to earn her first career All-Conference award.

Armstead and Barnett will each participate in the second heat of the men's and women's 200m races, with Kuenzi matching Barnett's qualifying time of 25.96 that will see her kick off the event in the first overall heat with the fastest entry time. Additionally, Armstead enters the men's 400m event as the only Corban representative, needing a personal best improvement if he's to jump from his second heat leading time of 49.66 to jump into a top-eight podium placement.

Hurdles

Another first-time All-Conference honoree for the Warriors in 2025, Ackley is knocking on the door for another top three finish this season with the fourth fastest entry time of 15.04 in the men's 110m hurdles, as he stunned the event participants last year with a personal best performance. The only other Warrior participating in a hurdle event it Grubbs, who will take her 1:09.63 personal best in the women's 400m hurdles into the second heat of Saturday's afternoon finals.

Distance

The Warriors' most populated track grouping will feature the most individual participants in the 2026 CCC Championships as well, with junior Jack Gladfelter slated to repeat as an All-Conference selection with the fastest qualification mark among all men's 10,000m runners this upcoming weekend. His national A-standard of 29:43.18 is the event-leading mark by over a minute.

Joining Gladfelter in national standards while representing one of the top runners in their event is Lee, who holds the second-fastest men's 1,500m qualifying time at 3:48.81, behind only Trinity Western University's Yemane Mulugeta. Lee will also enter a competitive men's 800m field in the final heat, an event he earned All-American honors in during indoor season his freshman year.

On the women's side of the track, redshirt junior Abigail Oosterhout will attempt to mirror Gladfelter's success by embracing her 2025 cross country All-Conference finish to earn the same once again in the 10,000m race, where she represents one of three Warriors in the event alongside freshman Adaline McDowell and sophomore Emalie Lindberg. The Killorn sisters of Shaelee and Shannel, whose all-time best women's 800m marks are within a second of each other, will attempt to set new top ten marks in the Corban record book as they compete in the first and second conference championship heats this Saturday.

Jumps

The two-time CCC champion and event record holder in the women's high jump, redshirt senior Kayla Morgan, is set to defend her title for a third-straight season on Saturday morning, entering with the event-leading 1.73m mark that qualified her for a third-straight outdoor season national championship appearance later this month. Her teammate, freshman Kayla Krueger, will have an opportunity to lock up a top-eight scoring position as she enters with a 1.52m mark that ties her for seventh-highest in the CCC to date. On the men's side, Medyanik has turned heads in his true freshman campaign and will enter the event ranked sixth in the 18-man event.

In the horizontal jumps, sophomore Oliver Reis enters the weekend with an opportunity to claim both the men's triple jump and long jump conference crowns, as he leads the triple jump field as the lone 15.00m qualifier (national A-standard) while ranking second in the long jump event. This past winter, Reis earned All-American accolades via an eighth-place finish in the men's indoor long jump event championship. Both Kuenzi and Barnett will lead the women's horizontal jumpers, as they are within .04m of each other's personal best marks in fourth and sixth to begin the long jump on Friday, respectively.

Throws

A seven-Warrior throws crew will participate in seven different throwing events, with women's discus representing the only event that will not feature a Corban student-athlete. The Navy and Gold member with the best odds to earn All-Conference recognition is redshirt senior Anthony Salisbury, whose career-best 59.70m mark in the CCC's Multi-Event Championships last month not only entered him with the third overall seed in the men's javelin, but also qualified him for the 2026 NAIA National Championships for the first time in his career.

Three different Warriors will participate in multiple throwing events, with senior Madelynn Straus set to compete in the final CCC Championships of her collegiate career in both the women's javelin and hammer throw. On the men's side, juniors Aden Dardis and Caleb Jannsen will each hurl the rock in the men's hammer throw, while Dardis will sling the men's discus and Jannsen joining Salisbury in the men's javelin.

The 2026 CCC Championships will have online live results available via AthleticTiming by clicking HERE, with the meet beginning on Friday at 1pm with women's hammer throw, men's shot put, women's pole vault, and the non-counting men's/women's race walk event on the track. Saturday's events are scheduled to beginning at 10:30am with the men's discus, men's triple jump, and women's high jump.