The No. 2 WashU women’s track & field team scored 44 points on Day Two to win the 2026 NCAA Indoor national championship March 14 at the Birmingham CrossPlex. It is the second indoor national championship for head coach Jeff Stiles and the Bears, the first since 2017. As a department, the victory marks WashU’s 29th national title.
WashU finished the championships with 54 points, outdistancing runner-up Williams College.
WashU entered the day with 10 points after claiming the win in the Distance Medley Relay (DMR) on March 13. The team of sophomore Lauren Raley, senior Kylie Spytek, sophomore Kalena Riemer and sophomore Lucinda Laughlin not only claimed the DMR national championship, but did so in dominating fashion.
They finished with a time of 11:29.59, marking several records: a new WashU record, a national championship meet record and a new Division III record. Their time was over 7 seconds ahead of the national runner-up team from Johns Hopkins.
On March 14, senior Jasmine Wright added three team points with her sixth-place finish in the 60-meter with a time of 7.61.
Junior Olivia Theisen added five more points for the Bears in the high jump with a fourth-place finish. She cleared 1.70-meter.
Senior Jenae Bothe finished third in the shot put to claim six team points with her second throw of 13.92-meter.
In the mile, senior Jillian Heth finished in fifth place with her time of 4:48.83 to add four team points.
The Bears had two athletes reach the final of the 800-meter. In her first national championship meet, freshman Kate Delia claimed the national title with a time of 2:07.69, the second-best time in program history. The win earned WashU 10 team points. Additionally, junior Cate Christopher added two more points from the event with her seventh-place time of 2:11.60.
In the final individual event of the championships, sophomore Lucinda Laughlin finished the 3000-meter in fifth place, adding four team points, with her time of 9:35.00.
Leading by five points going into the 4 x 400 relay, the Bears got more than they needed as the team of Spytek, sophomore Quinn Bird, junior Caroline Echols and sophomore Hailey Weird claimed the national title with not only a new WashU record time of 3:44.54 but also set a new meet and Division III record. The win added 10 team points as the Bears finished with 54 points.
