Wichita State track and field is set for week three of the outdoor season as the team splits to compete at the 44 Farms Team Invitational, the Grizzly Gold Invite, the John Jacobs Invitational and the Arkansas Spring Invitational.
 
The Wichita State multi-event group will compete at the 44 Farms Team Invitational at Texas A&M on Thursday and Friday inside E.B. Cushing Stadium, while a group of 10,000-meter runners will race at the Grizzly Gold Invite on Friday at Butler Community College and the hammer throwers will compete on Friday at Oklahoma. The remainder of the team will travel to Fayetteville, Ark. for the Arkansas Spring Invitational at John McDonnell Field.
 
Sadie Millard and Kylie Stapleton will compete in the heptathlon, and Rikard Trogen Hedin, Cole Smither and Myles Larsen will compete in their first decathlon of the season at Texas A&M.
 
At the John Jacobs Invitational, Beau Kerschen, Karlynn Hornung and Margo Todd will throw hammer, starting with Kerschen at 10:30 a.m. and followed by the women at 1 p.m.
 
At the Arkansas Spring Invitational, school record holder Chairo Ogbebor will race in the 100-meter dash as well as long jumping and running the 4x100-meter relay. Josh Parrish will run the 110-meter hurdles for the first time this outdoor season, along with long jumping and running the 4x100-meter relay. School record holder Jason Parrish will run his second 400-meter hurdles race of the season.
 
Also at the Arkansas Spring Invitational, Kylie Scott and the No. 10 nationally-ranked pole vault squad will compete in their third competition of the year, and the American Conference indoor high jump runner-up, Jelese Alexander, will high jump for the second time this outdoor season. Jenna Kuepker, a 2025 all-conference javelin thrower, will also throw for the third-straight week as she looks to move up the outdoor rankings.
 
ROAD TO EUGENE
The 2026 NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships will take place June 10-14 in Eugene, Ore. at Hayward Field. This year for the west region, the road to Eugene goes through Fayetteville, Ark., where the top 48 individual athletes and the top 24 relays in the region will compete at the NCAA West Preliminaries (NCAA First Round) May 27-30 for a spot at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The top 12 in each event advance to the championship. Combined event athletes (heptathlon and decathlon) do not attend the First Rounds, but instead, the top 24 athletes overall advance directly to the NCAA Championships in Eugene.
 
SHOCKERS IN THE NCAA WEST TOP 48
MEN
100m – Chairo Ogbebor – 10.17 – No. 7
5,000m – Elkana Kipruto – 13:35.77 – No. 15
110H – Tyler Carroll – 13.91 – No. 25
Long Jump – Darius Graham – 7.38m/24'2.5" – No. 39
Javelin – Blake McCormick – 63.41m/208'0" – No. 35
Javelin – Bronson Krainak – 61.10m/200'5" – No. 46
 
WOMEN
High Jump – Jelese Alexander – 1.75m/5'8.75" – No. 25
Pole Vault – Kylie Scott – 3.98m/13'0.75" – No. 41
 
USTFCCCA EVENT SQUAD RANKINGS (TOP 10)
Women's Pole Vault – No. 10