The 2025 NCAA outdoor track and field season will come to a close Wednesday to Saturday, fittingly ending with championships out in Eugene, Ore., a place known for its nickname –– Track Town USA.
11 Cavaliers will compete. Senior Alex Sherman will take on the 400 meter hurdles, junior Keyandre Davis and graduate student Annika Kelly the hammer throw, senior Margot Appleton and junior Gary Martin the 1500 meters and senior Jenny Schilling the 10k. Additionally, graduate student Will Daley, senior Justin Wachtel and Appleton will run in the 5k, junior Celia Rifaterra and senior Carly Tarentino will compete in the high jump and graduate student Estel Valeanu in discus.
Like with the NCAA East Regionals, the first two days primarily are used to qualify into the finals for the final days of competition, but longer distance events –– 5k and up –– as well as field events will not have a qualifying round and will immediately go into the finals.
Martin will almost certainly advance to the finals in the 1500, but his qualifying round will give a sense of how he feels going in. Martin is pitted against Villanova senior Liam Murphy and Georgetown senior Abel Teffra. Murphy has the best time in the NCAA for this event –– 3:33.02 –– and Teffra bested Martin to win the event at East Regionals. Teffra’s personal best is 0.13 slower than Martin’s but, at Regionals, Teffra only had to run 3:38.65 to beat him.
Martin’s primary goal for the first round is to make it into the top five, but where he places within them will be a decent temperature check for finals and whether or not he can outkick some of his competitors.
Appleton will also be headed into a challenging situation, especially with managing two events. She may not have had the fastest time at East Regionals in the 1500 compared to some of her competitors, but since there were two separate heats then and she won the heat she was placed in, Appleton should not be counted out as a contender for winning the event.
Still, the women’s 1500 meters will be highly competitive with six other women only a few tenths above or below Appleton’s personal best of 4:05.68. Appleton no longer has the top ranking in the NCAA for this event — Providence senior Shannon Flockhart took that title with her 4:04.97 time at East Regionals. Appleton should at least place within the top 10 for the 5k but could also stick the top five, particularly after her second-place finish at Regionals.
In the women’s 10k, Schilling will have a lot of competition as well. She is solidly ranked in the middle of the pack and was able to beat a few runners at East Regionals with faster personal bests but is not likely to break into the top five.
Wachtel and Daley are located in the lower half of the 5k, according to their season best times, and even though Daley’s third place finish at East Regionals was strong, the level of competition at NCAA West Regionals was so stiff that none of the East Regional qualifiers’ times would have gotten them a spot at NCAAs had they been at West Regionals.
The top five times were all below 13:30, led by Portland senior Matt Strangio’s 13:25.98 5k, while the fastest East Regional time was 13:36.54 from Wake Forest sophomore Rocky Hansen. In the field, Kelly, Davis and Valeanu will have a difficult fight ahead of them.
High jump could go a couple ways for Rifaterra, though, since high jump at East Regionals resulted in seven athletes with a highest jump of 1.82 meters and at West Regionals eight women jumped 1.84. If Rifaterra is consistent and strong in her jumps, then she has a decent chance of making the top five, but if not there could be some variability in where she places.
Meanwhile, Tarentino is ranked towards the end of competition according to NCAA standings for high jump. For the 400 hurdles, Sherman is not certain to qualify for finals and is set within a challenging semifinal heat.
This weekend will almost certainly be an uphill battle for the Cavaliers, but not necessarily one without any victories. The 1500 meter races on both the men’s and women’s side should be exciting, and high jump will also be an event to look out for.
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