The women’s track and field team celebrates after winning the national championship. (Ryan Coleman | d3photography.com)

In 2017, the Washington University women’s track and field team made program history, winning their first-ever national outdoor championship. Ever since, the team has been knocking on the door of another trophy. Back-to-back runners-up finishes in 2018 and 2019. A canceled season in 2020. Third place marks in 2022 and 2023. 

In 2024, it was once again time for the Bears to break through.

Entering the meet with high expectations as the nation’s top-ranked team, the squad delivered. From May 23-25, the team tallied 71 points, beating the runners-up University of Wisconsin – La Crosse by a remarkable 23.5 points to earn their second ever national championship. 

“In their freshman year, the team scored one point at nationals. So it’s been a slow climb and coming up, third outdoors last year and runner up indoors this year and to come as close as we did indoors… I mean, they were ecstatic,” said head coach Jeff Stiles. “There’s a lot of joy and gratefulness.”

The national title is WashU’s 25th across all sports, and its first in the last two years. In addition, it is the track and field program’s fourth ever championship — following a 2017 double of indoor and outdoor titles by the women’s team and a 2022 indoor championship won by the men. 

The Bears were led by championship performances from senior Emma Kelley, junior Yasmin Ruff, and the 4×400 meter relay team, with each event championship earning the team a crucial 10 points in the standings. Five other WashU athletes placed in the top three in their events. 

Kelley was crowned national champion in both the 400-meter and 800-meter events with times of 53.76 seconds, the ninth fastest 400m mark in Division III history, and 2:06.02. Kelley, who trains with WashU’s elite 400/800 group, became only the third athlete in Division III history to win both events, which are separated by only 40 short minutes. 

“[We wanted to] find a way to maximize her points because you don’t get an athlete as dominant like that very often, and she, being a team player, was very open to it. Obviously, after it happens, it looks like a no-brainer…, but it’s really, really, hard.” Stiles said. “She made it look easy, but it’s not easy. She’s just that good, that tough, and that special.”

But Kelley, who will run at the Division I level with the University of Wisconsin next year, wasn’t done there. In the 4×400 meter relay, the last event of the meet, the team of sophomore Kylie Spytek, graduate student Danielle Schultz, and first-year Catherine Christopher, set her up well, trailing just three teams going into the anchor leg. Kelley, showing no signs of tired legs, quickly caught up to the leaders, and pulled away to earn a first-place finish with a time of 3:44.69.

“It was just a culmination, almost like a storybook for the team. It’s one thing to win the meet, but it’s another thing to win the 4×400 while winning the meet in dramatic fashion. That just is something you can’t draw up,” Stiles said.

Ruff, the Bears’ other individual champion, vaulted a personal best of 4.06 meters in the pole vault. The Illinois native had placed first at the 2024 Outdoor University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships with a vault of 3.79 meters and second at this year’s indoor nationals with a vault of 3.87 meters, but took her vaulting to the next level to earn her first ever national championship. 

“It’s been a steady progression throughout her career and it was fun to see because indoors she really vaulted with a lot of confidence and competed well,” Stiles said. “The week leading up to nationals, she set a lifetime best in practice and knew that she was ready, and she vaulted and carried herself in a way where she was competing to win.”

Schultz, who trains alongside Kelley and senior Ally Sarussi, placed second in the 800 meter with a personal best time of 2:08.25. Schultz’s result marks her first finals appearance and highest finish in the 800 meter event at the national meet. 

In her first 1500 meter race on the national stage, Sarussi earned a third place finish with a time of 4:28.74. Sarussi will be running at the Division I University of Illinois Chicago next year.

The women’s team’s other third place finish came from sophomore Jasmine Wright, who ran the 100 meter race in 11.99 seconds. Wright also competed alongside first-year Maya Davis, sophomore Kylie Spytek, and junior Lauren Gay in the 4×100 meter relay, which placed fourth with a time of 46.63 seconds. The team entered the meet with the top qualifying time, but despite having to make a last-minute swap, finished third to start the final day of the meet strong.

“We had to change the lineup without any practice because of injury and Kylie Spytek, who hasn’t run it all year, without any practice went out and did an amazing job,” Stiles said. “I think that started off day three and you know, that event could have gone bad,… so I thought that was a really notable performance that got the momentum going.”

In addition to Ruff, two other field athletes earned points for the Bears women. Senior Ebun Opata, who will be returning to compete for a fifth year with the Bears, placed fifth in her signature event the triple jump, recording a distance of 12.38 meters. Sophomore Jenae Bothe finished seventh in the shot put, setting a personal best mark of 14.38 meters.

The WashU men’s team had fewer athletes qualify for the national meet, and finished tied for 35th place. They earned just six points, which came from a third-place finish in the pole vault from first-year Peter Lichtenberger. Lichtenberger excelled in his first crack at outdoor nationals with a pole vault of 5.04 meters, while sophomore Hayden Kunkel placed tenth in the event with a vault of 4.84 meters.

Sophomore Loucas Xenakis placed tenth in the decathlon with a personal best of 6,645 points. The event comprises a 100 meter, 400 meter, and 1,500 meter run, 110 meter hurdles, long jump, triple jump, high jump, pole-vault, discus, shot put, and javelin. Xenakis’ best performances came in the pole-vault and javelin where he placed second with a jump of 4.50 meters and a throw of 54.60 meters. 

The women’s team’s performance marks the end of a record-breaking year for the women’s track and field program and the culmination of a journey back to the top of Division III track and field. The team came within two points of winning the indoor championship in March before dominating the outdoor field in Myrtle Beach this spring. While Kelley, Schultz, Sarussi, senior distance runner Alexandra Blake and others will be leaving St. Louis as program legends, many of the team’s top performers — including Opata, Ruff, Spytek, Gay, and Christopher — will return next year and continue to build the national powerhouse that WashU women’s track and field has become.