Jayhawks Open Season Strong at Thane Baker Invitational

Friday, January 16

Manhattan, KS

University of Kansas

Thane Baker Invitational

LAWRENCE, KS - 03.01.2025 - Madeleine Fey during Big 12 Tournament in Lubbock, TX. Photo by Sydney Allan/Kansas Athletics

Jayhawks Open Season Strong at Thane Baker Invitational

1/16/2026 9:40:00 PM | Track & Field

Results

MANHATTAN, Kan. - The Kansas Track & Field team traveled to Manhattan, Kan. for its first full meet for the season at the Thane Baker Invitational on Friday. The Jayhawks had a strong start to the season, winning five events and achieving 12 podium finishes.

Kansas head coach Stanley Redwine was pleased with how his team performed and thought it was a great opportunity for the rest of the season. "It was great to get out there and compete against other schools and really see what we could do against them. I thought we did a lot of things well and also saw some areas where we could really focus on improving. I was pleased to see how they competed against other teams, but we definitely will need to keep working to get better and keep improving."

Kansas kicked off the day with the men's weight throw, where Weston Van Camp was the first Jayhawk to compete, placing ninth with a best distance of 16.24 meters (53-3.5 ft.).

Two Jayhawk runners, Kaleigh Frazier and Katie Wink, then qualified in the women's 60 meter hurdles preliminaries. Frazier ended up placing seventh while Wink took sixth in her first ever collegiate race.

Kat Meacham secured the first podium finish of the day for Kansas in the women's weight throw. Meacham's best throw came on her sixth, and final, where she achieved a 16.80 meters (55-1.5 ft.) mark in her first official indoor contest as a redshirt freshman. Addie Cline also placed fifth.

Sophomore Aaron Merritt and true freshman Devan Mathis finished 11th and 12th in the 60 meter hurdles preliminaries, Merritt also placed tenth in the 60 meter dash while Ayden Christiansen finished 11th and freshman Oliver Duffy finished 15th. Lillian Harris placed 11th in the 60 meter dash preliminaries.

Kansas pole vaulters were out in full force, putting on impressive performances throughout the meet. Ashton Barkdull once again tied the best national mark, something he did last time out, this time with a best clearance of 5.71 meters (18-8.75 ft.). His clearance was a personal best indoor jump and tied the tenth best ever by a Jayhawk, it also moved him up to the second highest performer behind Zach Bradford, passing olympian Hussain Al Hazim (5.70 meters). Barkdull's clearance set the meet and facility records.

In addition to Barkdull's impressive vault, Anthony Meacham also put on his season best performance with his 5.51 meters (18-1 ft.) clearance, which is good for tenth best in the country, to place second. Payton Kasper and Conor Dunback also competed, finishing sixth and eighth, respectively.

On the women's side Madison Snody was the third best collegiate jumper in the pole vault with a clearance of 4.06 meters (13-3.75 ft.), setting her season best. Mason Meinershagen brought home the gold with a season best clearance of 4.41 meters (14-5.5 ft.). Meinershagen's clearance tied the second best national mark and set a meet record. Kade Joslin also competed, finishing 12th.

Kori Randle's season kicked off with a third collegiate place long jump finish with a clearance of 6.06 meters (19-10.75 ft.) while Tayton Klein finished fifth on the men's side at 7.26 meters (23-10 ft.). Duffy, Kasper and Dunback all also competed, placing 11th, 14th, and 16th.

Kansas had four athletes compete in the men's 400 meter dash, with Jack Markstrom leading the way as the second collegiate finisher. Tristan Williams was fourth and Mathis placed sixth. Gergo Takacs achieved eighth in his first collegiate race.

The Jayhawks long distance athletes ran out to a hot start with Sam Trumble winning the 3,000 meter open run and Hobbs Campbell placing fourth in the mile open. Andrew Schumacher also finished fifth in the 3,000 meters open.

While the field events were ongoing, Kansas kept things moving on the track. Abree Winfrey and Pearl Awanya ran in the 600 yard run, finishing 10th and 12th respectively.

Harris, Frazier, and Wink ran their second events of the day in the 200 meter dash, placing 12th, 16th and 19th before Christiansen finished eighth in the men's 200 meter dash.

Back on the field, Dimitrios Antonatos finished sixth in the shot put with a best of 16.69 meters (54-9.5 ft.). Kierson Wicks achieved the fourth podium finish for Kansas when he cleared 2.14 meters (7-0.25 ft.) in the men's high jump to place second, while Sateene Tagbo placed seventh on the women's side.

The Jayhawks represented well in the mile invitationals. Aaliyah Moore finished fifth in the women's invite during her first event of the year, running a 4:53.06, which broke the Guyana national record. On the men's side, Quenton Walion, Ryo Higuchi, and Tanner Talley swept the podium while Reagan Kibet and Sawyer Schmidt also finished fifth and sixth.

Kansas wrapped up the field events strong with Maddie Fey winning the women's shot put. Her best mark was 14.63 meters (48 ft.), while Cline finished fourth and Tagbo placed 12th.

In total, the Jayhawks won five events and had 12 podium finishers in their first full indoor meet of the season.

Redwine was excited for his athletes that performed well, but stressed the potential of the team to improve even more. "We had some really good things happen, namely for our pole vaulters and some of our mile runners, so that was great to see. And to see Aaliyah Moore break her National Record it was just pure joy and we were excited for her accomplishing that… But, we will need to get back to practice and continue to improve each day and train hard in order to get even better throughout the season, and that's what we are going to do"

UP NEXT:
Kansas will have a week off before they travel to Manhattan, Kan. for the DeLoss Dodds Invitational on Friday, January 30th and Saturday, January 31st. Live Results can be found on FlashResults and more information, including a tentative schedule, can be found here. Fans can stay current with the team and events by following the official Kansas Track & Field and Cross Country X or Instagram account @kansastfxc.