Jayhawks Win Two Events, Finish Fifth and Seventh at Big 12 Indoor Championship

Friday, February 27

Lubbock, Texas

University of Kansas

Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championships

Jayhawks Win Two Events, Finish Fifth and Seventh at Big 12 Indoor Championship

2/28/2026 9:10:00 PM | Track & Field

Full Results Kansas Results Only

LUBBOCK, Texas - Kansas track & field competed in the Big 12 Indoor Championship Friday and Saturday with the men's team finishing tied for fifth with 57 points and the women's team ending tied for seventh with 33 points.

Senior Anthony Meacham won the men's pole vault title and senior Tayton Klein won the men's heptathlon with a school record 5,923 points.

"I thought it was really exciting that we had two champions," Kansas head coach Stanley Redwine said following the meet. "To score in this league is really tough, and to have two guys be champions and two take second place was great for our program. Obviously, you always want to do better as a team, but I was excited for the people that performed. I think the ones that did well, did really well."

Friday started with the multi events as Kansas jumped out to a quick lead in the men's heptathlon with Klein and Oliver Duffy finishing third and fourth in the 60 meter dash. From there, Klein would win the long jump and set a personal best to win the shot put and propel himself into first. By the end of Friday, Klein was in second place with 3,332 points.

Klein kicked off Saturday with a personal best 60 meter hurdles time of 7.96 to hop back into the lead. From there, he set a personal best in the pole vault and closed out the morning with the 1,000 yard run to win his first Big 12 Championship with a new school record 5,923 points.

"Clearly we're really excited about Tayton's performance today and it was incredible to see," Kansas multi event coach Paul Thornton said about the senior captain's performance. "His performance today was a culmination of four years working towards that one common goal. To see him be able to achieve that today on this stage was awesome because he's put in so much work during the course of his career, and to have it pay off is a great tribute to him."

Meacham was the Jayhawks' other Big 12 individual champion, while teammate Ashton Barkdull placed as the runner-up. Meacham, who won the Big 12 outdoor men's pole vault in 2024, picked up his second conference title by clearing a new personal best 5.65 meters. Heading into the penultimate round, Meacham, Barkdull and Texas Tech's Sean Gribble all cleared 5.55 meters within their first two tries. Meacham then soared over the 5.65 meter mark on his first try to take the title.

"I am really excited about how Anthony Meacham finished. As a senior, that's something special for him and we could see that coming for the last three weeks, he just kept getting better and better and better," Kansas vertical jumps coach Tom Hays said following the meet. "I'm also really excited for Ashton because his potential is through the roof…we expect big things for both of those guys and I think both of those guys will continue to compete well."

With the victory, Kansas has now won eight of the last ten Big 12 men's pole vaulting championships, and each of the last five. Ashton Barkdull finished second and Bryce Barkdull also earned the Jayhawks points with his fifth place finish.

The two victories weren't the only highlights of the weekend, however, as Kansas set two other school records and 30 personal bests.

On Friday, Prophet Basden Jr. was the first Jayhawk to qualify for the finals on the track, running a personal best 600 yards time of 1:09.46. Pearl Awanya followed Basden Jr.'s performance with a qualification in the women's 400 meter dash before Ryo Higuchi earned his qualification with a school record 2:20.47 time in the 1,000 meters.

In the women's weight throw, Barbora Stejfova earned the first points of the meet for Kansas with her fourth place finish. Mason Meinershagen and Madison Snody followed Stejfova's performance with third and fifth place finishes in the women's pole vault.

Sophomore Aaron Merritt set a new school record in the men's 60 meter hurdles with his 7.81 second time on Friday before Aaliyah Moore, Emmah Jemutai and Tanner Talley qualified for the finals in the women's 800 meters, women's mile and men's mile.

Reagan Kibet finished fifth in the men's 5,000 meter run and the men's DMR team of Quenton Walion, Devan Mathis, Higuchi, and Hobbs Campbell finished sixth to earn the final points of the day for Kansas.

On Saturday, Maddie Fey and Dimitrios Antonatos earned points in the field events for Kansas. Fey finished sixth in the women's shot put while Antonatos set a personal best mark of 17.92 meters to place seventh in the men's shot put.

On the track, Higuchi was the highest finisher, placing second in the 1,000 meter finals. Jemutai and Talley finished third and fifth in the mile, respectively, and Awanya finished fourth in the 400 meter dash. Basden Jr. took home seventh in the men's 600 yard run and Moore achieved sixth place in the 800 meters.

The Jayhawks wrapped up championship weekend with seventh and eighth place finishes in the women's and men's 4x400 meter relays.

Over the course of the weekend, the Kansas men's team accumulated 57 points to tie for fifth, after finishing sixth at last year's meet. The women's team pulled together 33 points to tie for seventh place after last season's 11th place finish.

UP NEXT:

The official NCAA qualifying lists will be announced on Tuesday. The NCAA Indoor Championship will be held on March 13-14 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. More information, including a full schedule, can be found here, while live results are available here. The meet will be streamed live on ESPN+. Fans can stay current with the team and events by following the official Kansas Track & Field and Cross Country X or Instagram account @kansastfxc.