Jayhawks Earn All-American Honors on Final Day of NCAA Indoor Championships

Friday, March 13

Fayetteville, Ark.

University of Kansas

NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships

Jayhawks Earn All-American Honors on Final Day of NCAA Indoor Championships

3/14/2026 8:00:00 PM | Track & Field

Kansas Results Photo Gallery

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark - Kansas track and field concluded competition at the NCAA Indoor Championships on Saturday with Mason Meinershagen tying for eighth place in the women's pole vault and Tayton Klein and John Swabik finishing 12th and 13th in the heptathlon.

"One thing we talked about before the meet was to just keep doing what they did to get here, and they've exceeded that and done extremely well," Kansas head coach Stanley Redwine said. "Coach Hays and the rest of our staff have done an excellent job preparing them to be here and everyone did an excellent job. We're super excited."

On Friday, John Swabik and Tayton Klein kicked off the men's heptathlon with the 60 meter dash. Klein finished sixth with a time of 6.92 while Swabik achieved 15th with a 7.15 second time. They followed up their performances with seventh and 15th place finishes in the long jump, jumping 7.43 and 6.93 meters, respectively. Following the two events, Klein sat in fifth place and Swabik was in 15th.

Swabik then set a personal best in the shot put of 13.69 meters before the duo both cleared 1.94 meters in the heptathlon high jump to earn 749 points and wrap up the first day. Entering Saturday, Klein sat in eighth place with 3,242 points while Swabik was in 15th with 3,085.

The men kicked off Saturday with the 60 meter hurdles where they finished 11th and 15th. The two continued to battle with both clearing 4.67 meters in the pole vault, a new personal best for Swabik and near personal best for Klein.

Swabik and Klein then finished with the 1,000 meter dash in 2:49.27 and 2:45.58 to close out the heptathlon. Klein finished in 12th with 5,784 points and Swabik achieved 13th with 5,447 points.

"We were hoping for a little bit more in the events, but as the final results show, it was the strongest heptathlon field in the history of the NCAA where it took over 5,900 points to score," Kansas multi events coach Paul Thornton said following the meet. "I was very proud of the way Tayton and John were able to rebound from negative events and turn the next ones into positive ones…continuing to fight through the grind is the nature of the heptathlon, you have to have a short memory and move on to the next task and I thought they both did a good job with that."

Both athletes earned second team All-America honors, marking the first for Swabik and the third for Klein. Klein also placed 14th in the decathlon at the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championship and 16th at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Championship.

Mason Meinershagen wrapped up the indoor season for the Jayhawks when she tied for eighth in the women's pole vault. Meinershagen cleared a season best of 4.51 meters on her way to the podium, earning first team All-America honors.

Meinershagen missed her first attempt at the opening bar, 4.26 meters before soaring over it on her second attempt. She then easily cleared the 4.41 meter mark on her first try.

Following a run through on her first attempt, and near completion on her second, Meinershagen snuck over the 4.51 meter height to advance and attempt the 4.56 meters bar. Four competitors bowed out at 4.51 meters leaving nine remaining, and Meinershagen tied for seventh based on misses entering the round with Texas A&M's Lily Carlson.

She failed all three attempts at 5.56 meters, and despite the ninth place competitor clearing the mark, Carlson also failed, leading to a tie for eighth place. With the finish, Meinershagen earned first team All-America honors for the second time in her career to go along with her two second team honors.

Over the weekend, Kansas' performance was highlighted by Ashton Barkdull's national championship in the pole vault, while the Jayhawks had three first team All-Americans and two second team All-Americans. The Kansas men's team finished 19th overall with 13 points and the women finished 58th.

UP NEXT:
The Jayhawks will open their outdoor season on Saturday, March 21, with the Jayhawk Spring Fling at Rock Chalk Park. More information about the meet can be found at kuahtletics.com or by clicking here. A tentative schedule of events is available here with live results available on Black Squirrel Timing. Fans can stay current with the team and events by following the official Kansas Track & Field and Cross Country X or Instagram account @kansastfxc.