Emmah Jemutai emerged from Saturday with two Big 12 titles, providing the highlight of the conference’s outdoor track and field championship in Tucson, Arizona, for the Kansas team.
The Jayhawks finished eighth of 10 teams in both the men’s and women’s competitions, with Jemutai providing two of KU’s four individual titles along with one from men’s pole vaulter Anthony Meacham and one from decathlete John Swabik.
Jemutai had won her heat in the women’s 800-meter run on Friday with a time of two minutes, 3.28 seconds to advance to Saturday’s final; she had also advanced out of preliminary competition in the 1,500 meters on Thursday. The junior from Kenya then proceeded to dazzle in both events when the finals came, setting a facility record for Roy P. Drachman Stadium with her time of four minutes, 9.66 seconds to win the 1,500 — her second straight Big 12 title in the event — and then speeding to first place in the 800 at 2:05.90 for good measure.
Swabik, a fifth-year senior who spent his first four seasons at Colorado, set a KU record with 7,819 points on his way to a Big 12 title. The native of Sherman, New York, continued a strong year for KU in the multi events after Tayton Klein won the Big 12 indoor title in the heptathlon; Swabik is KU’s fourth-ever decathlete to claim a Big 12 title.
Swabik’s best performance was in the long jump, which he won by leaping 7.54 meters; he also cleared 4.83 meters in the pole vault and was second to Oklahoma State’s Steven Schmidt, and finished third in the 1,500 meters and fourth in the discus and high jump. In the end, he beat out Kansas State freshman Dorian Charles by 71 points and Schmidt by 90 in the overall standings. Fellow Jayhawk Conor Dunback, a sophomore, scored a personal-best 7,507 to finish sixth overall.
KU also experienced its usual high-level success in the men’s pole vault on Friday, where Meacham, who recently reset a school record by clearing 5.81 meters, in this case only needed to get to 5.63 for the league title — the third Big 12 championship of his career and the fifth first-place finish of his senior year. Two teammates placed highly as well. Bryce Barkdull, a freshman, finished as the runner-up at 5.53, and sophomore Payton Kasper was seventh at 5.23.
Senior Sofia Sluchaninova was the runner-up in the women’s discus on Saturday evening with her 54.64-meter throw.
In the women’s pole vault on Friday, sophomore Madison Snody placed third behind a pair of Baylor Bears at 4.37 meters, and junior Mason Meinershagen was fifth at 4.17.
Sophomore Kierson Wicks earned a bronze medal of his own with his mark of 2.16 meters in the men’s high jump on Saturday afternoon.
The KU women’s 4×400-meter relay team of Deshana Skeete, Sidney Smith, Maureen Chepkirui and Ethel Amissah, in the final event of the Big 12 Championship, posted a strong fourth-place finish at 3:31.48.
Individually, Skeete advanced from prelims in the women’s 400-meter dash by winning her heat at 52.14 seconds. She finished sixth in the final at 52.18.
Quenton Walion and Tanner Talley each qualified from prelims in the men’s 1,500 meters; Talley reached fifth place in Saturday’s final at 3:59.89, while Walion came in 12th.
Stephen Maroro, a freshman distance runner from Kenya taking part in his first Big 12 Outdoor Championship, scored four points for KU with his fifth-place showing in the 10,000-meter run on Thursday night at 29:39.72.
Michael Joseph finished first in his heat in the men’s 400-meter dash prelims at 45.75 seconds and moved on to Saturday as well, where he came in sixth at 45.89.
The Jayhawks’ first overall scorers on Thursday to open the competition were senior Barbora Stejfova and sophomore Kathryn Meacham, who came in seventh and eighth in the women’s hammer throw at 58.14 and 57.83 meters, respectively.
Sophomore Kori Randle reached 13.10 meters for eighth place in the women’s triple jump on Saturday.
Smith had been the final qualifier in Thursday’s prelims for the women’s 400-meter hurdles with her time of 58.33 seconds, which was at the time her best of the season. She exceeded that time by finishing in 58.15 in Saturday’s final and came in eighth.
KU’s women’s 4×100-meter relay team of Kaleigh Frazier, Sky Hagan, Lillian Harris and Skeete finished eighth of nine teams that completed the event on Saturday with a season-best time of 45.60 seconds.
Next up for KU’s qualifying athletes will be the NCAA West Regional in Fayetteville, Arkansas, beginning on May 27.
Kansas’ John Swabik celebrates his Big 12 title in the decathlon on Friday, May 15, 2026, in Tucson, Ariz.
Kansas Athletics
Kansas Athletics