SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – Behind an individual conference crown from senior Anna Brown and a pair of record-shattering relay performances, the Kenyon College women's track and field team capped the North Coast Athletic Conference Indoor Championship with one of its strongest showings of the indoor season Saturday at Wittenberg University, finishing sixth in the eight-team field.
Newcomer John Carroll University claimed the team title with 166 points, followed by Ohio Wesleyan University (150) and DePauw University (137).
Kenyon opened the day in the field events, beginning with the high jump where first-year Lia Whal cleared 1.43 meters to place 11th in a field of 12 competitors. In the triple jump, senior Sadie Olson recorded a season-best leap of 9.53 meters, finishing 17th overall.
The shot put proved productive for the Owls, as sophomore Penelope Artemis delivered a strong fourth-place throw of 11.61 meters to secure five team points. First-year Kenna Kinsch added depth in the event, placing 16th with a toss of 8.92 meters.
Transitioning into the track events, the 4x200-meter relay team of Noa Helmbrecht, Addilyn Tober, Georgia Yatrakis and Ari Sobel clocked a season-best 1:44.29 to finish fourth and earn five points. The time shattered the previous Kenyon indoor record of 1:47.21, a mark that had stood for 14 years, and improved upon the quartet's earlier season-best of 1:47.86.
Senior Anna Brown continued her stellar championship performance in the mile, placing third in 4:59.10. The time marked a new indoor career-best, surpassing her previous mark of 4:59.85, which had also been the Kenyon indoor record she set just three weeks prior. Brown later captured Kenyon's lone event victory of the meet in the 800 meters, crossing the line in 2:15.05 to secure 10 team points and another indoor personal best, trimming nearly six-tenths of a second from her previous time.
Sophomore Ari Sobel added a silver-medal finish in the 400-meter dash, racing to a career-best 57.61. The performance earned eight points for the Owls and broke her own Kenyon indoor record of 58.06, set earlier this season on Dec. 6, 2025.
Helmbrecht followed with a seventh-place finish in the 60-meter dash, clocking 8.01 to add two more points to Kenyon's total.
In the 3,000 meters, sophomore Lucie Prior represented the Owls, finishing 23rd in 11:15.40.
The meet concluded with the 4x400-meter relay team of Tober, Sobel, Helmbrecht and Brown placing fifth in 4:02.20, good for four team points. The quartet capped the weekend by breaking another 14-year-old Kenyon indoor record, surpassing the previous mark of 4:03.02.
Kenyon will return to action March 6-7 at Ohio Northern University before heading to Birmingham, Alabama, for the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championship on March 14-15.
