The WashU Bears celebrated their national title. Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com

The Washington University in St. Louis women's track & field team scored 44 points on Day Two to win the 2026 NCAA Indoor National Championship on Saturday at the Birmingham CrossPlex. It is the second indoor national championship for head coach Jeff Stiles and the Bears, the first since 2017. (No titles were awarded in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.)

WashU finished the championships with 54 points, outdistancing runner-up Williams and the Ephs' 44 points. Centre finished in third place with 43 points while UW-La Crosse (38 points) and Johns Hopkins (31 points) rounded out the top five.

Kate Swann and Tamar Byl each scored for Williams in the 5000 meters, with Swann capturing second place with a time of 16:50.37, and Byl finishing seventh in 16:52.39. The duo combined to give the Ephs 10 points from the event. For Centre, Serena McNeilly and Chloe Hein pulled off incredible individual performances to earn all 43 of the Colonels' points, putting their team in third place by themselves. McNeilly won the pentathlon on Friday's first day, then won the high jump at 5 feet, 10.5 inches. Hein finished first in the long jump and McNeilly was the national runner-up in the triple jump.

Meanwhile, WashU entered the day with 10 points after claiming the win in the distance medley relay on Friday. The team of sophomore Lauren Raley, senior Kylie Spytek, sophomore Kalena Riemer, and sophomore Lucinda Laughlin not only claimed the distance medley relay title but did so in dominating fashion.

They finished with a time of 11:29.59, marking several records: a new WashU record, a record at the national championship meet, and a Division III record. Their time was more than seven seconds ahead of the runner-up team from Johns Hopkins.

On Saturday, senior Jasmine Wright added three team points with her sixth-place finish in the 60m with a time of 7.61.

Junior Olivia Theisen added five more points for the Bears in the high jump with a fourth-place finish. She cleared 1.70m.

Senior Jenae Bothe finished third in the shot put to claim six team points with her second throw of 13.92m.

In the mile, senior Jillian Heth finished in fifth place with her time of 4:48.83 to add four team points.

The Bears had two athletes reach the final of the 800m. In her first national championship meet, freshman Kate Delia claimed the national title with a time of 2:07.69, the second-best time in program history. The win earned WashU 10 team points. Additionally, junior Cate Christopher added two more points from the event with her seventh-place time of 2:11.60.

In the final individual event of the championships, sophomore Lucinda Laughlin finished the 3000m in fifth place, adding four team points, with her time of 9:35.00.

Leading by five points going into the 4x400m relay, the Bears got more than they needed as the team of Spytek, sophomore Quinn Bird, junior Caroline Echols, and sophomore Hailey Weird claimed the national title with not only a new WashU record time of 3:44.54 but also set a meet and Division III record. The win added 10 team points as the Bears finished with 54 points.