Morningside Women Open Indoor Season With Record Performances at Wildcat Opener

WAYNE, Neb. — The Morningside University women's track and field team opened its 2025–26 indoor season Friday with a record-breaking performance and several strong early-season results at the Wildcat Indoor Opener inside the Wildcat Dome.

Senior Courtney Sporrer delivered the highlight of the meet, winning the 5,000 meters in 17 minutes, 58.78 seconds to break the program's indoor record of 18:00.82, previously held by Erin Keitges. Juniors Gabby Ryan and Madison Sporrer added strong performances in the event, finishing third in 18:50.58 and fourth in 19:23.73, respectively.

The Mustangs secured another event title in the 800 meters, where junior Jolee Mesz won in 2:22.07, setting a new meet record inside the Wildcat Dome. Sophomore Morgan Sachs placed fifth in 2:25.45.

In the sprints, sophomore Kylin Smith led Morningside with a fourth-place finish in the 400 meters, running 1:00.42. She also competed in the 60-meter hurdles, clocking 9.53 seconds in the preliminaries and narrowly missing a spot in the finals.

Sophomore Alize Rau earned a top-10 finish in the 200 meters, placing eighth in 27.16 seconds.

Morningside posted several strong field-event marks, highlighted by junior Kinsey Alt, who placed third in the long jump with a leap of 5.41 meters.

In the throws, sophomore Maddy Stanek finished ninth in the shot put with a mark of 10.83 meters and eighth in the weight throw with a toss of 13.05 meters. Freshman Kambrie Fulton added throws of 9.78 meters in the shot put and 10.22 meters in the weight throw.