ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The first day of the 2025 NCAA Div. III Indoor Track and Field National Championship saw the first of hopefully a number of national champions for the No. 3 Washington University in St. Louis women's track and field team as senior Yasmin Ruff claimed the pole vault national title in the first field event of the day.
Ruff, who had won the 2024 Outdoor NCAA Pole Vault title, has now won both an indoor and outdoor national championship. Today, 20 athletes started, and when it got to 3.92m in height, it dwindled down to nine. Just one height later at 3.97m, it was even lower with only six remaining, including Ruff and two others who had cleared it on their first attempt.
All five failed on their first attempt at 4.02m. However, Ruff was the only one to successfully clear it on her second attempt, and after the other five failed to clear on their third and final attempt, Ruff claimed the first national title of the day and earning the Bears 10 team points.
Junior Jasmine Wright advanced to the 60m finals on Saturday with a time of 7.52 in the prelims, finishing second in the third heat.
Junior Jillian Heth narrowly missed out on reaching the 1-Mile final on Saturday with a 12th-place finish in a time of 4:56.81, just .43 off the final spot in 10th.
Missing out on the finals by even less, junior Kylie Spytek finished ninth in the prelims with a time of 56.61 in the 400m, just .21 from qualifying for Saturday.
Junior Izzy Gorton finished 12th in the 800m with a time of 2:12.82, despite finishing third in her prelim heat.
In the 60m hurdles, senior Lauren Gay finished in 14th place with a time of 8.86 in her preliminary heat.
In the 4x400m prelims, the team of sophomore Julia Coric, first-year Quinn Bird, sophomore Cate Christopher, and Spytek finished with the top time of 3:46.39, advancing to the final on Saturday.
In the final women's event of the day, the Distance Medley Relay (DMR), the team of junior Katie Rector, sophomore Caroline Echols, first-year Kalena Riemer, and senior Virginia Pridgen finished in sixth place with a time of 11:49.82, picking up three team points for the Bears.
WashU is in fifth place after day one with 13 points will hope to climb the team standings on Saturday with the finals of 60m, DMR, triple jump, high jump, shot put, and 4x400m.
