Julia Kelly wins the triple jump at Pat Heenan Invite
Mark Black

Women's Track and Field

Women’s Track & Field Wins Seven at Pat Heenan Invite

Contact: Taiah Gallisath, Associate Director of Athletics Communication, 630-637-5302

Results

Jan. 17, 2026 - The North Central College women's track and field team continued its great start to the season with seven event wins at the Pat Heenan Invitational on Saturday, as the Cardinals hosted a dozen schools at the Al B. Carius Track. 

Claiming wins in the field events were Pola Kubrak in the high jump and Julia Kelly in the triple jump. Kubrak marked her win with a season best clearance of 1.55-meters (5'1") jump, while Isabella Valentin notched a two-bar personal-best of 1.50m (4'11") to finish third in the high jump field. Kelly leapt an 11.06m (36'3.50") mark on her first jump of the day, one that held strong through the competition to take the victory. Kelly's jump currently ranks 25th in Division III this season. Teammate Leona Agyemang was second with a season best jump of 10.94m (35'10.75"). 

Lily Anderson led the 5,000-meter run wire-to-wire to claim her third race win of the season. She posted a time of 19:16.18 for the win with teammate Yarecci Salmeron just behind in second at 19:17.90. Camdyn Lawson clocked a personal best of 20:00.31 to round out the top-three finishers in the all-Cardinal event. 

Freshman Dylan Moeller has continued her impressive start to the season with a win in the 3,000m run, putting eight seconds between herself and the runner-up finisher, Moeller turned in a 10:43.39 effort in her 3k debut. Teammate Marissa Magana finished third in 11:09.68 while Brianna Ruiz capped off the top-five finishers in 11:16.23.

A homestretch sprint in the 800m saw Ciré Smith battle for the photo-finish win as she turned in a season best time of 2:24.52, narrowly beating out Danielle Van Grinsven of Concordia-Wisconsin by less than three tenths of a second. 

The 400m came down to a fight to the finish between Cali Minkie and Kate Schmidthuber, with Minkie clocking in at 59.92 seconds to win the event as Schmidthuber was just behind in 1:00.44. Zoe Ulaszek posted a fourth-place finish in 1:05.40. 

North Central's 4-by-400m relay quartet of Schmidthuber, Smith, Minkie, and Zara Uvakova secured a huge margin of victory over the rest of the field clocking in 14 seconds ahead of Saint Francis with a time of 4:07.83.

In the 60-meter hurdles, North Central saw three Cardinals advance to the finals with Charlotte Rossi posting a personal best time of 9.70 in the preliminary round to sit fourth. Valentin (9.75) and Kelly (9.82) had the fifth and sixth fastest times out of prelims. Valentin ultimately finished third (9.48) with Rossi in fourth (9.89) and Kelly in seventh (10.01). 

Uvakova ran a season best of 8.22 seconds in the 60m preliminary to lock in a spot in the finals and later returned with another impressive finish, lowering her personal best to 8.11 seconds to finish sixth overall. Uvakova also posted a season best of 27.30 in the 200m where she finished seventh overall.

A single centimeter separated North Central's top finishers in the long jump as Minkie leaped a 5.17m (16'11.50") mark for second place followed by Abranet Layne's 5.16m (16'11.25") jump to finish third.

In the pole vault, Gwen Berenyi's best clearance of the day was a 3.52m (11'6.50") jump to finish second in the field. Jillian Beneke turned in a season best of 3.22m (10'6.75") on her third and final attempt to finish fifth overall. 

Yakyra Wilder posted a second-place finish in the weight throw with her furthest throw of the day being a 13.52m (44'4.25") toss and later came back to earn a third-place finish in the shot put with an 11.40m (37'4.75") throw. 

North Central will head to Chicago, Ill. for the Aurora Grand Prix next Saturday, Jan. 24. Aurora University will serve as the meet host at the Gately Indoor Track & Field with competition set for an 11 a.m. start.
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Players Mentioned

Lily Anderson

Lily Anderson

Distance
Sophomore
Gwen Berenyi

Gwen Berenyi

Pole Vault
Junior
Pola Kubrak

Pola Kubrak

High Jump
Senior
Camdyn Lawson

Camdyn Lawson

Distance
Sophomore
Marissa Magana

Marissa Magana

Distance
Sophomore
Cali Minkie

Cali Minkie

Sprints/Jumps
Senior
Leona Agyemang

Leona Agyemang

Sprints/Jumps
Freshman
Jillian Beneke

Jillian Beneke

Pole Vault
Freshman
Abranet Layne

Abranet Layne

Junior
Charlotte Rossi

Charlotte Rossi

Hurdles
Freshman
Brianna Ruiz

Brianna Ruiz

Freshman
Zoe Ulaszek

Zoe Ulaszek

Sprints
Freshman

Players Mentioned

Lily Anderson

Lily Anderson

Sophomore
Distance
Gwen Berenyi

Gwen Berenyi

Junior
Pole Vault
Pola Kubrak

Pola Kubrak

Senior
High Jump
Camdyn Lawson

Camdyn Lawson

Sophomore
Distance
Marissa Magana

Marissa Magana

Sophomore
Distance
Cali Minkie

Cali Minkie

Senior
Sprints/Jumps
Leona Agyemang

Leona Agyemang

Freshman
Sprints/Jumps
Jillian Beneke

Jillian Beneke

Freshman
Pole Vault
Abranet Layne

Abranet Layne

Junior
Charlotte Rossi

Charlotte Rossi

Freshman
Hurdles
Brianna Ruiz

Brianna Ruiz

Freshman
Zoe Ulaszek

Zoe Ulaszek

Freshman
Sprints