2026 season is a wrap for UK in NCAA Championships

The 2026 season has come to an end as the Kentucky Wildcats completed the final day of competition Saturday night at the NCAA Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.

Kicking off the final day in track town, Julia Gunnell completed her run in the women’s heptathlon, starting with the long jump and javelin events, posting marks of 5.65m and 32.68m, respectively. In the final of seven events, Gunnell placed eighth in the 800m with a personal best time of 2:14.06.

In the final heptathlon standings, Gunnell finished 18th, improving her career-best mark to 5,646 total points, the second highest mark in Kentucky history.

Emmi Scales, after qualifying with the second-fastest time on Thursday, concluded a historic season, originally finishing second in the 100m hurdles final, crossing the finish line at 12.69 to win a silver medal. Scales ran stride for stride and hurdle for hurdle with eventual champion Aaliyah McCormick of Oregon, but hit the last hurdle, falling toward the finish line.

The results board flashed that she finished second in a time .05 off her personal best, a testament to how fast she had run until that late stumble, but she was later disqualified for going outside her lane, due to the fall toward the finish line.

Janet Jepkemboi Amimo, entering the final with the nation’s third-fastest time this season, earned her first career NCAA First Team All-America honor following an eighth-place finish in the 800m final with a time of 1:59.82.

Vanice Kerubo Nyagisera, entering with the nation’s fifth-fastest time, finished seventh in the 400m hurdles final with a time of 55.45 to cap off a remarkable freshman campaign.

In the lone individual field event of the day, freshman and two-time SEC Champion Kemarah Howard, the NCAA’s second-best high jumper in 2026, concluded her historic season with a final mark of 1.79m/5-10.5 in the women’s high jump final.

In the final event of the championships and the 2026 season, the Wildcats’ 4x400m relay team, featuring A’Laji Bradley, Hannah Douglas, JahQueen McClellan and Vanice Kerubo Nyagisera, placed ninth with a time of 3:29.60.

Courtesy: UK Athletics