photo by: Anaya Boseman/Kansas Athletics

Kansas senior Dimitrios Pavlidis throws the discus at the Kansas Relays on Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Lawrence.

The 11 Kansas athletes who will compete in the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Oregon’s famous Hayward Field beginning on Wednesday run the gamut in terms of experience.

On one side are veterans like decathletes Alexander Jung and Tayton Klein, discus thrower Dimitrios Pavlidis and distance runner Aaliyah Moore, who have been to nationals before, understand the grandeur and scale of the meet and in several cases are trying to go out with a bang to conclude their college careers.

Then there are freshmen like Bryce Barkdull (men’s pole vault), Jacob Cookinham (men’s shot put) and Ebba Cronholm (women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase) who will be experiencing outdoor nationals, and all it entails, for the first time, looking to set the tone for bright careers ahead.

The action for the Jayhawks begins at noon on Wednesday with the first events for decathletes Jung and Klein; they will wrap up the decathlon with the 1,500 meters at 6:43 p.m. on Thursday.

In individual events, KU begins at 4:35 p.m. on Wednesday with the men’s pole vault final, in which Barkdull and his older brother Ashton will both compete. Shortly afterward at 6:10 p.m. is the shot put with Cookinham and dual-sport athlete Bryce Foster, who has returned to nationals after qualifying earlier in his career when he was at Texas A&M.

Erica Ellis, the lone qualifier among KU’s high-ranked group, will compete in the women’s pole vault final at 4:35 p.m. on Thursday. Meanwhile, at 4:38, Cronholm will look to advance out of the steeplechase semifinal and move on to Saturday night; Moore’s 800-meter semifinal follows soon afterward at 5:58 p.m.

Pavlidis will throw the discus at 2:15 p.m. Friday, and his fellow thrower Sofia Sluchaninova will do the same in the women’s final at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.

For more on what it will take for KU athletes to succeed at nationals, here’s a glimpse into the minds of some of the most experienced as well as the newest Jayhawks.

Pavlidis relishing last chance to represent KU

Before he came to Kansas, the Greek national Pavlidis saw Hayward Field on television and dreamed of competing there.

He got the chance to do so last June for outdoor nationals. He said the atmosphere in Eugene makes you want to be “the best version of yourself.”

“It’s one of the most beautiful stadiums in the world,” he said, “and the most beautiful stadium I’ve ever been (to), I think, in my life.”

Pavlidis has competed at world and European championships, but there’s something different about representing your university, he said. That came into play during both his trips to nationals, both in Austin, Texas, in 2023, when he came in 23rd, and then in Eugene, when he took third place.

“I was very nervous the first time, and I was trying to throw very far, I was so tight, I wasn’t let myself do what I was supposed to do,” Pavlidis told the Journal-World. “Second time was a little better. I was still very nervous, though. I was not executing what I was supposed to.”

He believes this time will be different.

“Discus throw is an event that you need to be free to throw far and do very well,” he said. “So I feel, because I already have experienced these emotions and all these feelings, I’m going to be ready to become very relaxed and do what I have to do and let my body do what it’s supposed to do.”

So far, it has done just that over the course of this outdoor season.

Pavlidis at one point won at three consecutive events, including the Big 12 Championship at Rock Chalk Park, and has been a lock for the top three at practically any meet he visits.

“An athlete, as he grows up, he learns how his body reacts to certain conditions, and the combination of the maturity and the knowledge that you have, like the feeling of how you can throw the discus far, makes you more consistent,” he said. “… The more that you do it, the more you understand it better, and that’s how I think the consistency comes. You just know how your body works the best, and you learn how to react in any conditions so you can throw far.”

One of his top accomplishments during this period was his personal-best throw of 65.11 meters in Ramona, Oklahoma, on April 13.

“To be honest, going to Oklahoma, I wasn’t thinking that I’m going to throw that, because the practices were not very good,” he said. “But going there, the previous practices were OK, and I had my coach, coach Doug (Reynolds) there. I feel good every time he’s around me. And he said, ‘Trust yourself, believe it.'”

Pavlidis reset his own Greek national record — a title about which he is quite nonchalant.

“It’s a big deal, but I’m trying to be humble and not to think of myself being somebody so much better than others,” he said. “I’m just a normal guy. It really doesn’t mean anything to me. It’s just a title. I’m proud that I achieved that, but it doesn’t separate me from the others.”

It’s all built up to the national meet, his final opportunity to represent Kansas: “I’m going to give it everything for Kansas and for myself, of course. It’s for sure an extra motivation just to leave from KU doing something great.”

He also shared a word of advice for his younger teammates.

“I would say to try and enjoy it,” Pavlidis said. “Because at the end of the day, you’ve got to enjoy what you’re doing. And of course, the feeling of nervousness, you can be anxious but try to convert that to a positive outcome.”

‘It feels like this is just beginning’ for Cronholm

The Swedish freshman Cronholm, one of those younger Jayhawks, has a distinctive explanation for why she likes — and does well at — the steeplechase: She has spent much of her athletic life playing soccer and finds it rather dull to just run when there isn’t anything else going on.

“Obviously I’m not like an original runner, so I get pretty bored of just running laps,” she said. “So I like to do something. When we had a ball, I love to run with a ball. I think steeple is just — some things happen during the race, which is fun.”

Boredom aside, that didn’t stop her from winning in the 1,500 meters the very first time she competed in that event at the collegiate level, back at the Kansas Relays in April. That’s one of her favorite races.

But the one she’s taken part in most frequently this spring, and the one she’ll be in at the outdoor championships, is the steeplechase.

“It has been a big goal since I started coming this year,” she said, “and it feels like this is just beginning, and it feels great to experience nationals already in my first year.”

So far her time has been hovering around 10 minutes flat, which she attributes to the fact that she’s been taking part in mostly tactical races — starting with a very slow pace before speeding up dramatically at the end — including at the Big 12 Championship, where she placed third, and at NCAA prelims in College Station, Texas. She said she loves that style, even if it can be “a little bit scary because you never know how fast other girls are and stuff.”

But she wants a better time, and she has demonstrated in the past she can get one. Her sub-10 time of 9:54.81 back in August was a Swedish under-20 record, and she thinks she’s in better shape than she was then.

After an injury suffered shortly after indoor conference championships, though, she has competed thrice in the 3,000-meter steeplechase for KU and recorded times of 10:02.54, 10:00.55 and 10:01.90.

“I really want to run faster than that because my workouts indicate that I can run so much faster,” she said. “So I hope, hopefully it’s going to be a very good race. Maybe I can qualify for finals. That’s my goal, of course.”

Cronholm, by the way, was a two-sport athlete, a member of the KU soccer team that won the Big 12 tournament title in November, and played in nine games. She said she’s grateful for the experience. She’ll now be focusing on track going forward as she feels it’s where she can be the most successful.

photo by: Kate Benninghoff/Kansas Athletics

Kansas freshman Ebba Cronholm hurdles at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships in Lawrence on Friday, May 16, 2025.