photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas' Emmaculate Jemutai reacts after running the 800 meters at the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship at Rock Chalk Park on Friday, May 16, 2025.

Emmaculate Jemutai set University of Kansas records in the women’s 800 and 1,500-meter races, winning one event and taking third place in the other, as KU concluded the Big 12 Outdoor Championship at Rock Chalk Park late Saturday night.

Jemutai, a sophomore from Eldoret, Kenya, had previously come in first place in preliminary action for the 1,500 on Thursday and won her heat in the 800 on Friday. When it mattered most, she did even better.

After sitting on fourth place for most of the 1,500, Jemutai surged ahead of BYU’s Riley Chamberlain and Carlee Hansen and Utah’s Erin Vringer over the course of the final 400-meter split. Her time of four minutes, 8.60 seconds was not only a school record but a meet record for the Big 12 Championship.

Later, in the 800, BYU senior Meghan Hunter was the one who took the title and the meet record in 1:58.99, but Jemutai’s 2:01.83 was still better than anyone else in KU history.

She wasn’t the only one to make noise on a day that saw the Jayhawks rise through the standings to finish fourth in the conference in men’s track and field and fifth in women’s track and field.

As has often been the case for KU in recent years, its most dominant showing was in men’s pole vault, as Jayhawks occupied five of the top six spots on the podium, all of them setting personal records. No. 10 Ashton Barkdull claimed victory at 5.61 meters, ahead of Texas Tech’s No. 16 Sean Gribble’s 5.51. Ashton’s younger brother Bryce, a freshman, also came in at 5.51. Junior Anthony Meacham and seniors Brady Koolen and Clayton Simms rounded out the top six on the podium.

Greek senior Dimitrios Pavlidis won gold in the discus for the second straight year. His fourth throw traveled 61.31 meters, more than two meters farther than any other competitor’s attempt.

Junior Tanner Talley exceeded his preliminary performance in the men’s 1,500 meters. This time he took bronze at 3:38.82, not far behind Oklahoma State’s Fouad Messaoudi and Iowa State’s Emanuel Galdino. KU sophomore Paul Ngasharr was sixth at 3:40.29.

Sophomore Pearl Awanya, meanwhile, couldn’t quite replicate her second-place result in prelims as she wound up fourth in the women’s 400 meters at 52.36.

In the women’s discus, Jayhawks turned in a pair of strong finishes, with freshman Madeleine Fey fifth at 55.01 (after she had been fifth in the shot put on Friday) and junior No. 7 Sofia Sluchaninova just behind at 54.10.

Sophomore Mason Meinershagen, a runner-up in the women’s pole vault on Friday, added some more points for her school by finishing fifth in the high jump with a personal-best 1.78.

Freshman Kori Randle continued her strong freshman season with a sixth-place result in the triple jump at a personal-best 13.11 meters.

In the men’s 800 meters, senior TJ Robinson was also sixth with his time of 1:47.37.

KU’s Jackson Belding, Mateo Vargas, Aaron Merritt and Dean McCune came in seventh in the 4×100-meter relay with a season-best time of 40.50 seconds.

The women’s 4×400-meter team rounded out the scoring with its eighth-place finish at 3:38.15. That group consisted of Addison Brooks, Sidney Smith, Awanya and Aaliyah Moore.

Next up for KU track and field are NCAA preliminaries in College Station, Texas, beginning May 28.