photo by: AP Photo/Doug Murray

Kansas designated player Ella Boyer (75) celebrates hitting a home run with teammates during an NCAA softball game against Florida Atlantic on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026 in Boca Raton, Fla.

The Kansas softball team claimed four straight wins over the course of Friday and Saturday, its first two days in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but lost to the host Razorbacks on Sunday to conclude the Wooo Pig Classic.

KU will now take a 14-6 record into a midweek road date at Wichita State on Wednesday night ahead of its home opener on Friday.

The Jayhawks commenced their weekend tournament on Friday morning against a hot Omaha team that had begun its year 12-1 with seven run-rule victories before coming to Arkansas. The Mavericks got an early run off Kaelee Washington, but KU struck back with a two-RBI double by Anna Soles in the bottom of the first inning.

The teams traded blows once again when Omaha designated player Bailey Sample hit a two-run home run in the third. The Mavericks got out of that inning unscathed even after KU had runners at the corners with one out, but in the fourth, the Jayhawks got used an error and a pair of singles to tie the game at 3-3 and chase Alexis Wiggins for Grace Hornbuckle. Hornbuckle allowed an RBI single to Hailey Cripe and two-RBI single to Ella Boyer before getting out of the inning, but the damage was done.

Omaha did make the game close late. After Washington loaded the bases with no one out in the sixth, Lila Partridge came out of the bullpen. Two runs scored on a double by Alyson Edwards, but Partridge was able to induce a first-pitch groundout before Rylinn Groff lined out to Kadence Stafford for an unassisted double play.

Partridge sent the Mavericks down in order in the seventh as well for a 6-5 win.

The Jayhawks’ remaining three victories had far less drama. In their first of two matchups with Boise State, the Broncos struck first on a third-inning double by Quinn Southerland, but KU got two runs in the fourth and two runs in the fifth on home runs by Stafford and Soles. Meanwhile, Chloe Barber did not allow a hit in four innings of relief as the Jayhawks won 4-1.

KU didn’t need nearly as long to dispatch the Broncos on Saturday, Partridge pitched five innings of one-run ball while the Jayhawks poured in 10 runs to activate the run rule. Boyer homered and Campbell Bagshaw hit a grand slam in the 10-1 victory.

The Jayhawks earned another win by an even wider margin later on Saturday against Charlotte, though they needed six innings to do so. The 49ers led 4-0 early after Washington gave up three straight singles and then a grand slam. They did not accomplish much for the rest of the game against relievers Lizzy Ludwig and Barber. In the meantime, KU piled on 15 runs from a variety of sources. Ava Wallace, the designated player, went 3-for-3 with three RBIs and a walk. Soles doubled and hit a two-run homer, and Bagshaw and Boyer also had two hits apiece.

KU’s momentum came to a halt on Sunday when they met Arkansas, the No. 7 team nationally. The freshman Partridge, who had allowed just two earned runs in 12 2/3 innings in her last five appearances, didn’t make it out of the first inning, in which she allowed five runs, including two home runs. Arkansas’ Dakota Kennedy ended up hitting three home runs on the day. After falling behind 8-0, the Jayhawks strung together three runs in the fourth inning with doubles by Cripe, Stafford and Wallace, but Arkansas ended up needing just five innings to claim an 11-3 victory.

TWO INDOOR CHAMPIONS

A pair of KU seniors earned Big 12 titles at the league’s indoor track and field championships on Friday and Saturday in Lubbock, Texas.

Anthony Meacham won the men’s pole vault, always a strong event for KU, by clearing a personal-best 5.65 meters, and redshirt junior teammate Ashton Barkdull was the runner-up.

“I am really excited about how Anthony Meacham finished,” Kansas vertical jumps coach Tom Hays said in a press release. “As a senior, that’s something special for him and we could see that coming for the last three weeks, he just kept getting better and better and better. I’m also really excited for Ashton because his potential is through the roof… we expect big things for both of those guys and I think both of those guys will continue to compete well.”

The Jayhawks’ other champion was Tayton Klein, the veteran multi athlete who set a school record with 5,923 points in the men’s heptathlon and took the conference crown. He won the long jump and finished second in the high jump, third in the 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles and fourth in the pole vault, with several personal bests along the way.

“Clearly we’re really excited about Tayton’s performance today and it was incredible to see,” multi event coach Paul Thornton said in the release. “His performance today was a culmination of four years working towards that one common goal. To see him be able to achieve that today on this stage was awesome because he’s put in so much work during the course of his career, and to have it pay off is a great tribute to him.”

Other highlights of the event included new school records in the men’s 1,000 meters for Ryo Higuchi and in the 60-meter hurdles for Aaron Merritt. Higuchi was the runner-up in the 1,000-meter final.

The KU men’s team finished fifth in the league. The women’s team came in seventh overall, as Emmah Jemutai was third in the mile, Pearl Awanya was fourth in the 400-meter dash, Barbora Stejfova was fourth in the weight throw and Mason Meinershagen and Madi Snody were third and fifth in the pole vault, respectively.

“I thought it was really exciting that we had two champions,” head coach Stanley Redwine said. “To score in this league is really tough, and to have two guys be champions and two take second place was great for our program. Obviously, you always want to do better as a team, but I was excited for the people that performed. I think the ones that did well, did really well.”

BASEBALL SPLITS

KU baseball split a four-game series against Minnesota at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis between Wednesday and Sunday. The Jayhawks are now 7-4 and will host St. Thomas for four games beginning Thursday at Hoglund Ballpark.

KU weathered a series of momentum swings to claim an 8-7 victory way back on Wednesday in the series opener with the Golden Gophers.

On a day when KU used nine pitchers, starter Mason Cook conceded a pair of solo home runs in the third inning to give Minnesota an early lead. But Dylan Schlotterback, in by far his best game yet as a Jayhawk, had both an RBI single and a three-run homer as KU went up 5-2.

The Gophers tacked on a run, but Augusto Mungarrieta responded with another three-run home run to make it 8-3 in KU’s favor in the seventh.

From then on, things got dicey for the Jayhawks. Manning West gave up two walks and then a homer that made it 8-6. Boede Rahe got through the seventh and eighth innings, but Kannon Carr’s attempt to close out the game did not go well. He allowed a solo shot to Easton Richter with no one out and was promptly replaced by Toby Scheidt, who gave up a double, still with no one out. But Scheidt got two outs before Caleb Deer came in for the third to seal the win.

Minnesota dominated the next two games. Dominic Voegele got dinged for seven runs in 2 2/3 innings in his start on Friday, and Carter Fink conceded four more in one inning. The game was effectively over from that point with KU down 11-0, although Tyson Owens did hit a pinch-hit home run for his first hit as a Jayhawk and pitcher Emerson McKnight made his collegiate debut.

The Gophers took that one 12-5, then won 10-3 on Saturday. Mathis Nayral had his first poor outing of the year and much of KU’s lineup struggled. There were more debuts for pitcher Ty Thomson and left fielder Savion Flowers, and Josh Dykhoff pitched for the first time all year.

KU had to grind out its Sunday victory to earn the split, even if the final score of 8-3 doesn’t necessarily indicate as much.

Freshman starter Madden Seidl allowed a leadoff triple to Jack Spanier that set up a sacrifice fly, and the Jayhawks couldn’t manage much at all early against Minnesota starter Marcus Kruzan. They manufactured a run off a double by Jordan Bach in the fourth, but the Gophers responded quickly with an RBI single by Jameson Martin.

Owens evened the score with a home run in the fifth and the Jayhawks brought two more runners on, but Schlotterback grounded into a double play. KU took the lead in the following inning, though, when Brady Ballinger doubled to score Bach and Max Soliz Jr. and Dariel Osoria were able to bring Ballinger home.

Minnesota cut its deficit to 4-3 when Weber Neels homered off Riane Ritter, and the score stayed at that uneasy margin for several innings, thanks to the trio of Scheidt, Deer and Rahe, before KU broke the game open in the ninth. The Gophers had to use five pitchers to get through the inning, which the Jayhawks began by loading the bases with no one out to set up a sacrifice fly for Schlotterback. Bach singled, Dykhoff drew a bases-loaded walk, Mungarrieta scored on a wild pitch and after two more walks it was 8-3. Rahe finished the game with three quick outs in the bottom of the ninth.

THIS AND THAT

The KU tennis team improved to 5-6 and earned its first Big 12 win by sweeping No. 74 Colorado, 4-0, in Lawrence on Sunday, bouncing back from a loss to No. 23 Texas Tech on Friday. Head coach Todd Chapman called it “the best fight and response I’ve seen in our team all season.” Nahyeong Cho had the decisive victory over Lera Alexin, 7-5, 6-3, at No. 5 singles.

Junior diver Shiyun Lai was the top finisher for KU swimming and diving at its Big 12 championships in Greensboro, North Carolina, as she took first place in the 1-meter dive with a score of 338.70. She was also second in the 3-meter dive at 326.80 and set a school record in platform diving at 260.55 in the B final for that event (teammate Lize Lukas van Leeuwen was fourth in the A final).