Rachel Loth

North Dakota Collects Six Medals in Day One of Conference Meet

2/27/2026 11:25:00 PM | By: Sydney Smith, FightingHawks.com

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – North Dakota track and field collected six medaling finishes—including an event sweep—in the first day of competition at the Summit League Indoor Track and Field Championships held on home turf inside the Fritz D. Pollard Jr. Athletic Center.

Success was first found for the Fighting Hawks in the opening events of the day: the women's pentathlon. Marta Marksa took runner-up overall with her 3757 points as Kajsa Cabanas Andersson was sixth with her PR of 3546 points—which is now eighth all-time at UND—and Eucabeth Kivikangas was eighth with 3475 points. Cabanas Andersson's day was highlighted by her three-straight personal bests in the shot put portion of the event while Marksa won the 60-meter hurdles.

Julia Matthews soon added another medal to the UND count with her runner-up finish in the women's weight throw of 64-9 1/4 (19.74m) to claim silver. She led a quad of Hawks into the events finals, followed by Cailey Moton (60-10 1/2, 18.55m) in fourth, Kaylynn Red Tomahawk (58-0 1/2, 17.69m) in sixth and Katelyn Vesledahl (52-1 3/4, 15.89m) in eighth.

In the men's half of the event, Carter Byron narrowly missed the podium with his mark of 62-2 1/4, taking fourth place overall and moving into fourth all-time at UND.

The first conference crown for North Dakota came in the women's 3000-meter, when none other than Jadyn Keeler led the Fighting Hawks to a cinematic-like showing in the event. She ran a 9:19.62—more than 10 seconds ahead of the next finisher—for the gold medal to kick off the sweep. Olivia Correale (9:29.96, PR, third all-time) claimed runner-up, Frida Giersdorff (9:31.44, PR, fourth all-time) was third and Katherine Rogers (9:35.18, PR, seventh all-time) took fourth, helping secure a UND clean sweep.

Louis-Lys Fanucchi represented North Dakota in the men's 3000-meter run and claimed the first medal for the men's team. His clocking of 8:19.20 was good enough for second place and the silver-medal finish on the podium.

Shane Zierdan leaped his way into the event finals of the men's long jump, eventually finishing sixth overall with his season-best mark of 23-7 1/4 (7.19m).

Friday also featured qualifying competition with conference competitors aiming for a spot in Saturday's event finals. Gabriella Ruggeri was the first Fighting Hawk to earn a finals bid with her personal-best clocking of 2:10.84 in the 800-meter run.

Marksa will also make her finals appearance in the women's 60-meter hurdles after running an 8.75 while Ava Phrakonkham qualified for the 200-meter dash finals with her season-best time of 24.69.

After five scored events, the UND women hold first place out of eight teams with 58 points while the men sit fourth out of seven teams with 16 points.

Competition at the Summit League Indoor Track and Field Championships will conclude on Saturday following another full day of action that is set to begin at 9:30 a.m.

Post-Meet Notes