ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships wrapped up on Friday after three days of competition. The Ave Maria Track and Field team had a good showing in the Tar Heel State with Caitlyn O'Brien being named an All-American in the Heptathlon and the other three Gyrenes all finishing in the top 15 of their respective events.
O'Brien finished sixth in the Heptathlon out of 16 athletes, qualifying her as an All-American. The senior placed first in the opening event of the competition, the 100m Hurdles, with a time of 13.97. She had one other top three placement, finishing second in the 200m on the second day of competition. O'Brien also recorded a personal best in the 800m with a time of 2:43.94. It was the only personal best of the three day competition for the Gyrenes.
In total, O'Brien finished with 4821 points, her second highest mark of the season. She finished 173 points ahead of the ninth place finisher, which was the cutoff for All-American status. With that recognition, Ave Maria University finishes the 2025-26 athletic season with nine All-Americans, which is second-most in school history (The 2023-24 season had 13 All-Americans).
O'Brien competed in two other events in the National Championships, finishing 10
th in the Long Jump and 25
th in the 100m Hurdles.
Maria Talafuse competed in the 5000m Racewalk, finishing 13
th with a time of 30:54.09. She was one of four Sun Conference athletes to qualify for the championship and placed second among them.
Molly From placed 13
th in the high jump with a mark of 1.62 meters, five centimeters off her personal best.
On the men's side, Donavan Mattson placed 13
th in the 1500 meters, with a time of 3:54.35. In a very competitive field, Mattson was just six hundredths of a second off from qualifying for the final and was the first runner left out from the prelims.
Four athletes competing in the National Championships is the most the Gyrenes have had in their short four years as a program. With the national competition now in the books, Ave Maria looks to keep the momentum going into the 2026-27 season.
