MEQUON, Wis. – The 2025-26 season will be remembered as one of the greatest in Concordia University Wisconsin women's track & field history. From conference championships and school records to NCAA All-America honors and a national champion, the Falcons reached unprecedented heights throughout both the indoor and outdoor campaigns.
Concordia opened the indoor season with a fourth-place finish at the Ripon Winter Open before steadily establishing itself as one of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference's premier programs. Emma Ahrens provided an early highlight with a fourth-place finish in the 5,000-meter run at the Midwest Elite Invitational, setting the stage for a breakout season.
The Falcons' depth was on full display at the NACC Indoor Championships, where Concordia earned a runner-up team finish behind a collection of championship performances.
Melanie Arvis put together one of the most dominant meets in conference history, sweeping the mile, 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter titles while earning NACC Women's Track Athlete of the Meet honors. Concordia also captured the Distance Medley Relay championship, while Danielle Van Grinsven earned runner-up finishes in both the mile and 800 meters.
Sophia Wunderlich impressed in her first conference championship meet, placing second in the 60-meter hurdles and third in the triple jump.
Kate Kotula earned a third-place finish in the pole vault,
Emma Eilertson cleared second in the high jump,
Jacey Read sprinted to a conference championship in the 60-meter dash, and the Falcons' 4x400-meter relay team added a third-place finish to help secure the team's second-place finish.
Following another outstanding indoor campaign, Ahrens earned All-Region honors in both the 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter runs.
The momentum carried into the outdoor season as Concordia opened with a first-place team finish at the Early Bird Invite before producing one historic performance after another.
Returning NCAA All-American Ainara Sainz de Rozas quickly reminded the nation why she was among Division III's elite distance runners. In her outdoor debut at the UW-Platteville Invite, she won the 5,000 meters in 16:17.01 against a field featuring Division I competition. The performance shattered her own school record, moved her to the top of the Division III performance list by 16 seconds, and immediately established her as a national title contender.
She continued rewriting the record book at the Drake Relays, where she dominated the 10,000-meter run in 34:02.86. The performance lowered her own school record by nearly a minute while also breaking the NACC record, further cementing her place among the nation's best.
Concordia's success continued at the NACC Outdoor Championships, where the Falcons earned a second-place team finish behind another remarkable collection of performances. Sainz de Rozas swept the distance events, winning conference championships in the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters to earn NACC Women's Track Athlete of the Meet honors. Van Grinsven added third-place finishes in both the 800 and 1,500 meters, while Ahrens claimed runner-up finishes in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. Wunderlich continued her impressive freshman campaign by finishing second in the 100-meter hurdles and third in the triple jump, earning NACC Women's Freshman of the Meet honors. Kotula placed second in the pole vault, Read finished third in the 100-meter dash while also taking second in the high jump,
Olivia Ebel added a third-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles, the 4x100-meter relay earned runner-up honors, and the 4x400-meter relay placed third.
Late in the season, Ahrens strengthened her NCAA résumé by winning the 10,000 meters at the St. Francis Fighting Chance Invite in 35:30.04, climbing to 16th in the national rankings.
The Falcons made more program history when Ahrens and Sainz de Rozas were selected to compete at the 2026 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Ahrens qualified in the 10,000 meters, while Sainz de Rozas earned bids in both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. It marked the first time in program history that Concordia Wisconsin qualified multiple student-athletes for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships in the same season, highlighting the continued rise of the program on the national stage.
The national championships proved to be the perfect ending to an unforgettable season.
In the 10,000-meter final, Ahrens ran a career-best 35:15.59 to finish 12th overall and earn Second Team All-America honors. Sainz de Rozas followed with one of the greatest performances in program history, finishing as the national runner-up in a career-best 33:38.71. The performance once again broke both the school and NACC records, ranked seventh all-time in NCAA Division III history, and earned First Team All-America honors.
Two days later, Sainz de Rozas completed her historic season by capturing the NCAA Division III national championship in the 5,000 meters with a school-record and conference-record time of 16:08.15.
Her victory marked Concordia Wisconsin's first individual national championship since Amanda Kuca won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 2006 and only the second NCAA track & field national title in program history. She also became just the fourth Falcon student-athlete to win an individual NCAA championship, joining Brock Solveson, who claimed back-to-back javelin national titles in 2009 and 2010, and Greg Sanders, who won the NCAA Division III wrestling championship at 149 pounds in 2013.
Following her remarkable campaign, Sainz de Rozas was named the North Region Women's Track Athlete of the Year and was selected as the recipient of Concordia Wisconsin Athletics' 2025-26 Female Career Achievement Award.
The Falcons also excelled in the classroom as Ahrens, Arvis, Read, Caitlyn Weitzel and Van Grinsven were named CSC Academic All-District.
Fueled by championship performances, school-record efforts, conference accolades and historic success on the national stage, the 2025-26 season stands as one of the finest in Concordia Wisconsin women's track & field history. With a national champion, multiple All-Americans and the program's first multi-athlete NCAA outdoor championship qualifiers, the Falcons continued to elevate the standard for excellence both within the NACC and across Division III.
