YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles men’s and women’s track teams will be out in Connecticut this weekend for the 2026 Big East Outdoor Track & Field Championships! This year’s event is being hosted by Connecticut at the Sherman Sports Complex and will be split between Thursday, May 14, Friday, May 15, and Saturday, May 16. Most of the medaling for the competition will happen on Saturday, as that’s the day with most of the running finals. However, there will be four championships decided on Thursday and another
12 on Friday before we get there.
Thanks to the handy dandy Track & Field Results Reporting System, we have something of an idea as to where Marquette is most likely to come away from the event with medals. A quick sort of the Big East’s outdoor performances this season down to the top 5 in each men’s and women’s event gives us 18 spots with either an individual or a relay team in blue and gold amongst the top performers in the conference this season.
Marquette’s best chance at a Big East individual championship this year will be in the women’s javelin. Riley Ward is currently the leader in the conference for the entire outdoor season with a distance of 47.22 meters, which is also a Marquette school record. Ward’s distance is just short of 3.5 meters past her next closest competition, and that’s why this is MU’s best event with a chance for a title. Not because of Ward being out in front of the pack by itself, but because the #2 distance this year…. is Marquette’s Tessa Hollander at 43.74 meters. That number broke a 17 year old Marquette record until Ward passed her with a 45.22 a week later.
The Golden Eagles have a few third-best performances this season that could have them in competition for individual titles this weekend as well. Freshman Blake Frea had a 46.93 time in the men’s 400 meters at the Marquette Invitational this season, which has him just under eight-tenths of a second off the best time in the Big East this year. Over in the men’s 400 meter hurdles, freshman Andrew Klopcic posted a 53.11 at Georgia Tech in mid-April, which is third best in the Big East but two seconds off the pace of the leader. At the Drake Relays, Marquette’s 4×100 meter men’s relay team came in at 41.81, which is about a second and a half off the pace of UConn’s best performance in the event this season.
We should probably mention Blake Frea’s time in the 200 meters as well. His 21.49 at Georgia Tech is only the fourth best time in the Big East this spring, but he’s less than six-tenths of a second behind Butler’s Joe Pierro with the best time in the league. That’s quite the log jam of a top four, and Villanova’s Parker Turner is only two-hundredths of a second behind Frea in fifth. You could easily see that race going in any direction if all five guys get through prelims to the final on Saturday.
Sadly, the Big East’s landing page for the event says that ESPN+ will only be broadcasting the running events from the meet as things roll along. That means we won’t get much of a chance to actually see Ward and Hollander duel for the gold. It appears that coverage on ESPN+ will start at 11am Central on Thursday, 1pm Central on Friday, and 11am Central on Saturday. I don’t have details as I type this up on Monday as to if there’s going to be any play by play announcing or if it’s going to just be a camera operation only.
Schedule
Thursday, May 14
Men’s Decathlon: 100 meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400 meter dash
Women’s Heptathlon: 100 meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 meter dash
Men’s & Women’s hammer throw
Men’s & Women’s 10,000 meters
Friday, May 15
Men’s Decathlon: 110 meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, 1,500 meters
Women’s Heptathlon: long jump, javelin, 800 meters
Men’s & Women’s Long Jump
Men’s & Women’s Shot Put
Men’s High Jump
Women’s Long Jump
Men’s & Women’s Steeplechase
Men’s & Women’s 5,000 meters
All other running prelims
Saturday, May 16
Men’s & Women’s Discus
Men’s & Women’s Javelin
Men’s & Women’s Triple Jump
Men’s Pole Vault
Women’s High Jump
All other running finals
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