Graduate student
Nikki Boon made history Friday afternoon as she became the first-ever national champion in the indoor pentathlon in Emory University history as the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships got underway at the Golisano Fieldhouse in Rochester, New York.
Boon set a Division III national record as well as a championship meet record as she became the first woman ever at the Division III level to reach 4,000 points in the indoor pentathlon. Boon also became the second-ever Emory student-athlete to win an indoor national championship, joining
Annika Urban who won the mile crown in 2023.
Boon had a stellar afternoon across her five events as she finished inside the top three in all of them and was the top finisher in both the 60m Hurdles and shot put. Her afternoon began by setting an Emory record in the 60m Hurdles with a time of 8.76 and then was third in the high jump at 1.63m. She returned to the top spot with a mark of 12.97m in the shot put before adding a second-place finish in the long jump (5.83m) and was third in the 800m Run (2:21.26).
Her overall score of 4,061 shattered her previous Emory record of 3,763 and placed her in rarefied air as the first athlete on the women's side to reach that high of a score. North Park's Thea Ring was the next closest competitor on Friday as she won silver with a score of 3,754.
The Eagles added All-American finishes in two additional events on day one with junior
Henry Brandstadter taking home his second straight national indoor runner-up performance in the long jump with his mark of 7.51m while the men's distance medley relay team consisting of
Marcus Cheema,
Ryan McGonigle,
Spencer Watry and
Scott Masterson reached the podium with an eighth place finish with a time of 9:57.26.
Elsewhere on the track, senior
Madison Tiaffay qualified for the finals of the women's mile as she was sixth out of 20 runners with a prelims time of 4:54.25 and the women's 4x400m relay team of
Audrey Johnson,
Jada Kenner,
Dashiel Tao Harris and
Eva Carchidi placed seventh out of 12 teams with a time of 3:51.63 to qualify for tomorrow's finals.
The Eagles were represented in five other events on Friday with senior
Liesl Scherrer finishing 12th in the 5000m Run field at 17:13.87, Kenner taking 14th in the prelims of the 60m at 7.67, graduate student
Dawit Dean coming in 12th in the 800m Run prelims at 1:53.12, and
Jackson Price (18th, 22.23) and Carchidi (13th, 25.00) competing in the preliminary heats of the 200m Dash.
The 2025 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships conclude on Saturday with Tiaffay in the finals of mile at 4:15pm followed by the finals of 4x400m relay at 6:40 PM.
