In one final opportunity prior to selections for the 2026 NCAA Outdoor Championships being announced on Friday, the Emory University track & field team competed in eight events over the course of Thursday at the Midwest Twilight Qualifier at Augustana University in Rock Island, Illinois.
The Eagles turned in several season and personal best times at the meet highlighted in the final event of the night where the women's 4x400m relay team consisting of Amaya Grant, Jada Kenner, Hannah Riley and Aaliyah Jalloh ran a season-best mark of 3:45.22 to win the event and move to sixth on the Division III leaderboard. Their time also represented the third-fastest time in Emory women's track & field history.
The women's team added another pair of wins earlier in the day where freshman Megan Taylor paced the field in the long jump with her mark of 5.74m and in the shot put, sophomore Jeanette Hydukovich shined in the discus at 45.04. Taylor moved to 21st in the Division III with her personal-best mark while Hydukovich climbed to 17th in the nation.
Taylor also notched a personal-best on the track where she ran a 1:02.13 to finish third out of 23 runners in the 400m Hurdles. With her time, Taylor now stands 25th in DIII.
Hydukovich added a throw of 12.02m to finish 10th in the shot put and in the discus, freshman Caroline Henry recorded a throw of 41.66m to place sixth. Freshman Kelsey Coley competed in the 100m Hurdles as well, running a 14.15 in the finals to finish second.
For the men's squad, they were headlined in the 400m Hurdles as Sebastian Kou and Ethan Lu both registered season-best times. Kou placed second out of 18 at 52.72 while Lu was third at 53.21. Kou moved inside the top 20 with his time, now ranking No. 18, whereas Lu ranks 31st with his new time.
Senior Henry Brandstadter competed in two events to round out the action for the Eagles as he finished second in the 100m dash at 10.52 in the finals and in the high jump he took 13th at 1.86m.
The selections for the 2026 NCAA Outdoor Championships will be announced via press release on NCAA.com on Friday.
