LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Southeast Missouri Track and Field heads to Little Rock for the OVC Championships starting Thursday and continuing until a champion is crowned Saturday.

The three-day meet will kick off at 9 a.m. with the opening events of the decathlon and the heptathlon. The field events start at 1 p.m. with the hammer throw followed by the pole vault. Running events Thursday begin at 5 p.m. with prelims of the 1500m followed by prelims of the 400m hurdles and the 200m. The lone running event finals Thursday include the 10,000m. 

Friday the pentathlon and heptathlon wrap up starting at 9 a.m. Field events continue at 1:30 p.m. with the high jump, discus throw and long jump. The Track will be filled with prelims starting at 3 p.m. The steeplechase event will be the lone finals on the track starting at 5:15 with the men's race. 

On the final day the field events wrap up with the shot put, javelin and triple jump. The track events will wrap up with finals of each event at 12:30 p.m.

The meet will be livestreamed on ESPN+

OVC History

Both teams are coming off a sweep of the outdoor championships in 2025 lookig to defend both titles in 2026. All-time the women's team has 13 OVC championships including each of the last three team titles. The men have won 11 titles and three since 2022. 

The men and women's teams have swept both titles six times. 

The women's special awards have seen head coach Eric Crumpecker win Coach of the Year four times including the previous three. There have been five women to win Field Athlete of the Year in which Anna Thomason and Brianna Dixon have won that award in back-to-back seasons. Four SEMO women have won the Freshman of the Year award and Thomason in 2025 was the lone Redhawk woman to win Championship MVP. 

Crumpecker has been named OVC Coach of the Year six times for the men. The Redhawk men have also had the last four OVC Field Athletes of the Year and has won that award 12 times overall. They have also had two Track Athletes of the Year. There have also been three Freshman of the Year awards won by the men all-time and nine Championship MVP, which includes the last two years and four out of the last five. 
 
Last Time Out

The Southeast Missouri Track and Field teams wrapped up their regular season with 12 top five finishes at the Sycamore Open, hosted by Indiana State. The lone track runner at the meet was Anna Thomason who finished second in the 100m hurdles with a time of 13.70 in the finals. She ran a 13.55 in the prelims to qualify. In the women's javelin Kennedy Zgaynor led SEMO with a second-place finish with a throw of 136-10 just ahead of teammate Ava Dumke who threw 134-1. In the women's discus competition Andreese Ortiz finished third with a mark of 155-5 one place ahead of Alyssa Repke who set a new personal best mark of 149-1in a fourth-place finish. Repke set her second personal best of the meet with a 177-9 in the hammer. 

Three distance runners competed at the Billy Hayes Invite as well. Cole Reinders finished sixth in the invite heat of the 800m with a time of 1:48.74 ahead of Tyler Anderson who finished 12^th crossing the line in 1:51.25. Evan Fuller also ran in the invite heat of the 800m and finished 10^th in 1:52.69.
 
OVC Rankings

The Redhawks are scattered around the OVC charts halfway through the outdoor season. The SEMO women have eight athletes at the top of the charts. Madalyn Gray leads the conference in the 1500m, and Anna Thomason leads in the 100m hurdles along with the heptathlon. Joining those seniors are Liberty Blackburn in the high jump and Andreese Ortiz tops the chart in the discus and shot put.

On the men's side there are six events that the Redhawks currently top the charts. Cole Reinders leads in the 800m, Matt Pluff tops the high jump chart, Jake Cannon shares the top of the pole vault list with Sullivan Gleason, and Zavier Winton tops the discus and hammer throws.

The women's team has 10 athletes in the top three of events, while the men's team has 11 other athletes in the top three of events

Up Next

If athletes qualify for the NCAA West Regional Championships, the four day meet will start on May 27^th.