Bloomington, Ill. – The Wheaton Thunder women's track & field team competed in the 2026 CCIW Indoor Track & Field Championships this weekend at the Shirk Center on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University. The Thunder women finished fifth in the nine-team field.

Elmhurst won the CCIW Women's Indoor Track & Field Championship with 155.33 points, North Central scored 111.67 points in second place, Illinois Wesleyan finished third with 94.33 points, Augustana scored 78.33 points in fourth place, Wheaton's 66 points earned the Thunder women fifth place, Carthage tallied 64 points in sixth place, Millikin finished seventh with 37.33 points, Carroll scored 32 points in eighth place and North Park tallied 24 points in ninth place.  

SATURDAY RECAP
Junior Grace Crowder won the CCIW indoor women's high jump championship for the second-consecutive year. Crowder's top effort on Saturday was a leap of 1.66-meters (5' 5-1/4").

Sally Elsen (PICTURED LEFT) qualified for the finals of the women's 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.23-seconds. in Saturday's finals she third in the event with an effort of 9.14-seconds. Heidi Krekelberg qualified for the finals of the women's 60-meter dash on Friday with a time of 7.78-seconds and in Saturday's final she crossed the finish line in 7.84-seconds to place sixth. 

Freshman Clodagh O'Bryant followed Friday's conference championship in the 5,000-meters with a sixth-place effort in the women's 3,000-meters with a time of 10:47.15. Laura Prothero placed eighth in the one-mile run with a time of 5:28.43.    

Allison Roozeboom placed fifth in the women's shot put on Saturday with an effort of 12.14-meters (39' 10").

FRIDAY RECAP
The Wheaton women's program secured two CCIW Championships on Friday, with conference titles in the women's indoor pentathlon and the women's 5,000-meter run.

Wheaton's Sally Elsen won the indoor pentathlon with 3,048 points to become Wheaton's first CCIW Champion in the event since Abi Gum won the multi-event competition in 2022. Elsen's title marks the fifth-time that a Wheaton student-athlete has won the CCIW pentathlon championship. Elsen's 488 points in the shot put (9.37 meters) was the top effort in that portion of the competition, as was her 598 points in the long jump (5.14-meters).

Freshman Clodagh O'Bryant (PICTURED RIGHT) won the women's 5,000-meters with a time of 18:26.17 that was more than seven seconds faster than the second-place finish in the event. O'Bryant becomes the eighth Wheaton runner to win the CCIW indoor championship in the event and the first since Susannah Bennett won her second-consecutive conference championship in 2023.  Two of O'Bryant's teammates finished in the top-eight of the event. Senior Lily Lebo was fourth with a time of 18:47.37, and fellow senior Elizabeth LaBrin was sixth in 8:47.48.