TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Indiana State track and field begins its 2025-26 indoor campaign Friday and Saturday, as the Sycamores play host to the
John Gartland Invitational inside the Indoor Track and Field Facility.
Friday's proceedings begin at 4:50 p.m., while Saturday's first event starts at 11 a.m.
The Dynasty
Indiana State's sweep of the 2025 MVC Outdoor Championships gave the Sycamores 50 conference titles between the cross country, indoor track and outdoor track programs. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, Indiana State has won 12 MVC Championships between indoor and outdoor track and field.
Indiana State has swept the last two MVC Outdoor Championships, while the Sycamore women have also won the last two MVC Indoor Championships.
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Indiana State returned nearly all of its 2025 individual indoor conference champions, with throwers
Noah Bolt and
Wyatt Puff being the only departures among the Sycamores' first-place finishers at Gately Park last season.
The Sycamores' returning indoor conference champions from last season are
Casey Hood Jr. (60m and 200m),
Rachel Mehringer (60m hurdles),
Janiya Bowman (long jump),
Jahnel Bowman (triple jump) and
Niesha Anderson (weight throw).
Hood Jr. was a Second Team All-American during the 2025 indoor season, while Mehringer was a Second Team All-American during the 2025 outdoor season.
Top-Tier Trees
Indiana State's 2025 indoor season was a story of depth, as the Sycamores finished the season with the top-ranked athlete in eight different events.
Casey Hood Jr. (60m and 200m),
Rachel Mehringer (60m hurdles),
Will Staggs (pole vault),
Brooklyn Pfaff (pole vault),
Jahnel Bowman (triple jump),
Noah Bolt (weight throw) and
Niesha Anderson (weight throw) all recorded the top mark in the MVC in their respective events last year.
Half of those top-ranked marks came from athletes who are back in the fold for the Blue and White for the 2025-26 campaign (Hood Jr., Mehringer, Bowman and Anderson).
Strength In Numbers
Indiana State has taken pride in its overall depth, as the Sycamores earned 22 all-conference honors at the 2025 MVC Indoor Championships and followed that with 29 all-conference accolades as part of their 2025 MVC Outdoor Championship sweep.
The vast majority of those all-conference honors came from returning athletes, as the Sycamores return 14 indoor all-conference and 24 outdoor all-conference honorees. Every event discipline is represented by multiple returning all-conference accolades for the 2025-26 campaign.
The Namesake
Now in his 37th season on the staff at Indiana State,
John Gartland is one of the most decorated coaches in Missouri Valley Conference history. He served as the women's head cross country coach from 1988-2014 and the head women's track & field coach from 1988-2010 before handing over the reins to his former pupil and current director of the cross country and track and field programs,
Angela Martin. Although he officially retired in 2015, Gartland has remained on staff as an assistant, focusing on the high jumpers.
Gartland is one of only 11 coaches in the Missouri Valley Conference to be named to the league's track and field All-Centennial Team. The veteran women's head coach joins John McNichols on the list to form the only coaching tandem in the league on the all-time list. His teams won 12 conference titles and have finished in the top-10 at the NCAA Championships three times, including a fifth-place finish at the 1993 NCAA Indoor Championship and a sixth-place finish at the 1994 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
As a head coach, Gartland coached 11 NCAA Champions, six NCAA runners-up, 50 All-Americans, 88 NCAA qualifiers, 200 MVC individual champions and 212 MVC Scholar-Athletes. He has been named the Conference Coach of the Year 10 times and the NCAA District V Coach of the Year four times (indoor track & field and outdoor track & field in both 1993 and 1994). Gartland was inducted into the Indiana State Athletics Hall of Fame in January 2025.
Up Next
Indiana State's next meet comes after the calendar turns to 2026, as the Sycamores face longtime rival Illinois State for the annual Coughlan-Malloy Cup dual meet January 17 inside the Indoor Track and Field Facility.
Follow the Sycamores
For the latest information on the Sycamore Track & Field and Cross Country teams, make sure to check out
GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including
Facebook and
Twitter. Fans can also receive updates on Sycamore Athletics by downloading the March On App from the both the
App Store and the
Google Play Store.
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