TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Indiana State returns to the friendly confines of the John McNichols Memorial Track at the Gibson Track and Field Complex Thursday through Saturday for the 2026 Gibson Invitational.
Competition in the heptathlon and decathlon will take place Thursday and Friday, with all other events contested Friday and Saturday. Thursday's events will start at 10 a.m., while Friday's events will start at 9:30 a.m. and Saturday's proceedings kick off at 11 a.m.
Meetday Info
There is a $5 admission fee per day for home track meets, which will be collected at the main gate.
Parking is available in Lot K (Chestnut Street, behind the Imperial Lanes bowling alley). Additional parking can be found in campus lots located within a 10-minute walk of the complex. 1st Street/Riverside Road is closed.
DO NOT park in the Annex or Riverfront Lofts parking lots. Any cars who park in the lots for the apartment complexes by the track and field complex (Annex and Riverfront Lofts) and any non-Indiana State University lots will be towed at the owner's expense.
Last Time Out
Rachel Mehringer tied her own Indiana State and Missouri Valley Conference record in the 100m hurdles Friday at the Crimson Tide Invitational, while Indiana State athletes set seven program top-10 marks inside Sam Bailey Track and Field Stadium.
Mehringer's time of 13.04 matched a mark she previously ran in May 2025.
Trent Jones continued his strong season in the 400m with the fastest time by a Sycamore in nearly 20 years, while
Janiya Bowman clocked the fastest 200m time by an Indiana State athlete in over a decade.
Brittney Burak broke her 5000m personal best by more than 20 seconds, while
Amy Luttrell became the first MVC athlete over the 4-meter mark in the pole vault.
Xavier Wills and
Nick Burns both added career-best times in the 800m to move up the program ranks.
Who's In The Field
Joining the Sycamores in Terre Haute this weekend are Ball State, Benedictine (Ill.), Chicago State, Cleveland State, Cornerstone (Mich.), Dayton, Denison, DePaul, DePauw, Eastern Illinois, Evansville, Governors State, Grand Valley State, Greenville (Ill.), Illinois State, Illinois-Springfield, Indiana, Indiana Tech, Indiana Wesleyan, IU Indy, Judson (Ill.), Maryville (Mo.), Milwaukee, Murray State, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Olivet Nazarene (Ill.), Parkland College, Purdue Fort Wayne, Purdue Northwest, Rose-Hulman, Saint Xavier (Ill.), SIU Edwardsville, Southern Illinois, St. Charles CC, UIC, Valparaiso, Webster, Western Kentucky, Wheaton (Ill.) and William Penn (Iowa).
With more than 40 schools competing, the 2026 Gibson Invitational is one of the largest track and field meets hosted by Indiana State in program history.
Weekly Winners
Indiana State senior sprinter
Trent Jones and junior hurdler
Rachel Mehringer combined to sweep the MVC Track Athlete of the Week honors, the league office announced Wednesday afternoon. Jones was named MVC Men's Track Athlete of the Week, while Mehringer was tabbed MVC Women's Track Athlete of the Week for a second straight week following standout performances from the two Sycamores at the Crimson Tide Invitational.
Jones posted the best performances of his career at the Crimson Tide Invitational, becoming the first Sycamore in nearly 20 years to break the 47-second mark in the 400m while also running a career-best anchor leg in the 4x400m relay. His career-best 400m time of 46.97 ranked in the top five among collegiate times at the meet and also placed him fourth in school history in the event. Jones followed by anchoring Indiana State's season-best 4x400m relay team, running a career-best split of 45.98 as the Trees clocked a collective time of 3:14.00. The Crawfordsville, Indiana, native has run his two best 400m times in back-to-back weeks, after previously clocking a time of 47.02 at the Pacesetter Sports Invitational. Jones' 400m time currently ranks second in the MVC, 10th in the Great Lakes Region and 82nd in NCAA East Region Qualifying, while the Sycamores' 4x400m relay ranks fourth in the MVC and seventh in the Great Lakes Region.
Mehringer's assault on the program and conference record books carried on at the Crimson Tide Invitational, as the 2025 Second Team All-American matched her own Indiana State and MVC record time of 13.04 Friday. Mehringer cruised to another first-place finish, crossing the line more than two-tenths of a second ahead of the field which featured three SEC athletes and three more in NCAA East Region Qualifying spots. The Schnellville, Indiana, native owns the top three times in the MVC this season (13.04, 13.20, 13.29), with her record-tying time being more than six-tenths of a second faster than anyone in the MVC. She also owns the top wind-legal time in the conference by nearly a full second. In addition to leading the conference in the event, Mehringer ranks first in the Great Lakes Region, seventh in NCAA East Region Qualifying and 10th nationally in the event this season.
Jones' weekly honor is the first of his career. Mehringer's weekly honor is her second straight of the 2026 outdoor season and her 11th MVC Athlete of the Week award (two outdoor 2026, one indoor 2025-26, two outdoor 2025, three indoor 2024-25, one outdoor 2024, two indoor 2023-24). Indiana State's MVC Track Athlete of the Week sweep marked the third and fourth weekly honors for the Sycamores during the 2026 outdoor season and the second straight week with multiple Indiana State athletes earning MVC accolades.
Top-Tier Trees
Indiana State features a quartet of event groups which rank in the top 20 nationally in the most recent set of USTFCCCA EventSquad rankings, with the Sycamore men's 110m hurdles, women's hammer throw, women's pole vault and men's 3000m steeplechase groups all sitting among the nation's best heading into the weekend .
The 110m hurdles contingent of
Collin Forrest (14.07),
Kieran Barnewall (14.11),
David Carnell (14.14) and
Parker Doyle (14.34) is the highest-ranked group among the Sycamore roster, currently ranking sixth nationally.
Indiana State's women's hammer throw quartet of
Emma Yoder (57.81m/189-7),
Cora Williams (57.16/187-6),
Aliseonna Garnett (53.26m/174-8) and OIivia Marshall (52.60/172-6) also ranks in the top 10 nationally, checking in at ninth overall.
Three season-best performances in the women's pole vault at the Crimson Tide Invitational propelled the Sycamore quartet of
Amy Luttrell (4.03m/13-2.55),
Campbell Roberts (3.83m/12-6.75),
Kennedy Merrell (3.63m/11-11) and
Abby Ballengee (3.56m/11-8.25) up to 17th nationally in the event.
Indiana State also owns a top-20 national ranking in the men's 3000m steeplechase, with the Sycamores' group of
Ryan York (9:25.42),
Brandon Mueller (9:35.94),
Tommy Claxton (9:39.82) and
Xander Fackler (9:47.02) entering the weekend ranked 19th.
Climbing The Charts
Indiana State's one-day meet at Alabama saw seven program top-10 marks established, with six of those seven coming on the track.
Rachel Mehringer had the headline result, tying her own program and MVC record of 13.04 in the 100m hurdles.
Two of the Trees' top marks over the weekend came in the 800m, as
Xavier Wills (1:50.55) and
Nick Burns (1:50.56) ran career-best times to move up the program ranks in the event. The Sycamores also got strong performances on the track from
Janiya Bowman, who ran the fastest 200m time by a Sycamore in over a decade at 23.41, and
Trent Jones, whose 46.97 400m time was the fastest by an Indiana State athlete in nearly 20 years.
Brittney Burak also climbed the program ranks in the 5000m, breaking her previous best time in the event by more than 20 seconds with her time of 16:34.94.
Amy Luttrell's outdoor career-best clearance of 4.03m (13-2.5) in the pole vault also propelled her into the program top-10 charts in Tuscaloosa.
Opening Act
Indiana State will participate in the heptathlon and decathlon for the first time this season at the Gibson Invitational, with seven Sycamores set to take part in the combined events over the course of Thursday and Friday.
Jake Ottersbach has seen success in the decathlon in the past, winning the event as a freshman at the 2024 MVC Outdoor Championships.
Zenon Rule and
Ty Newsom have both scored points for the Sycamores in the decathlon at each of the last two conference championships.
Kathryn Ison ranks in the top 10 in program history in the heptathlon from her performance at the 2025 MVC Championships, while a trio of Sycamores –
Ellie Irwin,
Emma Martin and
Sophie Hale – will make their heptathlon debuts after scoring in the pentathlon at the 2026 MVC Indoor Championships.
Up Next
Indiana State splits its squad for a pair of meets, with the Trees set to field entries at the Drake Relays and Clark Wood Invitational April 22-25.
Follow the Sycamores
For the latest information on the Sycamore Track & Field and Cross Country teams, make sure to check out
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