NAIA track championships wrap in Asheville with team titles decided
Storm delays couldn't stop Asheville's national showcase: British Columbia's women and Cumberlands' men won NAIA team titles at UNC Asheville's Karl Straus Track.
Asheville’s $4 million Karl Straus Track renovation got a national-stage test as the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field Championships ended on UNC Asheville’s campus with British Columbia and Cumberlands taking the team crowns. The three-day meet, held May 20-22, sent athletes, coaches and fans into Asheville for a week of competition and gave Buncombe County a reminder of what a modernized venue can bring to the local sports economy.
The University of British Columbia’s women won their fifth straight NAIA outdoor title with 101.5 points, while Cumberlands (Ky.) claimed the men’s championship with 79 points. Indiana Tech and St. Thomas (Fla.) tied for second on the men’s side at 49 points, with Indiana Tech taking runner-up honors by 0.2 points in the final standings. British Columbia’s women became the first program to win five straight NAIA women’s outdoor titles since Prairie View A&M’s run from 1982 to 1990.
For Asheville, the event was as much about place as podium. NAIA chose Asheville as host for both the 2026 and 2027 championships, with Explore Asheville and Airstream Ventures serving as hosts, and said the meet was meant to showcase the city as a sports destination while also supporting local businesses and community recovery after Hurricane Helene. The championships were staged at Karl Straus Track, which NAIA described as a 2023 renovation featuring a state-of-the-art Mondo surface.
Weather repeatedly interrupted the meet, with thunderstorms and lightning delaying competition on opening day and again on day two, but the performances kept coming. Sonya Urbanowicz of British Columbia cleared 4.23 meters in the pole vault for a meet record and her fourth consecutive NAIA gold medal. UBC also picked up wins from Igbunuoghene Ishaka in the women’s triple jump, Amelia Cha in the women’s long jump and another 4x800-meter relay title, its seventh straight in that event.
The men’s side delivered its own tight finishes. Carson Krack of Carroll (Mont.) won the decathlon with 7,522 points, Lucien Beardsley of Cumberlands took the men’s race walk and James Kerr of British Columbia won the 400-meter hurdles. In one of the closest calls of the meet, St. Thomas’ Elijah Smith won the long jump by one centimeter over Voorhees’ Jaylen Burris. Cumberlands’ men, winning their second national title and first since 2024, left Asheville with the championship and the kind of result that helps a host city prove it can handle a national meet.
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