MARION, Ind. – Following yet another highly successful Cascade Collegiate Conference season, the UBC Thunderbirds Track and Field teams are back in Marion, Indiana this week for the 2025 NAIA National Championships with eyes firmly set on the coveted red banners.
Winners of the last three national championships – and in each of UBC's last four visits to the national meet – the UBC women's squad enters as favourites to defend their title. The men's team is also ranked number one by the US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, seeking their first NAIA victory since 2019.
In the six years since UBC's historic double championship wins there may not have been a better shot to replicate that T-Birds success until now. But the focus for both teams is simply on performing as best as they can, knowing they have worked all year for this, the biggest week on the calendar.
"I don't really have placing expectations, I look at it as individual performances and if people can elicit their best performance on the day, then things will fall into place," said UBC head coach,
Laurier Primeau, who has guided the T-Birds to a combined six NAIA Track and Field banners. "That doesn't always mean personal bests, particularly if the weather isn't optimal or if endurance races don't go out fast, but it means relative to competitors; can they be the best they can be on the day, and I think that's a really good goal for all of our athletes to shoot for."
Hosted at Indiana Wesleyan University for the third straight year, the 2025 championships officially get underway on Wednesday, May 21 and continue through Friday, May 23.
While the venue is familiar, the weather for a national championship is not. With scattered rain and cool temperatures expected throughout the week, the forecast in eastern Indiana looks a lot more like early spring in Vancouver, perhaps a little taste of home for UBC's athletes who have trained and competed in similar conditions for much of the year.
Fresh off claiming the 2025 CCC Conference championship less than two weeks ago at Southern Oregon, the T-Birds women's team heads into this year's national meet holding four number one ranked events: 800 metres (
Rachel Mortimer), 1500 metres (
Holly MacGillivray), 5000 metre racewalk (
Olivia Lundman), 3000 metre steeplechase (
Elysse Fleming) and another 13 in the top five.
Consistently also ranked as the number one school in the NAIA, the UBC men's squad holds the top ranking in javelin (
Theo Manuel), the 5000 metre racewalk (
Tyler Wilson) and the top two spots in the steeplechase (
Dylan Uhrich and
Maximilien Filion). With an additional six top five rankings across the event list, 2025 has proven to be a strong year for the 'Birds, despite an overall less experienced group.
"I think you see a lot of sophomores who have really stepped up from Max Filion on the endurance side to
Lyle Lo in the two jumps," said Primeau. "These were not performances and rankings that we expected necessarily at the beginning of the year. So the men's side, the second year kids who we thought were maybe a year away from competing for medals are already there. It's super encouraging and kudos to both Steve (Weiler) and Elena (Voloshin) for their awesome coaching of those two kids."
Endurance events and throws remain UBC's key to success in both genders this week, but the T-Birds boast a balanced group of competitors including strong entries in sprints, hurdles and men's and women's pole vault.
"I think our main stay is still endurance, walks and long throws. We do have two vaulters here, we've never had that before, but we also don't have any multi-event athletes and we almost always do so, it really does ebb and flow. We're good in areas we have been traditionally good in but we're also missing in areas where we have shown well in the past."
The majority of UBC's team at nationals are returning athletes with experience at at least one prior NAIA meet. But the group also includes a number of freshmen as well as seniors who have qualified for the first time.
"That's super gratifying for coaches to see athletes that have worked so hard over so many years to finally get an opportunity to show their wares at the national championship. This year's no different with some of those seniors who have qualified for the first time, that's a really cool thing to see."
The 2025 NAIA National Championships begin Wednesday with two-time defending champion
Sonya Urbanowicz kicking off UBC's competition in women's pole vault at 12:00 p.m. ET/9:00 a.m. PT.
A full schedule of events along with live results will be available
HERE.
Live streaming of the meet is also offered for free
HERE.
