TicketsCINCINNATI — The University of Cincinnati track and field program will send six athletes to compete at the track and field national championships starting on Wednesday at Hayward Field. The meet runs Wednesday through Saturday, with the men's and women's championships taking place simultaneously.
Five Bearcats will be making their return to the big stage, while Moore-Bastide is set to make her DI nationals debut. Macaria Moore-Bastide, Kya Epps, Abby Knouff, Juliette Laracuente-Hubner, Macaela Walker and Orry Willems will represent the red and black in Eugene.
Laracuente-Hubner headlines the group, entering as one of the favorites to win the heptathlon title. The Marengo, Ohio, native comes in with the second-highest heptathlon point total in the country at 6,086 points. This marks her third consecutive trip to Hayward Field, and she arrives as a four-time All-American and the reigning Big 12 indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon champion. She looks to become just the second national champion in Cincinnati track and field history. In 2017, Annette Echikunwoke claimed the program's first title with a winning weight throw of 22.42 meters.
Moore-Bastide secured her spot in the high jump with a mark of 1.82 meters. Before transferring to Cincinnati, she competed at the Division II National Championships in 2023, 2024 and 2025 while at San Francisco State, finishing seventh in 2024 with a mark of 1.67 meters.
Epps punched her ticket in the 200 meters, besting her own school record with a time of 22.55 seconds to finish fourth at regionals and qualify for Eugene for the second consecutive year. She looks to improve on her 23rd-place finish in the 200 at last year's championships.
Walker also earned her second straight trip to Eugene, clocking a school-record 55.91 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles to finish 10th at regionals. The sophomore earned second-team All-America honors last season with a 16th-place finish in the event.
Knouff is headed to Eugene for the third time after clearing 4.27 meters to place seventh in the pole vault. The performance capped a strong season that included an eighth-place finish at the Big 12 Women's Pole Vault Championship.
Willems earned his second consecutive trip to Eugene with a hammer throw of 67.11 meters, placing sixth at regionals. The Balen, Belgium, native is the first Bearcat in program history to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the hammer throw more than once. He closed the regular season by winning the Big 12 men's hammer throw title with a program-record 68.65 meters. Willems finished 20th in the event at last year's national championships.
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