Tulsa Opens American Indoor Championships with Four Medals

Men's DMR Silver American Indoor Championships

Photo by: Ben Soloman / American Conference

Tulsa Opens American Indoor Championships with Four Medals

2/27/2026 9:10:00 PM | Track and Field

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Tulsa opened competition at the American Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham, Ala., on Friday with a strong all-around showing, earning four medals, posting multiple personal-best and top-two all-time program marks, and advancing a strong group of athletes to Saturday's finals.

Tulsa's distance crew set the tone early in the 5,000 meters. Sara Morefield captured bronze in the women's race with a personal-best 16:14.35, moving to second in school history. On the men's side, Luke Birdseye earned silver with a personal-best of 14:09.86 in a tightly contested field. The Hurricane added two more podium finishes in the distance medley relays. The women's DMR of Sara Hosey, Kamree Dye, Lianne Holtermann and Matilda Laidlaw clocked 11:34.14 for bronze, also ranking second in program history. The men's quartet of Andrew Lutkenhaus, Luke Finzen, Richard Matthews and Levi Rowan followed with a silver-medal performance in 9:47.21.

In the prelims, Tulsa positioned itself well for day two. The women dominated the 800-meter heats, sweeping the top three spots as Billie Rouse (2:09.55), Grace MacDonald (2:09.80) and Hannah Taylor (2:10.14) all advanced to the final. Andrew Lutkenhaus led the men's 800 qualifiers with a first-place 1:50.30, while Joseph Synder and Jiri Ceska also moved on.

In the mile, Graham Stevener (4:06.01) and Sean Korsmo (4:06.15) secured qualifying spots for the men's final, while Matilda Laidlaw (4:58.89) and Sara Hosey (4:59.02) advanced on the women's side. Annie-May Cannings (54.90) and Evan Sanni-Thomas (47.05) each punched their tickets to the 400-meter finals as well. Cannings was the lone freshman to advance in the 400 on the women's side.

Elsewhere in distance action, Charlie Krasnoff narrowly missed the podium in the men's 5,000 with a fourth-place 14:10.74, leading a strong pack that included Luke Lambert (5th), Joseph Stoddard (6th) and James Knockton (7th). Kathryn Koonts placed seventh in the women's 5,000, while Isabella Famiglietti competed in both the long jump and 60-meter dash to round out a busy first day for the Golden Hurricane.

Tulsa heads into day two looking to add to its medal haul, returning to the track in Birmingham for the final day of competition at the American Indoor Championships. The Golden Hurricane's events are set to begin at 12:05 p.m. as they aim to close out the meet strong.