Four Owls were selected to compete at the 2026 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field National Championships, as announced by the NCAA on Tuesday, March 3rd. The Owls 4x400m Relay team of Hannah Caiola, Avery Winters, Djamilla Toukour, and Patrice Mansfield was picked to compete, with Caiola also selected to run the 400m.
The Owls’ 4×400 team of Winters, Toukour, Caiola, and Mansfield ranked 15th in all of Division II this season with a time of 3:44.12.
Caiola will compete in her third-consecutive Indoor National Championships, running the 4×400 and the 400m Dash. Caiola was dominant this season, running the 11th fastest 400m and 200m in all of Division II. She was named Northeast 10 Runner of the Week twice, and was poised to repeat as NE10 400m Champion before injury held her out of the finals. The selection marks Caiola’s fifth overall time competing at Indoor or Outdoor National Championships, and she is coming off All-American honors after finishing sixth in the 400m at last year’s outdoor championships.
Avery Winters will head to Nationals for the second time in her decorated career after running the 4×400 in 2023. She is coming off her first NE10 Indoor 400m title after dominating in the 200m, 400m, and 4x400m over the past four seasons. In 2023, Southern’s 4×400 team, which included Winters and Caiola, finished 12th with a time of 3:49.35.
Patrice Mansfield will compete in her first National Championships after a historical indoor season. She set the program record in the 55m Hurdles and ran . She took home NE10 Runner of the Week honors twice, and won gold in the 60m hurdles at the NE10 Championships. She was also up for selection in the 60m Hurdles, where her time ranked 26th in the nation and second in program history.
Djamilla Toukour caps off her debut indoor season with an appearance at the National Championships. A one-time NE10 Rookie of the Week selection, Toukour dominated in the 200m and 400m in her freshman year with the Owls. Her 400m time ranked third in the conference behind Caiola and Winters, and she ran the 200m, 400m, and 4×400 at the NE10 Indoor Championships, scoring points in the 400m.
The Owls will head to the Virginia Beach Sports Center in Virginia Beach, Va. for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field National Championships on Friday, March 13th and Saturday, March 14th. Caiola will run the 400m preliminaries on Friday, and the 400m finals and the 4x400m will take place on Saturday.
