CARMEL, Ind. – Coming quickly on the heels of a super competitive 2026 indoor track and field season, the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) has announced the results of the 2026 Women's Outdoor Track and Field preseason poll with Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology expected to follow their indoor championship by taking first in the women’s polls in a vote amongst league coaches.
Seven of the ten coaches predicted that the Fightin’ Engineers will win the outdoor title. If the team can accomplish that feat, it would mark their third straight HCAC Championship title.
Right behind the Engineers and receiving the other three first place votes are the Manchester Spartans. Picked in third is 2026 HCAC Outdoor Championship host Transylvania in third place with Mount St. Joseph and Berea College rounding out the predicted top five teams.
2026 Women's Outdoor Track and Field Preseason Poll
1 - Rose-Hulman 79 (7)
2 - Manchester 75 (3)
3 – Transylvania 63
4 – Mount St. Joseph 55
5 – Berea 44
6 - Franklin 43
7 - Earlham 38
8 - Hanover 26
9 - Anderson 17
10 - Bluffton 10
Women's HCAC Top 10 (Outdoor)
Women's HCAC Championship Meet Records (Outdoor)
Women’s HCAC 2026 INDOOR Championship Results
While the indoor results are not always indicative of outdoor performance, if the 2025-26 season follows what the ladies did inside, we are in for an exciting spring. During the 2025-26 Indoor Track and Field season, the HCAC saw an extremely impressive 27 new top-10 HCAC marks set by its female track and field student-athletes. Of those marks, four broke HCAC Indoor records. Those four performances were:
- 200 Meters - Transylvania - Olivia Sparks (Lexington, Ky.)
- 400 Meters – Rose-Hulman – Rose Talbert (Monticello, Ill.) with Sparks super close behind her with an all-time HCAC second-place time
- Mile – Rose-Hulman - Jocelyn Onstot (Cary, Ill.)
- Long Jump - Franklin – Grace Tincher (Palmyra, Ind.)
Franklin’s Tincher, an absolute HCAC star as a freshman who earned both the Women’s Newcomer of the Year and Women’s Jumps Athlete of the Year honors for the HCAC, would go on to the NCAA Division III Indoor National Championships, earning Second-Team All-American status with her ninth place Division III national finish.
Mount St. Joseph’s
Madalyn Hudnall (Waldron, Ind.) won the Indoor Throws Athlete of the Year honor, winning the shot put competition.
The HCAC Outdoor Championships will be hosted at Transylvania University on April 23-25, 2026 and fans can tune into live coverage on HCAC.tv.
For more information on HCAC Track and Field, visit the websites of any of the participating schools, or go to the HCAC's home on the Internet at www.heartlandconf.org. Be sure to stay up to date on all of your Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference news by following @HCACDIII on Twitter and by liking the "HCAC DIII" Facebook page.