Tulane University athletes earned two medals and advanced several competitors to finals during the opening day of the 2026 American Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May 14 at Norma Knobel Hunt Stadium in Denton, Texas. Blezzin Kimutai won silver in the women’s 10,000 meters, while Cara Salsberry secured bronze in the women’s hammer throw.
The event saw strong performances from Tulane’s team. Salsberry achieved a mark of 59.19 meters to place third in her event, becoming Tulane’s first medalist of the weekend. Later that evening, Kimutai finished second in her race with a time of 35:11.33.
Five Tulane athletes qualified for finals in their respective events after successful runs in the preliminary rounds of the 1,500 meters. Dana Rojas Vazquez and Jasper Newton placed fifth and eighth among women with times of 4:35.81 and 4:36.19 respectively; Gilbert Rono (3:52.61), Rogerio Amaral (3:55.08), and Illia Kunin (3:56.23) finished fourth, sixth, and eighth among men.
Aiden Yang added points by placing fifth in men’s javelin with a personal best throw of 59.02 meters, earning four points for his team. In men’s distance events, Tommy Rice was fourth in the men’s 10,000 meters at 30:41.96 while Juan Giron finished eighth with a time of 31:02.00.
In combined events action, Sofie Groeninger sits fourth overall after four heptathlon disciplines—100m hurdles (14.40 seconds), high jump (1.61m), shot put (14.20m), and a closing time of 26.41 seconds for the day’s final event—the latter helping her accumulate a total score of 3,239 points heading into day two.
Other results included Zaria Parker finishing seventeenth and Marissa Gordon twenty-eighth in women’s prelims for the 200 meters; Paul James Pam placing seventeenth among men’s prelims for that distance; Andrew Bamberg twenty-fourth and Alexander Montoro twenty-fifth among men’s prelims for the same event; Nahema Dumonteil Cabanas eleventh overall in women’s prelims for the hurdles.
After day one competition concluded, Tulane’s women ranked fourth on their leaderboard with fourteen points while its men were fifth with ten points each as teams prepare to continue competition tomorrow.
