The 2025 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships were held this past weekend at the Virginia Beach Sports Center in Virginia Beach, Va. and brought together universities from all over the country, including past powerhouses Arkansas, Louisiana State, Oregon, Southern California, and Florida. Oregon ended up winning the 2025 D-I women’s indoor track and field title, while USC snagged the title for men’s track and field.
Only one Quaker qualified to compete at the championship: junior high jumper Kampton Kam, who tied for 12th place with three other athletes — clearing a height of 2.11 meters on his first attempt. High jumper Tyus Wilson of Nebraska won first place after jumping 2.28m. Kam’s performance earned him second team All-America honors.
Kam qualified for the 2025 NCAA indoor championships at his previous meet, the 2025 Ivy League Heptagonal Indoor Track and Field Championships.
“I think the adrenaline, the team being there, and it being, you know, the last competition to qualify helped me probably get up over the bar,” Kam said of his performance at the Ivy League championships.
However, at the NCAA championships, his jump may have been affected by different runway dimensions. At the Ott Center for Track and Field, Kam is used to practicing with a 75-foot run-up, but the runway at the Virginia Beach Sports Center was 10 feet shorter. Only days before the competition, he had to do last-minute adjustments, which is never easy for athletes who rely on routine.
“I was pretty upset about my results. … I think going back [to the NCAA championships] this time, I wanted to prove that I wasn’t there just by luck … but rather to actually compete. Because if I had jumped my [personal record], I would have been second. So it kind of frustrates me a little bit,” Kam said in an interview after the championships.
Kam was not the only Quaker — former or current — competing at the 2025 NCAA indoor championships. Using her eligibility from the cancellation of winter sports due to COVID-19, 2024 College graduate Isabella Whittaker represented Arkansas at the meet. In the 400m dash, Whittaker set new NCAA, American, and North American records for the women’s indoor 400m. She finished in first place with a time of 49.24 seconds, just 0.07 seconds shy of the world record. The American record was previously held by Britton Wilson at 49.48 seconds.
Whittaker is no stranger to breaking records. She broke five different Ivy League records last year at Penn: the indoor and outdoor 400m — both of which had stood since 1990 — the outdoor 4x100m, and the indoor and outdoor 4x400m.
At the end of the 2024 season, she qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics Team USA relay pool, finishing in sixth place in the women’s 400m at the 2024 United States Track and Field Olympic Trials. As of March 1, Whittaker is No. 7 on the women’s world indoor 400m all-time list following her 49.90 race at the 2025 Southeastern Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships in Texas.
Virginia Beach saw a next-level performance from Whittaker. In the fifth lane, she took the lead within 10 seconds of the race. After the runners collapsed into the first lane of the track, her lead steadily grew, and she was the clear winner with 100 meters still to go. Upon completing the race and realizing her record-breaking time, Whittaker collapsed onto the track and pounded it in triumph.
Inside the track, 2024 Wharton graduate Scott Toney returned to the NCAA indoor track and field championships, this time representing Washington. He competed against 12 other athletes in the men’s pole vault and placed 10th, clearing a height of 5.46m. Pole vaulter Simen Guttormsen of Duke took first place in the event.
Penn will open its outdoor season next weekend with the Penn Challenge at Franklin Field.
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