Cougar thrower wins third national championship

KOKOMO, Ind. - There is pressure going into a national meet as the defending champion and overwhelming favorite.

Any nerves Sydney Duncan may have felt going into the 2026 NAIA Women's Indoor Track & Field Championship didn't keep her from her goal of winning her third shot put title in two years, with a throw of 17.01 meters.

"There definitely is some pressure to keep performing and to maintain your top spot," said Duncan, who previously won indoor and outdoor NAIA shot put championships in 2025. "I had a good time, and I performed well enough to do what I wanted to do. Hopefully, this is a steppingstone to what I can do to throw farther in outdoor competition."

Coach Josh Colvin said her championship was the cap on a phenomenal junior season in indoor track and field, in which she was also named the Great Lakes Region Indoor Field Athlete of the Year.

"Sydney did what we all figured she would do, and that was to win the shot put national championship," he said. "The question was by how much. She defeated the second-place throw by 1.75 meters, or 5 feet and 9 inches."

She also earned a fifth-place finish in the weight throw for her 7^th overall All-American honor, and is ranked among the top 20 female throwers in the United States - not only in the NAIA, but in NCAA Division I, Division II, and Division III.

In addition to performing on the field, Duncan also excels in the classroom, earning dean's list honors as a health and exercise science major. She was one of 10 IU Kokomo students chosen to represent the campus at Regionals at the Rotunda, sharing her research project on dietary supplement use and recovery practices among college student athletes.

Duncan said her practices leading up to the championship, held in Gainesville, Florida, were rough, but she had a good practice in the early morning hours before competition. Going in as an experienced competitor helped.

"There are still competition days that I get jittery or nervous, but nothing like the first year," she said, adding that she had a rough start at the championships.

"I actually opened terribly," she said. "My first two throws were really awful. I picked it up on the third throw, and I was fine from there."

Her shortest throw, at 13.84 meters, would have earned a 7^th place finish in the field of 20 throwers.

"I think those throws made everyone wonder what was going to happen, but I recovered," Duncan, from Anderson, said. "Everyone was obviously trying their best to throw far. Opening far lower than anticipated wasn't my plan, but apparently, I like to keep things interesting."

She had support from IU Kokomo's largest-ever indoor track and field championship contingent, with Isaiah Moore, Bryce Stateler, and Cale Webb qualifying for the 3K race walk, and Evan Gaylor, Isaac Ireland, Seth Ireland, and Gabriel Wedmore earning spots in the shot put. Wedmore also qualified for the weight throw.

After the group returned from Florida, she jumped right into practices for the outdoor season on Monday. She said she needs these early practices, because she replaces weight throw with hammer throw and discus in the outdoor season.

"The outdoor season is short, so it's a quick turnaround, and you just can't take time off," she said.

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