MARION, Ind. - Samuel Sofolahan and Jaylah Leggett broke the 200m school records as the Goshen College track and field teams opened their 2026 outdoor season at the Polar Bear Classic at Indiana Wesleyan University. 

The Maple Leafs sent a small team to the meet on Friday. Starting the action was the women's shot put. Leyna Borgmann made the final and finished ninth. Her best attempt was 10.67m (35 feet, a quarter inch), and all of her attempts were over 10 meters. 

Bailee Brown placed seventh in the javelin throw. Brown was sitting in ninth place after the third round before producing her best attempt in the fifth round, measuring 29.24m (95 feet, 11 inches). Her second-best attempt would also have been good enough to keep her in seventh.

On the men's side, Liam Shaw finished in seventh place in the shot put. All of his attempts were legal and over 13 meters (43 feet). His best attempt came in the third round and measured 13.82m (45 feet, 4 and a quarter inches) backed up by another attempt of 13.81m (45 feet, 3 and three quarter inches).

Evan O'Toole recorded an eighth-place finish in the triple jump. He took only one attempt, measuring 12.53m (41 feet, 1.5 inches).

The men's 5000m rounded out the action on day one. Duncan Kogei took the overall victory, recording a time of 15:07.32, beating the second-place runner by three-tenths of a second and the third-place runner by 15 seconds. Mathew Keitany finished in 11th and Jesse Bontrager finished 33rd.

A full team travelled to the meet on Saturday. Caoimhe Farrell had a seventh-place finish in the high jump. After first time clearances at opening height and second height, she had a second time clearance at 1.52m (4 feet, 11 and three-quarters inches), which would be her final clearance of the event. 

Two Maple Leafs made the final of the women's discus. Borgmann came in eighth with a throw of 34.01m (111 feet, 7 inches) and Caroline Lamb finished sixth with a throw of 35.30m (115 feet, 10 inches).

Later that day, Lamb had a third-place finish in the hammer. After two fouls on her fourth and fifth attempts, she recorded a mark of 39.52m (129 feet, eight inches), adding two feet to her personal record.

The second victory of the weekend came in the women's 200m. Jaylah Leggett crossed the line in a time of 24.82 seconds, breaking her own school record by seven hundredths of a second. Samuel Sofolahan secured the record for the half-lap on the men's side, stopping the clock in a time of 21.47 seconds, breaking a 22-year-old record set by Jon Cook in 2004.

Sofolahan also finished fourth in the 100m in a time of 10.74 seconds, just three hundredths off of his own school record.

Goshen had two top-eight finishes in the men's 800m. Bruno Kipsang ran in section one, placing third in a time of 1:55.59 for a new personal record and was one of three runners to break 1:56 at the meet. Leighton Dodt came home in a time of 1:57.66, also a personal record. 

In the men's 1500m, Mathew Keitany finished in second place in a time of 4:03.85, less than a second behind the eventual winner. Jacob Friesen also finished in the top eight, recording a time of 4:05.81, his fastest time since May 2024.

O'Toole finished fifth in the long jump. He passed his final attempt and all five of his attempts were over six meters, and his best attempt was 6.36m (20 feet, 10 and a half inches).

The final track event of the weekend was the 4x400m relays. The women fielded one team consisting of Leggett, Brown, Farrell and Kassandra Ortega. They finished in a time of 4:18.16. This marked Brown's sixth event of the weekend. She competed in the shot put, javelin, long jump, high jump, 200m and the 4x400m relay.

The men fielded three teams, two of which finished in the top eight. The team of Dodt, Kipsang, Max Estep and Bryan Sixtos Armas secured the victory in the event in a time of 3:23.76, edging out Northwood by eight hundredths. The team of Sofolahan, Danial Murphy, Eddy Garcia and Jacob Wetzel finished in eighth place in a time of 3:31.51.

Shaw rounded out the action for the weekend in the discus. He had a full scorecard and three of his throws were over 40m, with his best attempt coming in the third round, measuring at 41.89m (137 feet, five inches) for another seventh-place finish.

The Maple Leafs will be back in action on April 1 and 2 at the Indiana Tech Easter Invite in Fort Wayne.