Grace Alley’s National Record Leads a Renaissance in D3 Jumps
Grace Alley after winning the Heptathlon at Outdoor Nationals. Photo: Seawon Park
“The first thing I told my coach at the beginning of summer training was that I wanted to score 4,000 points in the pent.”
Grace Alley, in the eve of her senior season for the Loras College Duhawks, set the bar right where she wanted it.
Opening at the Finals Week Invitational, hosted by St. Ambrose University on Dec. 8, 2023, the Loras Women’s Track and Field team walked away with the first victory in what is likely to be a strong indoor season. Grace Alley, however, left the track the Division 3 national record holder in the women’s pentathlon.
She scored a total of 3,986 points, upending the nine-year-old mark of 3,914 held by Amelia Campbell of Carleton College.
“My favorite thing about competing in the multi is that I get to be the first person to compete and set the tone for the entire weekend,” she said in a D3GD interview last week. “If I go out and I enjoy what I am doing and have a good beat, then I get to put that out into the world for my teammates to feed off of.”
In the fastest 60-meter hurdle opener of her career, she set the tone for the day in a 9.26. “I wasn’t even nervous for the meet until the first wave of hurdles,” Alley recalls. “That is always my survive-and-advance event, and if I can get through that okay then I know I will be alright.”
This was a bit of an understatement, as Alley went on to set a personal best and new school record of 1.74 meters (5 '8.5”) in the high jump. To follow this up, she posted a toss of 11.87 meters (39 '9”) in the shot put and headed into the back half of the multi with 2,412 points.
High jumping wasn’t always on the vision board, let alone the record board for Alley. She entered Loras solely as a horizontal jumper until her first indoor conference meet. It was here that her coaches recommended adding high jump to her profile in order to grab “a few extra points,” she remembers. This was the making of her first pentathlon, and she has continued to improve her high jump approach and raise her personal best by over a foot. This is not to mention what she has accomplished jumping in the other direction.
“I knew after nationals what kind of mark I was capable of in long jump,” Alley notes, referring to her outdoor performance at the 2023 Track and Field Championships in Rochester, NY. It was there that she was able to improve her long jump mark by two feet in one day, leaping into the 19-inch-club and snagging her first national title in the women’s heptathlon.
As spring turned to snow, Alley turned 5.82 meters into 5.87. This jump of 19’3” confirmed Alley another personal best on Dec. 8th. To close her pentathlon undefeated in all events, she then ran a 2:24 in the 800 meters. She also went on the following day to win the triple jump with a mark of 11.94 meters (39' 2.25") and join a winning 4x400 meter relay.
This showing crowned her as the USTFCCCA National Athlete of the Week on Dec. 12th. Alley now leads the current Division 3 rankings for both high jump and the pentathlon. She also sits third in triple jump and fifth in long jump.
The strength and volume of such a performance speaks to Alley’s commitment to her senior year as her best yet. However, she insists that it won’t be because of trophies or inches.
“I came back first and foremost to enjoy what I am doing,” she pronounced. “I knew that this year I could not have records and championships be the end-all-be-all of my career. My career will be successful even if I don’t do these things.”
Beginning her time at Loras as a freshman in 2020 and experiencing the COVID-19 intermission, Alley is no stranger to fitness setbacks and the importance of timing.
“I wasn’t sure until May of last year that I wanted to come back. And I kept telling myself that when I did, it will not be about the awards you win, or the titles you get, or the records. It is about remembering why you do this in the first place and enjoying what you are doing.”
Alley cites the success of her teammates as her biggest motivators for her own. She takes to the runway alongside Emma Seipel, a senior transfer from Dubuque and runner-up for the long jump national title in Rochester. Seipel set her own personal best at the Finals Week Invitational, soaring to 6.08 meters (19 '11.5”). This jump places Seipel as fifth all-time in Division 3 indoor long jump history and currently ranks her first among all long jumpers this season. She is followed closely by Loras junior Harmony Creasy, who leapt to 5.94m (19 '6 ") and asserted the Loras trinity as the team to chase.
“My favorite part of competing is watching other people do well,” says Alley on being in such good company. “I would much rather watch my teammates PR than do it myself. I am constantly the loudest person on the track. I am not just here for myself, but because I am on an amazing team that can do amazing things.”
Making of the Loras Track and Field Dynasty | D3 Glory Days
Led by head coach Matt Jones, the women of Loras hold three consecutive national team titles, earned outdoors in 2019 and 2021, and indoors in 2022. In the 2023 outdoor championships, Loras was runner-up to Wisconsin-Lacrosse, another home to some of field’s strongest athletes. Alley cites the spirit of this competition as what she is looking forward to most in the 2023-24 season.
“I am excited to see what happens this year,” she said “I think there are going to be a lot of great performances across the board.
Though the Duhawks have set the stage for the field events this winter, there are many other women with marks to prove in the upcoming months.
Field Preview
Victoria Kadiri takes flight at the 2023 Indoor National Championships. Photo Credit: Kyle Lauf
Victoria Kadiri of Johns Hopkins returns from a hall-of-fame season as the D3 National Field Athlete of the year. After setting the national record in the triple jump with 13.21 meters (43’ 4.25”) and finishing the season undefeated in both long and triple, she will undoubtedly be the athlete to watch on the runway this winter. She opened with a 5.90 meter (19 '4.25) mark in the long and 12.11 meters (39' 8.75) in the triple on Dec. 2, paving the way to what could be a record-breaking eighth national title in March.
As 2023 indoor national champion in the pentathlon, Elizabeth Barre of Carnegie Mellon set herself a strong 1.68 meters (5’6”) mark in the high jump to begin her season. Sophomore Serenity Sands of Bridgewater opened with a 1.70 meters (5 '7'') jump at the UMass Boston Beacon Invitational, asserting herself as an underclassmen to keep an eye on.
The pole vault podium lays wide open after the graduation of several senior talents in the 2023 season. Heading the new wave is Junior Gracie Holland, whose champion performance led Wisconsin-Whitewater to the team indoor title last year.
Gracie Holland clears the bar at Indoor Nationals. Photo: Kyle Lauf
Peyton Proffitt of Otterbein is coming off a stellar debut season in the vault with two All-American nods. So far, Madeline O’Connell of Rochester has opened with the strongest bar of 3.75 meters (12’3.5) to lead the rankings in January.
Peyton Proffitt gets ready during the Indoor National Meet. Photo: Alan Lam
Aubrey Schoeneman of Carthage opened up the season’s throws competition with two personal bests of 14.41 meters (47' 3.5") in the shot put and 16.44 meters (53' 11.25") in the weight throw on back-to-back December weekends. She is followed closely by Alexis Boykin, a junior from MIT, who tossed a 14.37m (47' 1.75") in the shot.
Alexis Boykin during her winning toss in the Hammer at Outdoors. Photo: Seawon Park
Boykin leads the charge for the weight, however, with a major mark of 18.91 meters (62' 0.5") at the Suffolk Relays on Dec. 2. This places her 22nd all-time for the indoor women’s weight throw. Both throws await the return of Kaitlyn Wilder of Dubuque, the 2022 indoor national champion in the weight throw and three-time All-American in the shot put.
We here at D3GD look forward to the upcoming indoor season and bringing more field to your feed!