Hawkeyes Qualify 4 to NCAA Championships

IOWA CITY, Iowa – University of Iowa track and field qualified four student-athletes to the NCAA Indoor Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on March 14-15.

Freshmen Pauline Bikembo and Abraham Vogelsang, along with sophomore Ryan Johnson are making their NCAA Indoor Championships debut. Daniela Wamokpego will be returning to the national meet as a back-to-back qualifier in the triple jump.

Bikembo, the freshman from Saint Lue La Foret, France, was crowned the Big Ten Indoor champion in the pentathlon, setting Iowa’s program record with 4,330 points and securing her spot at the NCAA Championships. Bikebo became Iowa’s first Big Ten pentathlon champion since 2019. She is one of three freshmen in the top five nationally.

Johnson, a sophomore from Springboro, Ohio, dominated his first season with the Hawkeyes bringing home the first weight throw Big Ten Championship in program history. Johnson holds the weight throw school record with a 24.59-meter throw which ranks third nationally. This will be Johnson’s NCAA Championship debut. Last season at Eastern Michigan, Johnson finished in the top 20 and was one-tenth of a meter away from qualifying.

Wamokpego, a second-team All-American from Meaux, France, returns to the NCAA Indoor Championships after finishing 15^th at 12.66 meters last season. This year, Wamokpego won the triple jump with a then-school record-setting 13.32 meters to start the 2024-25 indoor season at the Jimmy Grant Invite. She bettered that mark, winning the triple jump at the Iowa Open with a 13.51-meter school record. Wamokpego enters the meet as the No. 9 seed.

Vogelsang, a freshman from Oslo, Norway, qualified in the heptathlon at the Dr. Rick McGuire Invite in Columbia, Missouri, on Jan. 31. Vogelsang’s 5,882 points are the sixth-most points amassed by a heptathlete this season. His total ranks third all-time at Iowa. Vogelsang recently competed at the Big Ten Championships, securing a personal best 5.15 meters in the pole vault. In his freshman campaign, Vogelsang will be making his NCAA Championships debut.

The NCAA DI Indoor Track & Field Championships begin on Friday, March 14th and will air on the ESPN Family of Networks.