On Friday, Feb. 14, the majority of Macalester’s track and field squads prepared for a Collegeville, Minn. meet that would serve as a dress rehearsal for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Indoor Track and Field Championships. At the same time, Ariella Rogahn-Press ’28 lined up in the blocks for the 400m dash at the Maverick Debut meet in Mankato, Minn. Surrounded by NCAA Division II runners, it would be a blistering race for the Scots’ fastest-ever 400-meter runner.
Two laps later, Rogahn-Press had broken the 400m program record for the third time this season and became the fifth-fastest D-III athlete in 2025. The 56.22 that Rogahn- Press dropped in Mankato is well over a second faster than the first program record that she broke, set by Hannah Sonsalla ’18 in 2018. The second-fastest first-year in D-III is over a second-and-a-half behind.
It is a time that will almost certainly take her to the NCAA D-III National Indoor Championship meet, which will take place at Nazareth University in Rochester, N.Y. in mid-March.
If and when she gets there, she’ll race against 19 of D-III’s best.
“I mean, at this point, I really want to podium,” Rogahn-Press said. “Top eight will be All American … yeah, that’s the goal.”
She may even get two chances at Nazareth — her time in the 200m is both a school record and 17th in the country, just on the edge of what could qualify for nationals.
But the 400 is Rogahn-Press’ favored event, and the one where she stacks up best against a national field. If she does stand on that podium, it’ll make her the first All-American Scot since Phoebe Aguiar ’19 was national champion in the 800m during her senior year.
Rogahn-Press wasn’t the only Scot in Mankato in search of a nationally significant time — Arlo Heitler ’25, another long sprinter with national championship meet aspirations, intended to run the 400m, but ultimately didn’t race.
Heitler, along with Diarra Chatham ’27, was one of the Scots’ two representatives at nationals in 2024. Although his current best time in 2025 sees him just outside the national qualifying standard, a time to send him to Rochester is by no means out of reach.
These two athletes’ respective roads to Rochester exemplify a key theme for these Scots: a super-talented first-year class pushing a stacked selection of seniors to new levels.
Horizontal jumper Riley Hodin ’25 has noticed the effects of having such a strong collection of first-years.
“I think people are just more motivated,” he said. “The coaches have done a really good job of recruiting people who not only are athletically gifted, but are really intrinsically motivated, and so that makes it harder to kind of check out. There’s a first-year, [horizontal jumper] Ataa [Mensah ’28] … Every single lift, he is pushing everyone, pushing us. And it’s difficult to check out in the ways that maybe past upperclassmen may have.”
Mensah agrees: “I know my class, we have a lot of people with potential — Ariella is really good obviously, and then we have other people … I feel like our entire class just has a lot of potential and can do really big things, and also plans to do really big things,” Mensah said.
Athletics Director Donnie Brooks described it as a ‘baby shark’ phenomenon that ripples through the entire athletics department. “If [first-years] come in, pushing the students ahead of them, those students got two decisions: they could either continue to work to get better and say, ‘hey, it’s not your turn yet,’ or they gotta move out of the way and watch first-years run by them,” Brooks said. “This isn’t just a track and field thing. It’s in every sport: we want first years who don’t necessarily want to sit down and watch. We want first years who want to come and push right away, because, ultimately, it levels up our whole team.”
Another one of those first-year standouts has been John Ihrke ’28, whose sub 1:55 800m — set during the Meet of Hearts at Carleton College in early February — makes him the second-fastest first-year in the country. That time ranked 30th nationally and set the school record over that distance.
Two events later in the same meet, Reece McKee ’25 followed up the first year’s record breaking run, and broke a 15-year-old school record in the mile, running the eight laps in 4:16.
Kate Fox ’28 became the Scots’ first all-MIAC women’s cross country runner since 2016 and was the conference’s fastest first year by a wide margin in the cross country season finale, and has continued her form into the indoor season. The Meet of Hearts saw her carry off an impressive 800m-mile double.
The Scots have found success in distance events across all class years. At the recent Collegeville meet, the 3000m became an orange and blue processional with the Scots locking out the top five places, led by Tyler Edwards ’26. That meet also saw Austin Mills ’26 topple the school men’s weight throw record.
Head Coach Rachel Leonard commended the leadership of the senior class in helping raise the level of the whole team.
“The upperclassmen have taken a lot of pride in helping the underclassmen get used to Macalester,” Leonard said. “And [the] senior class has been really, really instrumental in that, they’ve taken a lot of pride in helping the younger athletes out. They’re trying to leave no stones unturned before they graduate, so they’re really locked in, and it’s been awesome to work with them.”
Leonard herself is a newcomer to the program. Brooks described how Leonard’s arrival opens new potential for the track and field and cross country programs.
“We needed somebody who could focus and invest more into the development of the track and field students while cross country was still in season, and [Associate Track and Field Coach] Tashina [Steggall] ended up leaving,” Brooks said.
“Whenever people leave, it always hurts, but it also creates an opportunity for us to go find the next up, and we look for the best and brightest, and people who are smart, positive, optimistic and driven. And I’ll give Devyn Smith a lot of credit; she was a leader in that search for the newest track and field coach, and one of the resumes that stood out was Rachel’s, and we were fortunate enough to get her.”
Leonard came to the program bringing both experience from time coaching at University of Massachusetts-Amherst and ambition for the future of the Macalester program: “I think a big piece [of my approach to a new program] is seeing where [athletes are] at and then where they want to go and how I fit in that plan,” Leonard said. “So for me, when I was thinking about working with the team and meeting the athletes and everything, I wanted to take into account what they want to get out of their careers, as well as the direction that Macalester Athletics is going. And obviously for me, wanting to be competitive in the MIAC and wanting athletes representing our school at the conference, regional, national stage.”
Leonard’s own background as a long sprinter in her time as an athlete at Colby College also complements the two nationals hopefuls in Heitler and Rogahn Press; the latter noted the benefits of having a coach who’s been through the same events and understands it firsthand, especially in one of the sport’s more mentally challenging disciplines.
The next action for these Scots will be on Friday, Feb. 21 in St. Olaf College’s Tostrud Classic, followed closely by the indoor championship season, with the MIAC Championship meet in Collegeville, then regional and national meets for those who qualify. Rogahn-Press is already likely to represent Macalester on that top stage, while three other Scots — Heitler, Ihrke and Chatham — have recorded times this season that put them in with a chance to join her.
National representation is an immediate manifestation of success for this squad, but it also has a long-term effect to benefit both the track and field program and Macalester as a whole.
“I think there’s always a sense of pride when we can look to something and say, ‘this is excellent,’” Brooks reflected. “You’ve got excellence across campus; no matter whether you’re talking activism, no matter whether you’re talking academics, we see exceptional behavior, this is just an extension of that, and to me, track and field exemplifies that. [Athletes win] as individuals, but also they’re part of the team, and those points are critical in order for us to finish in the top half of the MIAC.
“And when we can go to nationals, it’s cool, too, and the additional piece to going to nationals is that you take that Macalester brand, you take the Highland Cow, and put it on the stage with the best in the country. And to me, that’s where we belong.”
