Bears alum NJCAA D3 National Champion

A 2025 Willow Springs graduate, Mckensie Collins, is making her hometown proud during her collegiate career. Collins helped her track and field team, the women's Mineral Area Cardinals, to second place at nationals.

 

According to Collins, the women’s Mineral Area Cardinals track and field team placed second as a team missing out on first place by 10 points. The placing made the team the 2026 National runners-up to the College of DuPage. The team had a total of five female athletes earn top All-American honors with Collins being one of those in the Heptathlon.

 

The 2026 NJCAA D3 Nationals were held in Utica, New York from May 7 to May 9. On May 8, after completing her seventh and final event in the heptathlon, Collins finished 1st in points becoming the 2026 NJCAA D3 National Champion in the Heptathlon. Collins earned a total of 3,437 points and won her event by 585 points.

 

The heptathlon is a two-day event that consists of seven different events. Each event is scored and given points based on performance. The seven events include the 100 meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, the 200 meter dash, long jump, javelin, and the 800 meter run.

 

During Collins' collegiate track season, she was able to claim three separate Mineral Area College records. One for the pentathlon, a 5-event multi for indoor season, with a sore of 2042 points, breaking her own record of 1968 points; one for the heptathlon, a 7-event multi for outdoor season, with a score of 3,437 points, breaking her own record of 3,209 points; and one for the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 1:13.38. Collins set this record breaking the previous record of 1:15.16 held by Kiera Finn in 2024. Collins earned 1st Team All-Region honors for Region 16.

 

Collins competed in six events at nationals and earned top eight All-American honors in all six claiming the most individual event titles of the meet out of every athlete competing. She tied for seventh place in high jump, finished seventh place in the open shot put, earned sixth place in the 400 meter hurdles, finished fourth in both the 100 meter hurdles and open javelin, and took first in the heptathlon. Collins was named this year's NJCAA National Field Athlete of the Year.

 

"Starting my college athletic career by becoming a National Champion and being named the National Field Athlete of the year is something that I will never take for granted," explained Collins. "I’m proud of how far I have come, but I also know that I am just getting started and I’m excited to see what’s ahead!"