The Dordt University men's track and field team won six conference titles and finished second as as team at the 2026 Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Indoor Championships. The two-day, championship event was held this weekend at the Holwerda Family Indoor Track on the campus of Dordt University.Â
The Defenders finished the 2026 championship with 150 points and placed second for the third consecutive year. They have finished first or second in seven consecutive GPAC Indoor Championships, dating back to the 2020 season. Doane won the team title with 240 points while Concordia placed third with 113.
Six Dordt entries won GPAC titles, five individuals and one relay. Among the five individual titles won by the Defenders, three were on the track and two in field events.Â
Levi Schelhaas earned his first indoor conference title in an individual event by winning the 400m. In first place at the 200m mark, Schelhaas closed with a 25.9 over the final lap and came across the finish line in first with a time of 22.74. The senior's time hit the provisional standard and was nearly a second faster than Defenders teammate,
Noah Schroder (49.66).Â
Isaac Davelaar led from start to finish in winning his first 600m title. An All-American in the event in 2025, Davelaar was in first place at every 200m split and finished with an NAIA-qualifying time of 1:19.9. Defenders teammate,
Bennett Wassenaar, placed second with a time of 1:22.01.
Kaden Van Wyngarden, the GPAC runner-up in the mile last year, bettered his finish and won the event in this year's championship. The junior from Pella, Iowa, held the lead over the first five laps before falling into second with 400m left to go. A 31-second split followed by a 29.6 closing split over the final 200m pushed Van Wyngarden to the front and secured the win.
Schelhaas and Davelaar, along with
Noah Schroder and
Bennett Wassenaar, combined to win the 4x400 relay in the final event of the day. The Defenders came into the championship with the No.2 time in the NAIA and lived up to their ranking with a wire-to-wire win, four seconds faster than runner-up Mount Marty. Dordt crossed the finish line with a time of 3:19, securing their fourth straight 4x400 title at the indoor championship.
Grant Busker won the Defenders first GPAC title of the day, taking first place in the high jump. Busker, seeded sixth among the field of 17, tied Cooper Girmus (Doane) with both athletes clearing 1.99m. Busker won the tie-break, however, with fewer misses at the previous height. Busker's mark was a personal best and ranks fifth best in program history.
Willem Den Hartog claimed the GPAC title in the pole vault as the junior won in the tie-break against Jax Jacobsen (Concordia) by way of the number of misses. Both athletes cleared 15-03 (4.65m) but Den Hartog had no misses leading up to the final height while Jacobsen had missed twice at a previous height.Â
Dordt earned all-conference honors in 29 events, 27 individual and two relays (top eight finishers in an individual event, top three relays)
Notes:Â
- Dordt scored points (top 8 finishers) in 14 of 19 events
- the Defenders scored double-digit points in seven events
- pole vault, high jump, 4x400 relay, mile, 1000m, 600m, 400m
- most points scored by event (Dordt)
- Mile - 26
- 400m - 19
- 600m - 18
- 1000m and High Jump - 15
- Defender athletes totaled the most points among GPAC teams in:
- 400m
- 600m
- Mile
- 4x400 relay
- this was the third consecutive runner-up finish for the Defender men's team and fifth in the last seven years
- Dordt has finished among the top five 10 consecutive seasons
GPAC Champions (6):
National Qualifiers (3):Â
All-Time Top 10's (4):Â
Indoor Personal Bests (12):
Defenders in the Top Eight / All-Conference; Relays - Top Three (29):
- 400m:
- 600m:
- 800m:
- 1000m:
- Mile:
- 3000m:
- 5000m:
- High Jump:
- Long Jump:
- Pole Vault:
- Shot Put:
- Heptathlon:
- 4x400 Relay - 1st: 3:19.85
- Schelhaas, Schroder, Wassenaar, Davelaar
- 4x800 Relay - 2nd: 7:53
- Wittenberg, Landman, Obbink, May
