at Spokane Indoor Challenge
Dates: Saturday, Jan. 17
Location: The Podium - Spokane, Wash.
Meet Info

IRVINE, Calif. - The UC Irvine women's indoor track & field team begins the 2026 campaign at the Spokane Indoor Challenge on Saturday, Jan. 17. Action gets underway with the weight throw at 10 a.m., while the track events are slated to start with the 60m hurdle prelims at 10:30 a.m. Twenty Anteaters are entered in 10 events. 

AT FIRST GLANCE
UC Irvine welcomes back 22 letterwinners, including 10 MPSF scorers from last year's team that finished sixth at the conference meet. All but 10 members of UCI's 35-woman roster competed during the 2025 outdoor season when they won the program's first Big West Championship. The 'Eaters also bring in four transfers and four true freshmen, who will add depth across all event areas. Five of the eight newcomers are set to make their UCI debut this weekend.

"Right now, we're a complete team with balance and depth across every event area," head coach Jeff Perkins said. "I'm really excited about the indoor season - our overall strength will put a number of school records well within reach."
 
RAISING THE BAR
The high jump will be a strength for the Anteaters again this year as they return Zharia Taylor, Esmeray Demirbas, and Kailah McKenzie. Taylor was a second-team outdoor All-American in 2025. During the indoor campaign, she finished third in the high jump at the MPSF Championships and established the second-best mark in program history at 1.79 meters (5-10.5). Demirbas and McKenzie are also tied for fourth among UCI's all-time top-10. Freshman Joy Anderson joins the trio as a two-time CIF State Championship qualifier out of Long Beach Poly High School. 

MULTIS DEPTH
UC Irvine's three returning pentathletes all scored at the 2025 MPSF Championships with personal-best scores that rank among the top-five in program history. Jolie Robinson, who was last year's runner-up, is third among the Anteaters' all-time leaders with 3,888 points. Robinson is also the school-record holder in the long jump at 6.04 meters (19-9.75). Zharia Taylor enters the season with UCI's fourth-best point total (3,785), while Davis is fifth (3,606). In addition, Davis ranks fourth in the 60m hurdles (8.55).

OUT OF THE BLOCKS
Halle Sutherland and Samantha Bartz rank among the top-five in program history in the 60m and 200m. Sutherland is second in both events, running personal records of 7.51 in the 60m and 24.35 in the 200m at the MPSF Championships last year. Bartz set her lifetime bests at the 2025 Riverfront Invitational where she clocked UCI's fourth-fastest 200m (24.74) and fifth-fastest 60m (7.65). In the 400m, Esmeray Demirbas sits at No. 2 on the Anteaters' all-time list with a PR 55.36. Lauren Aquino, Jazzmine Davis, and Ihe Okoh were also part of the 4x400 that ran a school-record 3:47.85 in Reno, Nevada, last January.

THE BIG THREE
DeAna Davis, Nyla Baker, and Pinkie Schnayer have all established themselves among UC Irvine's top-10 throwers. Davis ranks seventh in program history in the weight throw (15.41m/50-6.75), while Baker (14.36m/47-1.5) and Schnayer (13.56m/44-6) are fourth and seventh, respectively, in the shot put. Baker has placed third in the shot put at the MPSF Championships in each of the last two seasons.

GOING THE DISTANCE
Kaia Schmidt is UCI's top returning distance runner. Schmidt ranks third in indoor school history in the mile (4:57.72), and is coming off a cross country season in which she earned All-Big West honors. Makena Castillo and transfer Emma Hadley also add experience and leadership to a group that features seven underclassmen.

UP NEXT
The Anteaters return to the Pacific Northwest for the UW Invitational in Seattle on Saturday, Jan. 31.