On May 20th through the 22nd, the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field Championship took place at the Karl Straus Track in Asheville, North Carolina.
The meet hosted 141 NAIA teams across the country. There were 65 men’s teams and 75 women’s teams with Carroll College being one of the Montana representatives.
Carroll made waves this year at the National Championships with the men’s team coming in ninth and having one of their decathlon athletes, Carson Krack, win his second straight national title.
Carson Krack
Younger years
Krack is originally from Whitefish, MT, where he competed in track from his sophomore to senior year in high school at Whitefish High School.
During his sophomore year, he only did seven events: 100 meter (m), 200m, 400m, 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay, long jump, and triple jump. He excelled most in the jumps, with his long jump being 20ft. 55 inches that season, and his triple jump was 41 ft 8 inches, which placed him tenth at the state meet.
In his junior year, he added three more events: high jump, 300m hurdles, and 110m hurdles. He made it to the state in seven of the ten events, with those being the 100m, 200m, and 400m. Unlike the previous year, Krack made himself known at the state meet and podiumed in almost every single event he participated in except for high jump, 4×400 relay, and 4×100 relay.
His highest spot on the podium was second, coming from his 300m performance with a time of 40.97 seconds. He also improved by two feet in the triple jump, getting third at state with a jump of 43ft 7 inches.
In his senior year, he dominated class A in the 400m, 300m hurdles, 110m hurdles, long jump, and triple jump. In that year, he got third in the 400m with a time of 49.78 seconds. That was almost a ten-second improvement from his senior year.
In the 300m hurdles, he got first in every race in the season, including the state, where he ran a 38.95 seconds. The only race he didn’t get first in was at the Top 10, where he got second with a time of 40.01 seconds.
He fluctuated between first and third in the 110m hurdles through that season, but pulled through and got first at state with a time of 14.81 seconds.
This was the first year that Krack performed better in the long jump than he did in the triple jump. He got second at state in the long jump with a jump of 22 ft 8 inches. In the triple jump, he got fourth with a jump of 44ft 1.25 inches, ending his high school jumping career on a personal best.
College Years So Far
Krack carried his ability to be versatile in track events and perform well in all of his events into college. Because he did seven or more events through high school, it was only natural to make him into a decathlon athlete (decathlete).
The decathlon is where athletes compete in events over the span of two days and get awarded points based on their performance. This is different from athletes who only specialize in a few events, who get points based on their placement.
In high school, there is no decathlon, so athletes can compete in any event they want and make up their own “decathlon”. But in college, there is a list of certain events they have to compete in to be considered a decathlete.
The events are 100m, 110m hurdles, 400m, 1,500m, long jump, shot put, high jump, discus, pole vault, and javelin.
Even though Krack had to learn five new events, he didn’t let that bother him and took it in his stride. In his outdoor freshman year, he had lots of improvement in events he did throughout high school, like the 100m, where he had a personal best of 11.14 seconds, which is a .26-second improvement from his senior year in high school.
He also did well in events he had learned the previous fall. In the shot put, he threw 11.85m, which translates to 38.8 ft. This put him 8th at the 2025 NAIA Outdoor National Championship. It’s important to note that in college for men, the shot put ball weighs 16 pounds.
The biggest accomplishment from his freshman season was him getting first at the decathlon at the 2025 NAIA Outdoor National Championship with 6,963 points. The man who got second was a senior, and they only had a 15-point difference, making Krack’s performance all the more impressive.
Going into his sophomore year, Krack had a spotlight on him to see if he could win the national decathlon title for a second time in a row. This only fueled him to outperform his competitors more.
His lowest placement in any event this past spring season was tenth in the pole vault, where he jumped 4.25m, which translates to 13.9 ft. Despite pole vault not being his strong suit, he did have major improvements in the 100m and 400m.
In the 100m, he ran a personal best of 10.95 at the start of the season, a .19 second improvement from his time in his freshman year.
In the 400m, he got first in almost every race he ran but one and had a personal best of 48.44. This is a .76 second difference from his freshman year.
At the 2026 NAIA Outdoor National Championship rose to the expectations and won the decathlon title again with 7,522 points. The man who got second place was a junior, and there is a 355-point difference.
Carson Krack is an amazing athlete, and it can be assumed he hasn’t reached his full potential based on the improvements he has made from his sophomore year in high school to his sophomore year in college. Carroll’s track athletes are now on summer break, but they will come back to prepare for the indoor season in late summer.
