Track & Field Unveils 2026 Schedule

ORLANDO – Set for its third go-around as a member of the Big 12 Conference, the UCF track and field team has officially announced its 2026 schedule.

Both the indoor and outdoor seasons will culminate in a trip to the Big 12 Championships, where head coach Dana Boone and her squad aim to build on last year’s success. The Knights brought home a haul of medals last season, highlighted by an indoor-outdoor sweep of the 4x400m relay.

Additionally, the squad is excited to announce it will commence the outdoor campaign with back-to-back home meets. The Knights will host the Black and Gold Invitational from March 20-21, followed by the Knights Invite from March 27-28, the fifth edition of the paired events, not including the canceled 2020 season.

Indoor
The Knights will open the indoor season at the Rod McCravy Invitational on Jan. 9-10  in Louisville, Kentucky, before the distance squad loops back to Florida on Jan. 16 to race at the Jimmy Carnes Invitational for the fourth consecutive season. 

A pair of meets awaits the Black and Gold the following week as the sprints and jumps squad makes a trip to the Lone Star State for the Red Raider Invite on Jan. 23, while the distance team packs their bags for Clemson to race in the Orange and Purple Invitational.

From Feb. 7-8, the Black and Gold return to the Charlie Thomas Invitational in College Station for the first time since 2022—a year in which the Knights’ sprint squad dominated the field, bringing home multiple medals, including a first-place 60m finish from former Knight Rayniah Jones.

The final regular-season weekend sends the Knights to Fayetteville, Ark., for the Tyson Invitational at the Randal Tyson Track Center, the same venue they’ll return to later in the postseason for the NCAA Indoor Championships. 

Postseason action begins on Feb. 28, sending the Knights to Lubbock, Texas, for the Big 12 Championships for the third straight year, where they’ll aim to uphold their strong standard at the meet. At last year’s Big 12 Indoor Championship, the Knights made their presence felt across the podium, highlighted by a program-best heptathlon from then-Knight Natalia Madison, who secured a fourth-place finish. The weekend was capped by a historic run from the 4x400m squad, who brought home the program’s first-ever Big 12 gold.

The Black and Gold will find themselves back in Fayetteville at the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 13-14, where Boone and her staff will look to build on their All-American legacy and continue UCF’s streak of qualifying at least one athlete for the fourth consecutive year.

Outdoor
As the weather warms, the Knights will launch the outdoor season by hosting back-to-back premier early-season meets. The Black and Gold Invitational, set for March 20–21, and the Knights' Invite, from March 27-28, will bring top teams from across the nation to Orlando for a highly competitive weekend.

The Black and Gold will stay in the Sunshine State for the remainder of the regular outdoor season, starting in Gainesville on April 3-4 for the Florida Relays, before heading south for the USF Invitational from April 10-11.

Next, the squad travels to Miami on April 10-11 for the Hurricane Invitational, then returns to Gainesville for the Tom Jones Invitational on April 17-18. Boone and her sprint squad will look to maintain their dominance at the Tom Jones meet, where Ese Awusa captured silver in last year’s 100m hurdles.

A trip to Jacksonville from May 1-2 will serve as the conclusion for the regular outdoor season, as the squad competes in the East Coast Relays for the fourth straight season.

Postseason kicks off with a new destination on the Knights’ map, Tucson, Arizona, where the program will make its third appearance at the Big 12 Outdoor Championship on May 14-16. Boone and her team have been dominant at the event since joining the conference, highlighted by Rayniah Jones’ 100m hurdles title in the squad’s inaugural season, a 4x400m gold last year, and a string of other podium finishes across sprints and relays, including a third-place 4x100 finish and a sixth-place heptathlon finish from Madison last season.

From there, the Knights begin their NCAA journey on May 27-30 in Lexington, Kentucky, for the preliminary round of the outdoor championship, leading up to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, from June 10-13. Hayward Field, long regarded as the nation’s premier track stadium, has been the site of historic performances for UCF in recent years, including Rayniah Jones’ program-record third-place finish in the 100m hurdles in 2024 and Adoabi Tabugbo’s 12th-place finish in the same event last year.