By: Ryan Klinkner, SJU Athletic Media Relations Director & Frank Rajkowski, SJU Writer/Video Producer
Six Saint John’s University track and field student-athletes will compete in six events, including the four-man 4×100-meter relay, at the 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships May 22-24 at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio. – Live Results | Live Video
THE SCHEDULE: The Johnnies are scheduled to compete at the following times this week/weekend.
Thursday (all times CT)
-10:30 a.m.: Decathlon (Day 1): 100-meter dash, long jump (~11:15 a.m.), shot put (~12:25 p.m.), high jump (~1:45 p.m.) and 400-meter dash (3:40 p.m.)
*Lelwica
-1:30 p.m.: Long Jump
*Reis
-4:15 p.m.: 4×100-Meter Relay (Prelims)
-5:40 p.m.: 200-Meter Dash (Prelims)
*Arthur
Friday (all times CT)
-9 a.m.: Decathlon (Day 2): 110-meter hurdles, discus (9:45 a.m.), pole vault (~11 a.m.), javelin (1:45 p.m.) and 1,500 meters (~3:30 p.m.)
*Lelwica
-1 p.m.: High Jump
*McDowell
-2:30 p.m.: 100-Meter Dash (Prelims)
*Arthur and Reis
Saturday (all times CT)
-12:05 p.m.: 4×100-Meter Relay (Final)
-1:30 p.m.: 100-Meter Dash (Final)
-2:40 p.m.: 200-Meter Dash (Final)
TO ADVANCE IN THE SPRINTS: The winner from each of the three heats plus the next best six times qualify for Saturday’s finals, 1:30 p.m. CT for the 100 and 2:40 p.m. CT for the 200.
THE QUALIFIERS: The Johnnies competing individually are:
-Senior Kevin Arthur (Champlin, Minn./Champlin Park) in the 100- and 200-meter dashes;
-Senior Max Lelwica (Brainerd, Minn.) in the decathlon;
-Senior Jackson McDowell (Centennial, Colo./Arapahoe) in the high jump;
-Freshman Max Reis (West Fargo, N.D./Spectrum) in the long jump and 100-meter dash.
The top 22 marks/times in each individual event, and the top 16 teams in each relay event, advanced to the national meet.
4×100-meter relay
The 4×100-meter relay (Morey, Arthur, Murnan, Reis) ended the season eighth in Division III – fourth in the region – with the program-record time of 40.28 seconds it recorded April 26 at the Drake Relays. The time was the 17th-fastest (10th-fastest program) in NCAA Division III history and shattered the previous school record of 40.65, set in 2022, by .37 of a second.
The event’s prelims, scheduled for 4:15 p.m. CT Thursday, will consist of two heats of eight teams. The top two from each prelim plus the next best five times, after tie breaking, qualify for Saturday’s final at 12:05 p.m. CT. Four Johnnies – sophomore Matt Hansen (Longmont, Colo./Niwot), junior Aidan Morey (Omaha, Neb./Creighton Prep), sophomore Kieran Murnan (Lakeville, Minn./Holy Angels) and senior Emanual Popoca (Minneapolis, Minn./Bloomington Kennedy) – are vying for the relay’s two additional spots.
Arthur
An unprecedented four-time (2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025) MIAC Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year, Arthur swept the 100- and 200-meter dashes for the fourth-consecutive season as SJU finished second – 207-206.5 – at the 2025 MIAC Championships last weekend (May 9-10) at Macalester. He broke SJU’s program record to win the 100-meter dash in 10.19 seconds and returned to the track to take the 200-meter sprint with a season-best time of 20.81 seconds. The Johnnies’ previous 100-meter record was 10.22 set by Ryan Miller in 2019.
He also served as the second leg on SJU’s champion 4×100-meter relay (Hansen, Arthur, Morey, Reis), which claimed its fifth title in the last seven seasons with a meet-record time of 40.29 seconds.
Arthur was named the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division III Men’s National Athlete of the Week May 12 for his performance at the conference meet and ended the regular season second (10.19) in NCAA Division III in the 100-meter dash (second in the region) and third (20.81) in the 200 (second in the region).
This week’s trip to the national meet is the fifth-straight for Arthur, who earned All-America honors with a fifth-place finish in the 100-meter dash last season. He has qualified in the 100-meter dash all five seasons and his appearance in the 200-meter dash will be his fourth-straight. His appearance on the 4×100-meter relay team will be his third, qualifying in 2022 (14th) and earning his first All-America distinction as a member of SJU’s fourth-place relay team in 2021. He is now a 12-time All-Region honoree (one indoors and 11 outdoors).
Lelwica
Lelwica qualified for nationals in the decathlon with 6,905 points – the fourth-best point total in Division III – that he registered to win the MIAC title three weeks ago (May 1-2). He is the fifth Johnnie and seventh overall to win the MIAC decathlon. His 6,905 points were the second-highest total in both the region and program history, just 27 points from the record of 6,932 that Maguire Petersen ’22 registered for fifth place and All-America honors at the 2022 NCAA Division III Championships.
He is the sixth Johnnie to qualify for nationals in the decathlon and will be the ninth appearance overall: Dan Besemann ’96 in 1994 and 1995 (seventh), Steve Kimble ’99 in 1998 and 1999 (sixth), Phil Barry ’00 in 2000, Brayden Wagner ’09 in 2009 (sixth) and Maguire Petersen ’22 in 2022 (fifth). Lelwica finished 19th out of 22 participants at last year’s NCAA Championships with 6,225 points.
McDowell
McDowell won his second-consecutive MIAC outdoor title in the high jump on May 10 with a season-best height of 2.07 meters. The mark ranked eighth in Division III and second in the region.
He is the third Johnnie to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the outdoor high jump and the fifth overall, joining Mike Cihlar ’95 in 1992 and Petersen in 2021 (t-eighth) and 2022. McDowell earned his first All-America honor with an eighth place finish at last year’s event (2.08 meters) and was the national runner-up at this season’s NCAA Indoor Championships with a program-record height of 2.14 meters.
Reis
Reis won the long jump with a program-record mark of 7.33 meters (24 feet, 3/4 inches), the 14th-best mark in NCAA Division III and the fifth-best in the region this spring. He is the first Johnnie since Erik Diley ’08 to qualify in the long jump outdoors, both in 2007 and 2008. Reis broke Diley’s program record of 7.30 meters to win the title.
Reis also qualified with Arthur for the 100-meter dash, where he tied for 21st nationally with a time of 10.46 seconds. He qualified for the 60-meter dash at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March and finished 17th with a time of 6.84 seconds, 0.002 of a second from 16th place and second-team All-America honors.
ALL-REGION: Arthur (in both sprints), Lelwica, McDowell, Reis (long jump), the 4×100-meter relay (Matt Hansen, Arthur, Kieran Murnan, Reis) and junior Mitchell Degen (Brainerd, Minn.) were named 2025 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-North Region in their respective events. Degen’s javelin throw of 60.15 meters recorded on March 28 at the CSB/SJU Optimistic Invitational was good for second in the region and 29th nationally.
FEATURE STORY: When the 2025 NCAA Division III outdoor track and field championships get underway this week in Geneva, Ohio, Saint John’s University senior Kevin Arthur will be making his seventh appearance (indoor and outdoor) at a national meet.
Teammate Max Reis will be making just his second – the first coming at the Division III indoor championships earlier this year.
So Reis has been eager to soak in any tips or advice Arthur can provide.
“It’s nice to have someone whose been through this before and can push you,” said Reis, a three-time Minnesota state high school champion who had been away from track and field since competing at Indian Hills (Iowa) Community College in the spring of 2023.
“Before I went to indoor nationals, he and I worked on block starts together and that helped a lot. The biggest thing he told me before that meet was that the timing of your warm-up is different. They get you into a loading zone before you run, which doesn’t happen at a normal meet. So you have to adjust your warm-up accordingly. Knowing that in advance made a big difference.”
This year’s outdoor national meet begins Thursday and runs through Saturday at the SPIRE Academy track and field complex. Reis has qualified to compete in the long jump, where he is seeded 14th, and the 100-meter dash, where he is seeded 21st.
Both Reis and Arthur are part of the Johnnies’ 4×100 relay team, which enters the competition seeded eighth overall. Arthur, meanwhile, enters the meet ranked second in the 100 and third in the 200 – making him a contender for a national title in both those events.
“Any given meet, anything can happen,” he said. “The forecast (in Geneva) this week is supposed to be chillier than usual, which means no one is going to have a perfect day. It’s going to come down to who shows up when it matters. We’re used to running in 45-to-50-degree weather, so maybe that gives us a bit of an advantage.”
Arthur has previously cited Reis as a big reason why he chose to return to use a final season of outdoor eligibility this spring.
“I knew what an impressive athlete he was, and I played a role in recruiting him to come here,” Arthur said.
“I knew having him here meant we’d have the chance to do some pretty special things in the 4×100 relay. That made it a pretty easy sell.”
Reis, too, said the chance to run with Arthur helped convince him to transfer to SJU.
“Being part of the 4×100 with him was one of the main reasons I wanted to run here,” he said. “I knew we could be pretty good.”
Beyond the 4×100, Arthur and Reis are hoping to lead SJU to a high finish in the team scores. In that, they will be aided by senior Max Lelwica, who qualified fourth overall in the decathlon, and classmate Jackson McDowell, who is seeded eighth in the high jump.
The top eight finishers in each event earn All-American honors. The program record for All-American performances at a single national meet is five in 2007 and ’08 – an achievement the seedings suggest could be equaled or surpassed this week.
“That’s the goal,” SJU head coach Jeremy Karger-Gatzow said. “We have a lot of guys seeded pretty high. We just need to go out there and perform to the best of our abilities. Then we’ll see what happens.”
Both Lelwica and McDowell are making their third trip to nationals (indoor or outdoor).
“The level of intensity is a lot higher when you get to this point,” Lelwica said. “You’re competing against so many great athletes. It takes a bit to get used to the atmosphere. But having been through it a couple of times, I feel a lot more comfortable now.”
McDowell, who played baseball his first two seasons at SJU and did not come out for track until last year, would have track eligibility remaining if he chooses to use it. But, no matter what, this will be his last time competing alongside Lelwica – one of his several roommates on the track and field team.
“It’s kind of a surreal feeling and it hasn’t hit me yet,” said McDowell, who like Lelwica took part in commencement exercises last Saturday. “I don’t think it will until after the competition. I’ve been trying to push back all those kinds of thoughts for now. I want to go there and take it all in. But I also don’t want to be too down when it’s over.”
