Andale’s dynasty becomes pipeline to college track’s biggest stage
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Andale produced multiple NCAA Division I championship qualifiers this week in Eugene.
- Riley Marx, Katelyn Fairchild, McKenzie Fairchild and Ty McPhail graduated from Andale.
- Three of the four collegiate competitors from Andale are first cousins.
There are powerhouse Kansas high school track and field programs ... and then there is what Andale has become.
In a Class 4A town where state championships have piled up for more than a decade, the record board is treated less like history and more like a dare. Every class record, every school record, every gold medal becomes one more mark for the next athlete to chase.
This week, that chase has stretched all the way to the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Riley Marx, a Kansas State junior, is competing in the men’s javelin; sisters Katelyn and McKenzie Fairchild, both at Texas A&M, are in the women’s javelin; while Ty McPhail, a redshirt senior at Louisville, is in the men’s pole vault.
Marx and McPhail will compete Wednesday in the men’s javelin and pole vault, respectively, while Katelyn and McKenzie Fairchild will take their turn Thursday in the women’s javelin.
That group doesn’t include Annabeth Baalmann, another former state champion pole vaulter at Andale, who recently placed third at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships at Fort Hays State with a clearance of 13-7 1/4.
All five graduated from Andale between 2021 and 2023. Three of them — Marx and the Fairchild sisters — are first cousins. All of them came through a Class 4A program that has somehow made national-level excellence feel like part of the expectation.
“There is a huge sense of pride in our community to see four of our own from Andale High School go out there and compete at the national level,” Andale track coach Tyler Ryan said. “You can’t not be proud about that because it’s just so special.”
Special, but not random.
Andale has won five straight Class 4A boys track and field team championships and 10 boys titles since 2013. The girls program has been nearly as dominant, winning team championships in eight of the last nine Class 4A state meets.
Those numbers alone would make Andale one of the defining track programs in Kansas. But this week offers an even clearer picture of the program’s reach.
It is one thing to pile up medals at the state meet. It is another for a small-town Class 4A school to have four graduates in the same week at the NCAA championships, competing in field events against the best athletes in the country.
“It’s really cool, not only for our kids, but for all kids in this area to see four kids have this kind of success,” Ryan said. “It shows it is possible to achieve at a high level, so I think it’s motivating for everybody. If you work hard, you can do this and excel on the national stage.”
For Marx, the trip to Eugene comes two weeks after the biggest throw of his career. The former Andale star broke the Kansas State program record at NCAA regional qualifying with a javelin throw of 247 feet, 9 inches, punching his ticket back to nationals for the second straight season after finishing 11th at last year’s NCAA meet.
At Andale, Marx was a five-time state champion who won the Class 4A javelin title in each of his final three years before graduating in 2023.
His cousins built their own throwing legacy.
Katelyn Fairchild, a 2021 Andale graduate, is returning to the NCAA championships for the first time since 2023, when she placed third nationally as a freshman with a career-best throw of 190 feet, 2 inches. She is now a redshirt senior at Texas A&M.
McKenzie Fairchild, a 2023 Andale graduate and junior at Texas A&M, will make her first appearance at the national meet. Her all-time best is 180 feet, 7 inches.
Their high school resumes remain staggering. Katelyn competed at the state meet three years and won three state championships. McKenzie also had only three state meets, but still finished with seven state titles, including gold-medal sweeps of all three throwing events in each of her final two seasons.
Then there is McPhail, another 2021 graduate, who will make his first NCAA outdoor championship appearance in the pole vault for Louisville. His all-time best is 17 feet, 8 1/2 inches. At Andale, he was a two-time state champion in the pole vault.
Ryan is quick to point out that those results trace back to more than talent.
“It’s a reflection on the coaches that we have,” Ryan said. “Robby Spexarth might be one of the best javelin coaches in the country with the kids that he has developed and coached and worked with. And then Mark Schmidt in the pole vault, I don’t think there’s anyone more dedicated to the pole vault and to helping kids than Mark Schmidt.”
Spexarth, Andale’s throws coach, has had a front-row view of the development of Marx and the Fairchild sisters. He saw the talent early. But what stood out more was what happened after practice, after a big meet, after a bad throw, after a title.
They kept working.
“You knew they were going to have the success that they’re having now because of their work ethic and their attitude,” Spexarth said. “They have worked their butts off and what they were doing in high school, they have all just taken it to the next level.”
Plenty of great high school athletes dominate because they are stronger, faster or more gifted than everyone around them. But the college level strips away that cushion. Everyone at the NCAA championships was a star somewhere. Everyone has a state title, a school record, a reason to believe they belong.
That is where Andale’s four qualifiers have separated themselves.
“To get to that next level, it takes that extra level of dedication and commitment,” Spexarth said. “All of those kids have it.”
Ryan said the same thing shows up when he thinks back on what all four were like in high school.
“Those four kids were not only talented, but I was always impressed by the work ethic they had,” Ryan said. “They are some of the hardest working kids I’ve ever been around, all four of them would be right up there.”
That is why this week means more than four names on an NCAA entry list.
For Andale, it is a reflection of a culture that has been built one event group at a time. Spexarth’s javelin crew. Schmidt’s pole vaulters. Athletes who grow up seeing state champions at practice, then become state champions themselves, then set the next mark for someone younger to chase.
A freshman sees what a freshman before him threw. A sophomore knows the number waiting in the next column. A junior understands that the program standard was not placed there to be admired from a distance. It was placed there to be attacked.
That mindset has produced state titles by the handful. Now it has produced something even more rare: four NCAA Division I championship qualifiers from the same Class 4A school in the same week.
And when they step into Hayward Field, they will not just be representing Kansas State, Texas A&M and Louisville.
They will be representing the record board back home. The small community that has learned to expect big things from its athletes. And the next Andale kid who might be looking at a freshman class record right now, wondering how far it can take them.
For Marx, the Fairchild sisters and McPhail, the answer has stretched all the way to Eugene.
This story was originally published June 10, 2026 at 10:52 AM.
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