VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (theACC.com) – North Carolina’s Makayla Paige and Ethan Strand each won an individual national championship on Saturday, March 15, at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field National Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
 
Paige is the first NCAA Champion for the women since Nicole Greene in the High Jump in 2018. Paige (2:00.39) jumped out to the front of the pack from the shots of the starting gun and held on to win the 800-meter run national championship while also setting the facility record. The senior from Tewksbury, Massachusetts, never surrendered the lead throughout her record-setting performance.
 
On the other hand, the men’s 3,000-meter run field changed leads on six occasions with Strand overcoming Virginia’s Gary Martin late in the race. His final split of 25.39 was the fastest in the field as Strand crossed the finish line in 7:52.03. Strand is the first men's indoor NCAA Champion for Carolina since Adam Shunk took home the gold in the High Jump in 2003.
 
The ACC finished with five national championships during the 2025 event after Notre Dame’s Jadin O’Brien (women’s pentathlon), Duke’s Simen Guttormsen (men’s pole vault) and the Virginia men’s distance medley relay team of Wes Porter, Gary Martin, Conor Murphy and Alex Sherman each claimed a crown on Friday, March 14.
 
Virginia led the way for ACC programs in men’s team scoring, logging 23 points and a tie for sixth place. North Carolina finished with 22 points, tying for eighth. On the women’s side, Stanford logged 16 points to lead ACC programs, finishing in 13th place.