GORHAM, Maine – Fifth-year senior Zoe Barnes (New Gloucester, Maine/Gray-New Gloucester) of the University of Southern Maine Huskies' women's track & field team will compete in the shot put on Saturday, March 14 at the 2026 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham, Ala. The shot put will be held at 3:00 pm on day two of the competition.
 
Barnes, a two-time national qualifier in the discus in her outdoor career, will be making her first appearance at the indoor national championship meet. She already held the program record in the shot put entering this season and has since rewrote the record book four times since. She has placed first in the shot put at all five meets that she has competed in this season. Barnes won both the shot put and weight throw at the Maine State Meet to earn the event's Lynn Ruddy Women's Field Most Valuable Performer award. She also won conference titles in both events to secure her second consecutive LEC Indoor Field Athlete of the Year honor. Her mark of 14.32m at the conference championship pushed her to fourth in the nation. Barnes also won the DIII New England title in her most recent meet with a throw of 13.83m.
 
Barnes enters the event seeded fourth and will be competing in the second flight on Saturday with the rest of the top 10 seeds. Each competitor will have three attempts, and the top nine performers will advance to the finals after both flights are competed. The top nine will then each get three additional attempts.
 
The field for the shot put includes a trio of returning First Team All-Americans led by last season's runner up in Jenae Bothe of Washington University. Emmilly Berglund of Nebraska Wesleyan and Amblessed Okemgbo of Whitworth also placed in the top five last season at fourth and fifth, respectively.