Anna Niebrugge competes in the 60-meter dash at the Fairgrounds Invitational. In the race, Niebrugge would run her way into her third record-breaking performance of the season. Photo courtesy of Butler Athletics.
AIDEN CADDELL | STAFF REPORTER | acaddell@butler.edu
Senior sprinter Grace Stedge watched the scoreboard at the Indianapolis State Fairgrounds with eager eyes, awaiting the results of the 60-meter dash. After a race that took less than eight seconds, the wait can feel like forever when there is a school record at stake, a circumstance that is now always in play when her teammate, first-year Anna Niebrugge, toes the starting line.
“We’re watching [the scoreboard] as the times are revealed, and [went] ‘Oh my gosh, that’s another school record, isn’t it?’, when she had just broken it last week,” Stedge said. “I think that kind of just sums up how the season has looked for Anna.”
After racing less than a dozen times for the Bulldogs, Niebrugge has broken the record times for both the 60-meter and 200-meter dashes, with times of 7.54 and 24.26 seconds, respectively.
Checking into the indoor track season as a talented, yet unproven first-year, Niebrugge did not know that she was poised to break Bulldog records so early in her Butler career. That changed after winning the 200-meter finals in her first collegiate meet during the Blue-Gold invite at the University of Notre Dame and becoming the fastest 200-meter runner in Butler’s history, Niebrugge has made an early statement.
“My goal for this season was really just to focus on myself and adjust to college running, so I think I was trying not to think about [breaking records],” Niebrugge said. “It kind of surprised me a little when they said I had broken the records.”
As a new hire at Butler for the 2026 season, assistant track and field coach Jeff Fiebelkorn was not part of the coaching staff that offered Niebrugge a place on the roster. Despite this,
Fiebelkorn says that in the short time that they have worked together, Niebrugge has proven herself as an all-time talent.
“She’s one of the fastest women that I’ve ever coached,” Fiebelkorn said. “You can see that in her races; after that first 30 meters, she typically starts gaining on people.
Even placed alongside Stedge in a longer race — the two are both members of the 4×400 meter relay team — Stedge says that Niebrugge takes on the challenge with a heightened determination when it comes to running alongside her teammates.
“It’s been a complete blessing to be able to compete alongside Anna,” Stedge said. “Whether we put her in as an anchor or [on] our second leg or third leg, Anna competes. If she’s chasing someone, she chases hard. If she’s in first, she keeps pushing.”
Away from meet day, Niebrugge is still known by her coaches and teammates as a fierce competitor. While many athletes take time to adjust from high school to Division I athletics, Niebrugge has found her home in a group of women using one another as fuel to achieve their goals.
“The workouts can be really hard, but it’s fun to bond [with my teammates] over that in a way,” Niebrugge said. “We’re all doing the same hard thing together, helping each other achieve our best during a workout.”
Niebrugge attributes her strides in racing times to having blossomed from work with Fiebelkorn. As a strict proponent of form, in every 200-meter race — including Niebrugge’s personal best time — Fiebelkorn can be heard around the final corner, shouting, “Lift your hips and stay tall!”
Moving forward, Fiebelkorn finds the future of the track and field program to be exceptionally bright with Niebrugge on the roster. He hopes her races attract more talented athletes to come to Indianapolis and learn The Butler Way.
“Anna raises the standard of what it means to be a Butler sprinter,” Fiebelkorn said. “To come in [as a first-year] and be the fastest woman during indoor season in our school’s history, you want that to be a sign that we’re going to be challenging for some really high positions in the conference [in the future].”
