Black Knights Take First Place at Penn Challenge

Saturday, March 24

Philadelphia, PA

All Day

Army West Point

Penn Challenge

Black Knights Take First Place at Penn Challenge

March 24, 2018 | Men's Track and Field

WEST POINT, N.Y. - The Army West Point men's track and field team finished big in Philadelphia, placing first of seven teams.

Army won the Penn Challenge, beating out the meet host University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Villanova, La Salle, Rider and Cornell for the top spot. The team scored 196.5 points. Last year at this meet, the Black Knights placed second. This is the Cadet's second consecutive first-place finish.

COACH'S QUOTES
"We performed well today without really loading the team all that much," said head coach Mike Smith. "We are pointing toward the championship meets so we came into this meet hoping to get a better look at some of our developmental athletes and fine tune some things with a select group of key athletes. Today was more about getting in the work than anything else."

"Our throws group continues to impress. Mike Renard has started to figure some technical things out and his shot put just keeps getting better and better. I also thought the discus guys did a nice job this week as a follow up to the throws that they had last week in California."

"On the track side, we competed for a lot meet wins and had some nice improvements for a few key people. We met our primary objectives today."

Track Events

Army placed 1-3 in the 100m dash. Tyler Davis finished first with a time of 10.86, Andre Vaughn took second place with 11.03, and Jaylin Davis clocked in at 11.19 which was good for third.
Ross Puritty claimed second in the 110m hurtles with a time of 14.97. Conner Russell took fourth, clocking in at 16.15. Naquore Davis's time of 16.28 was good for fifth and Jaeden Watson finished in sixth with a time of 16.29.
In the 200m, Jaylin Davis placed second with a time of 22.78.
Tyrell Maddox timed in at 48.67, finishing in second in the 400-meter dash. Marcus Denham finished seventh with a time of 50.51.
Puritty finished second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 55.70. Russell took seventh with a time of 57.82.
In the 800m, Ben Boswell placed second, clocking in at 1:53.87. Nick Causey followed in third with a time of 1:54.32. Jackson Sullivan placed sixth at 1:55.12.
Army placed 4-6 in the 1500, with John Valeri clocking in at 3:54.73 in fourth. Roman Ollar timed in at 3:55.25 for fifth place, and Mikey Singer claimed sixth with his time of 3:56.10.
Army won the 4x100 relay with a time of 41.57. The team consisted of Vaughn, Drew Bullen, Kedrin Jefferson, and Tyler Davis.
Army won the 4x400 relay clocking in at 3:21.36. The team consisted of Maddox, Alex Combs, Christian Wright, and Causey.

Field Events

Army placed first and second in the discus, with Geoff Kirk throwing for 50.86m and Michael Renard with a distance of 49.83m.
In the hammer throw Jacob Stauffer threw for 53.22m which was good for fourth place.
In the high jump, Jeff Giannettino placed second with a height of 2.07m. Bernard Jenkins cleared a height of 1.94m to take sixth place.
Army took four of the top six spots in the javelin throw. August Cook won the event throwing for 59.81m. Grayson Hill followed right behind with 58.71m. In fifth, Jack O'Brien threw for 52.27m, while sixth place Michael Gabrielsen cleared a distance of 51.95m.
Tyrese Bender claimed seventh in the long jump with a distance of 6.63m.
In the pole vault, Lee Bares finished second, clearing a height of 5.15m. Joe Popek followed in fourth with a height of 4.60m.
Renard won the shot put, throwing for a distance of 16.67m. Grant Alter followed with 14.89m which was good for fifth.
Bender won the triple jump with a distance of 13.74m. Josh Heiman placed fourth, jumping for 13.04m.

UP NEXT: The Cadets will host Navy at home in the annual Army-Navy Star meet in part of the Star Series presented by USAA on April 7^th.

For more information on Army West Point men's track and field, visit GoArmyWestPoint.com and follow @ArmyWP_TrackXC on Twitter.