Army West Point Athletics
Cook and Renard Punch Tickets to NCAAs
May 24, 2019 | Men's Track and Field
Sophomore August Cook qualified for the second time in his Army career in the javelin and junior Michael Renard will make his first trip to the national event in the discus.
Cook placed tenth in the 48 man field with a throw of 66.42 meters at the NCAA East Regional Preliminary, advancing him to the national event which will take place from June 5-8 in Austin, Texas. Cook was the lone Black Knight to qualify for last years championship, where he finished 23rd.Â
The Bedford, Pa., native entered the preliminary event ranked eighth in the country with his program record breaking 72.45 meter mark at the 2019 Patriot League Outdoor Championships.Â
Renard posted a personal best 56.98m throw, placing him 11th and advancing him to next week's finals. The throw was the third best in the history of the Army track and field program.Â
The junior will also compete in Saturday's shot put preliminaries. Renard broke a 21-year old Army outdoor shot put record this season at the Penn Challenge. That record was later topped by teammate Geoff Kirk at the Army-Navy Star Meet.
In addition, freshman Justin Young qualified for Saturday's 110 meter hurdles quarterfinal with his 13.90 time. Young will compete tomorrow at 7:20 pm with a chance to join his teammates in Texas.
The Black Knights will look to add more qualifiers with six Cadets scheduled to compete on Saturday.Â
COACH'S CORNER: Head Coach Mike SmithÂ
On August Cook:
"August did a nice job of managing the competition today. This meet is a massive event. There are 48 people in each event which creates a lot of competition for the top 12 spots to advance to the NCAA Championships. The margin of error is very slim and in the long throws, you only get three attempts. Anything can happen in an environment as competitive as this, so you have to really manage things or you can get left behind pretty quickly.
He was the first thrower in the most competitive flight, so he may have felt a lot of adrenaline as he stood on the runway. On that first attempt, he just didn't get his whole body in the right position after his penultimate step and the release of the javelin was off as a result. He hasn't done that all year, so that gives you a good idea of how emotions can play a role in something like this.Â
He settled down on his second attempt and hit a better position. That throw was the throw that got the job done and I think he was more relieved than anything else afterward.
Now he can rest for two weeks and refocus his attention on bettering his performance from last year at the NCAA Championships."Â
On Michael Renard:
"I am really happy for Mike. Coach Posillico has done a nice job with him and a lot of hard work went into today's result. He had the best series of throws in his life today and you can't really ask for much more than that at a meet if this caliber. Â
He came to us three years ago as an unrecruited walk-on with rather uncompetitive marks in the shot and the discus. But he had a Division I body and a great work ethic. 50 additional pounds later, he is one of the best discus throwers in the country. Quite an accomplishment really.Â
Now he gets to go compete in one of the best meets on the planet in two weeks and see what he can do."
On Justin Young:
"Justin Young did a nice job of advancing to tomorrow's quarterfinal in the 110 high hurdles.Â
He has been a top performer for us all year both indoors and outdoors so it is nice to see him get a shot at the next level.Â
He ran within 1/100th of a second of his personal best and that is what we have pushed with our people all year. If you do what you have already done to get here good things can happen.Â
It's a significant accomplishment for any of our kids to advance within this meet but even more remarkable for a plebe to do it. He continues to impress us.Â
Tomorrow he will have to set a personal record to advance to the NCAA meet. He is a gamer so anything is possible."
FULL RESULTS:Â https://dt8v5llb2dwhs.cloudfront.net/East/index.htm
Players Mentioned
