Three Academy Records Set As Army Women Have Big Day In Boston

Friday, January 24

Boston, MA

2 p.m.

Army West Point

John Thomas Terrier Classic

Three Academy Records Set As Army Women Have Big Day In Boston

January 24, 2020 | Women's Track and Field

BOSTON, Mass. - It was a record filled day for the Army West Point women's track and field team as the Cadets competed in the first of two days of the John Thomas Terrier Classic at Boston Univeristy on Friday.

A week after being named Patriot League Track and Field Athletes of the Week respectively, senior Calli McMullen and sophomore Emily Mikoud jumped right back into the spotlight, breaking two Army West Point records. McMullen is no stranger to the record books, entering the day atop the 60 meter and 200 meter dash lists. She etched her name atop another on this day, recording a 54.66 in the 400 meter dash and becoming the first Cadet to record a sub-55 second time in the event and smashing the pervious Academy mark by over a second. Mikoud posted her first career 15-plus meter shot put throw, breaking Briyah Brown's Army record from 2018 with a toss of 15.39 meters.

The Cadets also smashed the 4x400 meter relay record, with McMullen anchoring a group with Anna Tovkach, Madeline Magoto and Hannah Blakey to a 3:46.60. The time is the first under 3:48 in school history, beating the previous record of 3:48.14 set at the ECAC Championships in 2013.

Abigail Green was also impressive on this day, jumping to second on the Army women's weight throw list with with a mark of 18.52 meters.

Saturday's portion of the meet will focus on the men's team with action beginning at 10:30 a.m.

COACH'S CORNER: Head Coach Mike Smith
"The women were outstanding today. The competitive level of the meet was a step up from last week and many of our kids rose to the challenge. We won multiple events and we set three school records. Most of the time I leave a meet and there is a pretty even spread between the kids that had good days and the ones that leave feeling disappointed. But not today. The records are nice, but the wins and the way we competed are the telling sign. That to me is the measure of a good team. I think we are a good team.

Our entire middle distance and distance crew performed well today. In the 800 Anna Tovkach started us off with another breakthrough performance. She is starting to figure out how to distribute her effort throughout the race. She has only run to indoor 800m races in her career and is already with a few tenths of a second of our school record. She has taken her fitness to another level this year and the results are starting to show. Some of the younger kids also did a nice job. The times were strong for them but most importantly they were fighting to win races. It was great to see such confident, competitive efforts. The 3k and 5k women closed out the night for us and they did a great job of fighting for places. I was really happy to see those women battling.

We dominated the throwing events. Emily Mikoud and Abigail Green have shown great potential all season and today they measured up to their own standards. They went 1-2 in the weight throw and both threw lifetime bests and I think those marks will be one and two in the conference at the end of the weekend. In the shot, Emily had the two best throws of her life and in the process she set a new school record. Now the throws that are average for her are farther than she threw all of last year. She is at another level.

Once again, Calli McMullen put on a show today. Maybe show isn't the right word because she really shies away from the spotlight, but it still finds her. It's hard not to notice Calli because she has become so dominant and she competes as if her life depends on it. It is hard to beat a kid that hates to lose more than she likes to win. That is Calli. She won the 400m in commanding fashion tonight. She was never challenged. Her 54.66 is two seconds faster than she ran two weeks ago and eclipsed a long standing school record by a full second. What we are seeing with her is extraordinary. If her day ended with that victory it would have been noteworthy but she wasn't finished. We lined up our 4x400 thinking we had a shot to be pretty competitive and she was on it. We led throughout until the anchor leg. The Rutgers anchor closed the gap on us with about 150 to go, but Calli shut her down as soon as she felt the pressure and we won going away. It was impressive.

We came to this meet because we wanted to put our team in some really competitive situations and see how they responded and they did a nice job of handling that expectation and rising to the challenge. I am really pleased with what I saw today."

EVENT WINNERS:
Women's 400m dash: Calli McMullen - 54.66 (Academy Record)
Women's 4x400m relay: Anna Tovkach, Madeline Magoto, Hannah Blakey, Calli McMullen - 3:46.60 (Academy Record)
Women's Shot Put: Emily Mikoud - 15.39m (Academy Record)
Women's Weight Throw: Abigail Green - 18.52m

NOTABLE PERFORMANCES:
Women's 800m run: Anna Tovkach - 2:08.90, 13th
Women's Weight Throw: Emily Mikoud - 18.40m, Second
Women's High Jump: Olivia Gervan - 1.65m, Sixth

FULL RESULTS: https://www.lancertiming.com/results/winter20/terrier/index.htm

UP NEXT: With the men's team competing on Saturday, the women's team will return to action next week at the Penn State National Invitational.