Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
John Thomas Terrier Classic
Black Knights Wrap Up Strong Weekend In Boston
January 25, 2020 | Men's Track and Field
The Black Knights claimed victories in two events, with Justin Young winning the 60 meter hurdles and Geoff Kirk winning the shot put. Young's 7.90 moved him to the top of the Patriot League charts and was .03 below his career best. Kirk's 17.91 meter throw was the league's second best result behind only his own Army record 18.36 meter toss earlier this season.
Kedrin Jefferson narrowly missed his Army record in the 200 meter dash, recording a 21.33. He currently leads the Patriot League with his 21.31 mark from the Crowell Open.
The Black Knights will be right back on the track next weekend when they once again travel to Penn State for the Penn State National Invitational
COACH'S CORNER: Head Coach Mike Smith
"I thought we were pretty good today. We won a couple of events and we had a lot of season best marks. This meet is a bit of a monster. There are multiple flights in the field events and some of the track events have 150 athletes entered so you really have to manage your warm up and pay attention to the details in order to prepare properly. Our guys handled the environment well and the results show some of the progress we have made in training over the last couple of weeks.Â
Our guys in the shot put showed some nice consistency in their series today and our 1,2,3 finish was impressive. Geoff and Mike are veterans at this, so it was not a surprise to see them go one two. Reece's third place finish was a nice surprise. He is a kid that I am pretty excited about. He had a nice high school career in the shot and discus but decided to pursue football in college. He was the starting quarterback at western michigan for a year and then transferred to Missouri to go to school and had all but given up on athletics until we were able to discover him. He has reignited his passion for the throws after a couple of years of not doing them and is just now putting things together. He will keep getting better and better as he gets stronger.  That throws group of ours is like a powered keg about to explode. We have some ornery dudes over there and they are poised to drop some big marks this season. It is coming.Â
The sprint guys did a nice job today. We had several improvements in the 200 and Kedrin looked much better and nearly broke his own school record. He is just a few technical fixes away from putting together a big race. Our top performer today was Justin Young in the 60m hurdles. He nearly reached his personal best in the final today and won the event convincingly. He looks fast and strong and is one of the best competitors that I have been around. There is more coming with him. I will leave it at that for now. Â
Ivalso was pleased with the way our middle distance and distance guys competed today. Jackson Sullivan looked really good in the 800. He is another one of our fiercest competitors and today was no exception. He didn't win the 800, but he is probably at the top of our conference now and certainly is on the right path to run pretty quick this season. I like his chances to threaten the school record at some point. Â
Ben Petrella had a really strong race in the 3k today. We brought a large crew up here to try and sort out who the top guys are for us. For all intents and purposes, this was Ben's indoor opener, so It was nice to see him run so well in a quality race. You know what you are going to get with him. He is almost always going to run to his potential and is always in the hunt in races. He has matured a lot since his plebe year and I am enjoying watching him continue to improve in his final go around.Â
The other outstanding distance race today for us was the performance from Luca Mazzanti. His training all year has been strong but he struggled with putting things together in races. I kept telling him that eventually things would click and I would say that is what happened today. He thrives on competition and he was tactically sound in a very competitive race. He showed great poise out there. He just kept moving up and passing guys. I expect our guys to be tough in training and tenacious in races and Luca's race today is a good example of the latter. I am proud of him.Â
The final performance highlight for us today was the men's 4x400. We have waited patiently to put together our best relay and today's foursome did a nice job. I am actually a bit surprised we ran as fast as we did. Those guys showed some guts out there and really attacked the race. We didn't win, but we took a shot at it. I know we have more in the tank. Â
All in all I feel good about what we did here. We needed to get some guys going and the vast majority of today's marks show the improvements that we have made. We are going to just keep building our momentum and get ready for championship season."
EVENT WINNERS:Men's 60m Hurdles Finals: Justin Young - 7.90
Men's 60m Hurdles Prelims: Justin Young - 8.800
Men's Shot Put: Geoff Kirk - 17.91m
NOTABLE PERFORMANCES:
Men's 200m: Kedrin Jefferson - 21.33, Fourth
Men's 800m: Jackson Sullivan - 1:51.00, Sixth
Men's 4x400m: Calvin Wetzel, Drew Bullen, Justin Young, Kevin Sembrat - 3:13.81
Men's Weight Throw: Michael Renard - 18.53m, Third
Men's Weight Throw: Deven McNeal - 18.46m, Fourth
Men's Shot Put: Michael Renard - 17.33m, Second
Men's Shot Put: Reece Goddard - 17.06m, Third
FULL RESULTS:Â https://www.lancertiming.com/results/winter20/terrier/index.html
UP NEXT: The Black Knights will compete in the Penn State National Invitational Jan. 31-Feb. 1.Â
Â
