Aganus Sets Academy Record at Penn Challenge for Women's Track & Field; Throwers Continue Dominant Season

Saturday, March 18

Philadelphia, PA

Army West Point

Penn Challenge

Aganus Sets Academy Record at Penn Challenge for Women's Track & Field; Throwers Continue Dominant Season

March 20, 2023 | Women's Track and Field

PHILADELPHIA, PA - Army West women's track & field compete at Franklin Field for the Penn Challenge on Saturday.

Saydee Aganus helped highlight the day for the Black Knights, setting a new program record in the 100m hurdles with a time of 14.01s. Aganus claimed first-place in the event and logged her second hurdles program record set this season (60m indoor).

Army's throwers continued to improve and dominate, with top-three finishes in each event. Alexah Zaczynski earned the top spot in the javelin throw with a 46.40m toss. Brooke Stratmen took third with a 43.48m mark. Sophia Dykstra's 50.07m discus throw set a new personal-best and landed her in second-place while Karly Parcell logged fourth with a 47.31m mark.

Kayley Ragazzini paced the Black Knights in the hammer with a third-place finish (54.93m). Ragazzini also registered top-five finishes in the discus (44.50m, 5th) and shot put (14.05m, 3rd). Aysia Salas bested Ragazzini' mark with a 14.90m to grab second place for Army, as Samantha Sheppard-Moore led the vault squad in fourth with a 3.60m pole vault.

In the track events, Holli Chapman landed in fifth-place in the 200m with a time of 25.73, as Lara Westwood-Marsh finished just behind in sixth with a 25.81 mark. Zoe Eggleston claimed fourth in the 400m hurdles, with a showing of 1:04.95. Quinn Collins (2:18.23) and Shayla Bonzelet (2:18.69) also logged top-five finishes in the 800m finishing foruth and fifth, respectively.

FULL RESULTS

Coach's Corner
"Spring weather in the Northeast can be unpredictable but today it was sunny and relatively warm. We got lucky for a Saturday in mid March. We brought a mix of developmental people and some key performers and had some nice improvements and strong performances. We brought all of our throwers and they had a great day. We only won the women's javelin but we were impressive in all three of the other throws. Alexa Zaczynski won the javelin on her 2nd throw of the competition. Her other throws were not quite as far but were consistent over 43 meters which is better than what she was throwing coming into the season. She now sits #5 on the Army all-rime list. Sophia Dykstra was 2nd in the discus with a new lifetime best. There was a lot of excitement by the ring when the mark was confirmed at over 50 meters. That is a significant threshold for that group of women. We have several that we think can throw that far so her toss was a good start toward getting more of our women over 50. We ended up with 4 women in the top 6 so it was an impressive day for us. While I felt great about winning the javelin and was pleased with how we performed in the shot (3 in the top 4) and the discus the most impressive thrower for us today didn't win. I have often lauded the accomplishments of our record holders and winners and I will continue to do that but the woman that may score the most points of any woman on our entire team is Kayley Ragazzini. It would be easy to miss the significance of what she did today if you only looked at the top of the leaderboard. Because she didn't win anything…but she was in the final in the three ring throws (discus, shot, hammer) She was third in the hammer, third in the shot, and fifth in the discus. There a very few women that can do what she does and almost none that do it at the level that she does it. She was the only woman in the meet today that competed in all three of those events and then for her to be in the final of all three is a testament to how valuable she is to our program. She is a rare talent with an impressive work ethic that sets the standard for the throws group. We are lucky to have her and I expect that she will continue to thrive as the season moves along. On the track, Saydee Aganus was the star for us today. She won the 100m hurdles with a new lifetime best and a new program record. Lynne Mooradian held the previous mark at 14.03 and Saydee narrowly eclipsed that with her 14.01 mark today. It helped that there was a slight tailwind and that it was warm today but the reality is that she is just getting started. She can and will run much faster than 14 seconds. She showed some more aggression early but really win the race by running well today over the last 5 hurdles. There is a lot more coming for her as the season moves along. On the whole we did some good things and we had a lot of people out there getting a chance to prove themselves." - Director of Track & Field Mike Smith

Up Next
Army will compete at Navy on Saturday, April 1st for the annual outdoor star meet.