Army West Point Athletics
Eggleston's Heptathlon Highlights Women's Track & Field at Bucknell; Aganus Sets New Program Record in 100m Hurdles
April 16, 2023 | Women's Track and Field
LEWISBURG, PA - Army West Point women's track & field closed out the weekend at the Bison Outdoor Classic hosted by Bucknell University. Athletes set to compete at the Larry Ellis Invite hosted by Princeton University saw the weather cause a cancellation of events for the day.
Before the weather stopped the events at Princeton, Saydee Aganus broke her own program record in the 100m hurdles during the prelims, setting a new mark of 13.75m.
Zoe Eggleston posted a score of 4733 in the heptahlon for a new personal best and the highest mark from an Army athlete in 39 years. Finishing third in the event, Eggleston posted a second-place finish in the 800m (2:23.69) on day two. She also tied for second in the high jump with a 1.60m to propel her score to Army's top mark in decades.Â
Georgia Jones paced Army in the 5000m with a sixth-place finish and time of 16:51.96 while Charlotte Richman followed close behind in seventh (16:52.00). Jones also logged Army's top time in the 1500m with a 4:25.29 showing and a 12th-place finish. In the 3000m steeplechase, Melissa Jachim logged a top-ten performance with a mark of 10:47.58).Â
In the throwing events, Sara Sahadi led the Black Knights in the discus and shot put. Her ECAC-qualifying distance of 14.01m landed a third-place finish in the shot put while her 42.19m discus was good for eighth-place. Kiana Emerson then recorded a 49.95m hammer throw which was a fourth-place finish.
FULL RESULTS
Coach's Corner
Saturday
"The look on her face was one of frustration. Frustration at points left out on the track and in the field. Zoe Eggleston had just finished the 800 meters; the 7th and final event of the women's heptathlon and she was disappointed in the outcome. The women's heptathlon was the first event to conclude today and it ended with Zoe scoring more points (4733) than any other army athlete since 1984. The 800 is a strong event for her and that is how she ran it; strong. She ran at the front of the race trailing only one other runner and then made a bold move to try and win the race over the last 100 meters only to be caught from behind at the line. To her it was a failure. To me it was what I always tell our team; other people are good too. Zoe has a very high standard for herself so what we saw today was a desire for more and not really the pain of failure. What she did this weekend was a significant breakthrough. The statistics tell the story. She set personal bests in the first four events yesterday. She improved her overall personal best heptathlon point total by 582 points. She is now number three on the Academy all-time list in the hep. It was a great performance and the highlight for our women's team at the Bucknell meet today."
At Princeton, we dealt with some weather issues that caused occasional delays and eventually a total cancellation of the meet. Before the weather disrupted everything, Saydee Aganus took down her own school record in the prelims of the 100H. Her Army-Navy hurdle race was a faster time but the wind on that day was way over the allowable for record purposes so it didn't go down in the books as an all-time mark. The new mark is the 13.75 with a (0.9 wind). Saydee has been building toward today's performance for quite some time. The weather stopped her from lowering the mark again in the finals but that is just prolonging the inevitable. She is primed to drop more time and she has plenty of races to come. I'm happy for her." -Director of Track & Field Mike Smith.
Sunday
Cool temperatures this morning gave way to sunshine and warm weather for the last day of the Bison Outdoor Classic. We had a smaller number of athletes competing today; largely in the speed and power events.
Sara Sahadi came to West Point to be a cadet and thought maybe she would give track and field a try so she reached out to us and we brought her onto our team. She had a modest high school PR of 38' 9" from last spring which is not a target for us in the recruiting process. But she has a good frame and she has some explosive capability so we thought maybe we could get some development from her over time. As it turns out, it only took a few months for things to start to click for her and today she put up a big throw in the shot put. She came into the weekend with a personal best in the shot put of 12.90 meters (42' 5") and is headed home with a new best of 14.01 (45' 11). By any measure her trajectory has been impressive. Prior to today, she was on the edge of our Patriot League roster; now she is a fixture. Her third place finish today was the highest placing of anyone in our women's team and a great breakthrough for one of our younger athletes. It was a valuable weekend across the board for us with the majority of our team getting a competitive opportunity at Princeton or Bucknell." - Director of Track & Field Mike Smith
Army will return next weekend sending athletes to the Virgnia Challenge hosted by UVA and the Bucknell Team Challenge.
Players Mentioned
