Women's Track & Field Sets Two Program Records in Star Meet Defeat at Navy

Saturday, April 1

Annapolis, Md.

9:30 AM

Army West Point

111

Star Meet - Navy

Women's Track & Field Sets Two Program Records in Star Meet Defeat at Navy

April 02, 2023 | Women's Track and Field

ANNAPOLIS, MD - Army West Point women's track & field was defeated by a score of 111-92 in the annual outdoor star meet against Navy on Saturday.

Army saw an Academy Record in the 4x400m relay broken as Emma Taylor, Ever Elegon, Lara Westwood-Marsh and Holli Chapman combined for a time of 3:43.30 to win the event. Brooke Stratman also broke her own program record in the javelin throw, posting a 51.09m throw to secure a first-place finish.

Army saw 7 event wins in total, with both Georgia Jones and Kayley Ragazzini winning a pair of events. Jones placed first in both the 1500m (4:29.20) and 5000m (17:14.59) to lead the Black Knights in the track events. Joining Stratman's win, Ragazzini helped Army claim three of the four throwing events with her two victories, while also taking second-place in the hammer throw with a (56.83m). Her 46.79m discus throw and 15.37m shot put each claimed the top spot in the event.

Joanna Halfhill took the top-spot in the 3000m steeplechase, pacing the event with a 10:34.80. Army posted multiple second-place finishes in the track events, with Emma Taylor (100m, 12:07s), Holli Chapman (400m, 56.89s), Shayla Bonzelet (800m, 2:10.24s) and Saydee Aganus (100m hurdles, 13.53s) each claiming silver.

FULL RESULTS

Coach's Corner
"The final score did not go our way today but I am as positive as I have ever been after a loss. We had a few events where we were overmatched that ended up with us getting swept but there were far more events where we dominated them and/or we surprised with our performance. The final score was not decided until late in the meet. We won 7 events today and had we gotten a few more second and third place finishes, we would have been in a position to win the meet. On the track we won the steeplechase, the 1500, the 5000 and the 4x400. Joanna Halfhill, for us started with her lifetime best in the steeple. Joanna has had a terrific year. She was the cross country scholar athlete of the year, a patriot league runner up in the mile indoors and now she has an Army Navy individual title to add to her accolades. She fought hard out there battling some tough wind and heat. The navy runner tried several times to shake her but just could not do it. Joanna wouldn't give up and going into the last water jump she surged ahead and ran to the line unopposed. It was a 26 second improvement on her lifetime best and a great win. Georgia Jones followed up on her 3 wins at the Patriot League indoor meet with two wins today in the the 1500 and the 5000 meters. She used a strong finishing kick to win today and was not challenged. Georgia is a talented athlete but it is not her talent that separated her from her opponents today. She has a tremendous will to win that is difficult to describe but you know it when you see it. When the gun goes off she flips a switch and her normally friendly, kind and gentle countenance is replaced by a focused, uncompromising look of determination. She is wired to win. We swept the women's javelin today and I can't recall when we have ever done that before. Brooke Stratman has been outstanding this spring and she took her throwing to a new level today. Her winning throw of 51.09 m (167' 7") set a new Academy record. It is the second time this year she has set a new standard in the javelin. She is relentless in her approach to training and today it paid off. She is strong, athletic, fast and possesses a rocket for a right arm. It was not a surprise to me to see Brooke compete so well but I was pleasantly surprised to see Nicole Sacchinelli finish 2nd. Nicole threw 47.08 meters in the javelin as a freshman and in the three years since she had not been able to surpass that mark…until today. Her runner-up finish and new personal best mark of 47.76 m (156' 8") throw was a great ending to her star meet career. Kayley Ragazzini was our other double winner today. We put her out there in three events and she won two of them (shot,discus) and was runner-up in the hammer. Two weeks ago I talked about her value to our team. That value was evident today. She had lifetime best marks in the shot, discus and hammer throw. She lifted that entire group of women…..again. She wants to be a consistent performer and she wants to win so I was happy to see her on the podium 3 times. She now ranks number 9 all-time in the discus throw, number 7 all-time in the hammer throw and number 4 all-time in the shot. All of those performances happened today. She was incredible. The last win for us today came in the 4x400m relay. It is easily the most exciting event in track and field and our women set a new academy record in taking the victory today. The time of 3:43.30 was over a second better than our previous best time and set a new Star meet record in the event. We opened up an early lead with Emma Taylor on the lead off leg. She prefers the 400 over the 100 but has been so good in the short sprint that we have had to use her there and she hasn't gotten to run may 400s. So when she gets that baton in her hand she lights up. She got us the lead by a narrow margin and gave it to ever Elegon. Ever is an aggressive runner and as soon as she took the stick she blasted through the first turn and opened up a gap on the navy runner. She entered the home stretch with a solid lead and gave the baton to Lara Westwood-Marsh who held onto that lead. Early in her career, Lara would go out in the first 200 really hard and struggle coming home. She has tempered that first 200 this year and has had more gas in the last 100. She extended our lead today and we handed off to Holli Chapman with a 2 second advantage. The Navy runner closed the gap on Holli and with 200 to go she had cut the lead down to about 1 second. As Holli entered the final straight the gap had narrowed further and we were only ahead by about 10 meters. At that point there was a stampede of people onto the track and a rush to the inside lanes. As the two women ran down the straight the crowd ran with them toward the finish and it created a chaotic scene as they approached the finish line. The Navy runner closed to within 5 meters of Holli with about 20m to go and then they disappeared from sight, engulfed by the throng that had crushed in behind and all around the finish line. The noticeable decline in crowd noise told me the end result and the celebrating from that point on was an all Army affair. It was an incredible run for our women. We did a lot of things well today and we have a lot of things to still do to reach our goals but the way we competed is a good sign of things to come." - Director of Track & Field Mike Smith
Up Next
Army will send athletes to the Bison Outdoor Classic hosted by Bucknell University and the Larry Ellis Invite hosted by Princeton University the weekend of April 14-16.