Track and Field Falls to Navy

Saturday, February 3

Annapolis, Md.

Army West Point

104

Navy

Track and Field Falls to Navy

February 03, 2024 | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Army West Point men's and women's track and field teams fell to Navy in the indoor star meet on Saturday afternoon.

The women fell 99-82 and the men fell 103-78.

Luke Griner took home the 500m crown with a time of 1:01.80, almost three seconds faster than second place. Kasen Jeitz won the 800m at 1:51.56. The 1000m was brought home by Mitchell Burr after he ran a 2:23.71. The men's 4x400m relay team of Brian Matthews, Kasen Jeitz, Shawn Carter, and Luke Griner beat the Midshipmen with a time of 3:13.37. Carlos Posey won the long jump with a jump of 7.42m and Joshua Gilliard won the high jump with a jump of 2.17m.

On the women's side, Mikayla Cheney won the mile at 4:46.41 and the 1000m with a time of 2:49.88. Emma Taylor brought home the 200m with a time of 24.15. Charlotte Richman won the 3000m with a time of 9:30.95. Kayley Ragazzini won the weight throw with a heave of 19.53m and Emily Fink won the shot put with a throw of 16.00m. Lindsey Smith took home the long jump with a jump of 5.87m

Next up for the Black Knights is the BU David Hemery Valentine's Invitational Feb.9-10 before returning home for the West Point Tune Up on Feb. 17.

COACHES CORNER

Our women put up a good fight today but came up short on the team win. Winning a meet like this comes down to the 2^nd and 3^rd place finishers and we didn't have enough of those. We won our fair share of event titles but our depth was just not good enough. We started off the meet with a big win from Lindsey Smith '24 in the long jump. She performs at her best when the pressure is on her and today she was locked in on the runway. Her winning mark of 5.87 meters (19' 3.25") moved her up to #6 on the Army all-time list. She had several jumps over 5.80 meters and looked as good as I have ever seen her. We won both throwing event titles today. Our throws group has been getting stronger and stronger throughout the season and what I saw today was complete dominance as we swept both the shot put and the weight throw. Emily Fink set a new meet record in the shot put throwing nearly 1 meter farther than she did a week ago up in Boston with her winning toss of 16.00m (52' 6"). Kayley Ragazzini was right behind her with the best throw of her life at 15.64 meters (51 3.75"). Those two women now sit number 1 and number 2 all-time at Army. Aysia Salas made her season debut in the shot and finished third to give us a 1-2-3 in that event. We had 3 wins on the oval today and 2 school records. Our school records came in events that we did not win but were significant marks nonetheless. Saydee Aganus set a new all-time Army mark in the 60HH with her 8.43 performance. She has re-set that record three times this winter alone. Our women's 4x400m relay was narrowly defeated in a sprint to the finish line and our time of 3:44.61 set a new Army all-time standard. Charlotte Richman won an exciting 3000m race with a final surge in the last few meters to claim the title. Her time of 9:30.95 ranks number two all-time at Army and set a new Star meet record for the event. Charlotte has had a great year thus far and was a very dependable performer for us as a plebe but a Star meet win had eluded her…until today. The most outstanding performer for us on the oval today was without a doubt, Mikayla Cheney '27. She was lethal today. There is no other way to describe what we witnessed. In today's world of collegiate distance running, there is far more emphasis placed on running fast times and less attention given to the development of the racing skill set. At the Star meet, the times don't matter. Winning matters. So, you need to have people that can combine fitness, strategy and a killer instinct and meld it into wins. That is Mikayla Cheney. She is lethal. What she did today has never been done before and she did it twice. In the mile, we expected a fast pace and that is what we got. Mikayla stayed in close contact the entire race and then made a strong move to the shoulder of the leader at the bell. With 100 meters to go the outcome was still in doubt when Mikayla made a bold and risky move to pass on the inside. There was a narrow gap that opened in lane 1 and she took advantage of it and shot past the navy runner opening up a small lead coming off the last turn. She lengthened that lead as she hammered to the finish line for the win. Her winning time of 4:46.41 broke a meet record that had stood since 1995; and she broke it by four seconds. Then, an hour later, she came back to race the 1000 meters. She had never run the 1000 before so it was a bit of an unknown. The pace was fast from the gun and the opposing navy runners were all fresh. As the race evolved, the same scenario that we saw in the mile played out again. Mikayla hung on the shoulder of the leader throughout the early part of the race and then tried to jump to the lead at the bell but was held off going into the last lap. Mikayla held onto the shoulder of the leader into the last turn and then shot to the lead coming off the bend. It appeared that she would carry that lead all the way to the line but then the navy runner came back and pulled even with her in the final 20 meters. Sensing the pressure from her outside Mikayla responded one more time and surged hard to gain some distance and claimed the win by a narrow margin. Her winning time was the 2^nd fastest time ever run by an Army athlete and a set new Star meet record. I can't say that I was surprised by her wins today but the way that she won and the times that she ran were shockingly good. It was performances like hers and the many others that I saw today that stand out to me as we look ahead to the conference championship and beyond. We have a good team that is coming together at the right time. If we are able to shore up our depth, I think we can be pretty good at the conference meet.

It was a disappointing loss for our men today. And although the final score didn't go our way, there were so many good performances from our team that I left the meet feeling encouraged by our competitive effort and our prospects for the conference championship and beyond. We had a lot of personal best marks. But the Star meet is largely about wins and losses and we had our fair share of wins. The first win on the day came from CJ Posey '26 in the long jump. He was the first jumper in the order and his first attempt of the competition was a personal best that far exceeded the marks that he had as a plebe. CJ fell to 2^nd place early in round 1 and was stuck there until the final round of the competition. On his final attempt, he hit the board well and soared to the winning mark of 7.42m (24' 4.25") that vaulted him to #3 on the Army all-time list. It was a clutch jump and a big step forward for one of our younger guys. Our other field event win today was in the high jump. Josh Gilliard '24, told the team last night that he was going to "show out" at the meet today. He did exactly that. He set a new school record with his clearance of 2.17 meters (7' 1 .5"). That mark easily eclipsed his previous personal best of 2.13 meters and is currently tied for #22 on the NCAA list. Josh performs at his best when the lights are brightest so today was not a surprise. The rest of our wins on the day came on the oval. Kasen Jeitz '26 won the 800 by taking a commanding lead early in the race and then squeezing the pace down over the last lap to pull away. Kasen has shown significant improvement over the course of the season and I think that today was a reflection of just how much better he is right now. Mitchell Burr '24 followed up Kasen's win with a near meet record run to win the 1000 meter run. Mitchell took the lead early in the race and was never challenged. He is difficult to beat when he is on his game and today he was locked in. He is a great championship racer so I think we will continue to see some high level performances from him as we move through the season. We won both of the relays and our winning time in the 4x400 meter relay was a new meet record. The foursome that we put out there was the same group that ran last week up in Boston but today the guys were running on tired legs so the performance (3:13.37) was impressive. The most impressive performance on the day was undoubtedly the win in the 500 meters by Luke Griner '24. Luke's 800m performance from last week was a signal of what kind of shape he is in right now and today we saw him at a new level with his winning time of 1:01.80. It was a new meet record, a new school record, and a world leading mark. It was easily the most dominating performance on the oval today from either team.