Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
Navy (Star Meet)
Track and Field Battles Navy in Annual Indoor Star Meet
February 01, 2025 | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
WEST POINT, N.Y — Army West Point Track and Field returned to Gillis Field House to face their biggest rival, Navy, in the annual indoor Star Meet.
Navy ultimately came out on top on both the men's and women's sides, but both meets were tightly contested. The women finished the day trailing Navy 87-94, while the men completed the day trailing the Midshipmen 82-99.
On the women's side, the meet started with a dominant performance from reigning Patriot League Women's Field Athlete of the Week, Emily Fink, winning both the weighted throw and shot put.
Fink won the weight throw with a season personal-best 19.72-meter throw on her fourth attempt. Then, Fink easily won the shot put with a 15.43 meter (50' 7") throw, winning both events by a large margin.
Along with wins in the two throwing events, the Black Knights swept the horizontal jumping events on the women's side.
Kaulliauna Powers earned the first place spot with a 5.75 meter (18' 10") jump, while her teammate Olivia Reed finished just behind in second place with a 5.72 meter jump, both good to be towards the top of the Patriot League. Erin Allert won the triple jump on her fifth attempt with an 11.54 meter jump, with Powers also earning a third-place finish.
As for the running events, the Black Knights finished the day with three wins on the women's side.
Charlotte Richman won the 3000m run with a 9:29.23 final time. Richman's time also made history, setting not only a Star Meet record but also a facility record. Richman also finished second in the mile run.
Mikayla Cheney took home the other two top finishes of the meet, winning both the 800m run and the one-mile run. In the 800m run, Cheney won the race with a 2:11.84 recorded time. In the mile run, Cheney set a Star Meet record, a facility record and a school record time of 4:44.27.
On the men's side, the Black Knights earned eight top finishes in the seventeen total events, with wins in both throwing events, horizontal jumps, the pole vault, all hurdles events, the 60m dash and the 800m run.
First, Robby Manse earned dominant wins in the weight throw and the shot put. Manse threw for 19.31 meters in the weight throws and then threw for 17.10 meters in the shot put, outdistancing the opposition by more than two meters in both events.
In the horizontal jumps, Carlos Posey saw a first-place finish in the long jump and James Beckett earned a first-place finish in the triple jump. Posey finished with a 7.24 meter jump and Beckett won the triple jump with a 14.76 meter jump, finishing with a narrow five-inch margin over the second-place spot.
The final field event win came in the pole vault with Brian McSweeney having a strong showing. McSweeney finished the meet with a personal best 5.10 meter (16' 8.75") mark.
Moving to the running events, Austin Hernandez and Canyon Hall earned the top two spots in the 60 meter hurdles. Austin Hernandez finished with a season-best 8.19 seconds in the event, with Hall finishing right behind him with an 8.32 second time in the race.
In the 60 meter dash, Jaxon Hammond, the program's record holder in the 100m dash, earned the top mark with a 6.93 second time in the event.
Reigning Patriot League Men's Track Athlete of the Week Kasen Jeitz received the top prize in the 800 meter run. Jeitz finished the run with a 1:51.99 time, just over one short of the meet and facility record set by Luke Griner.
The Black Knights will hit the track again on Saturday, February 8, as they head to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the Penn Classic. The meet at the Ott Center is slated for an 11 a.m. start, with the meet also streaming live on ESPN+.
Hear from Coach Smith about the Women's Team:
We expected the meet today to be very close and it was. Going into the two relays at the end of the meet, we needed to win both (4x400, 4x800) in order to win the meet. We put our best lineup out there in the 4x400 and ran the best time of the year but it wasn't good enough to win and the meet was lost right there. The loss stings, especially for the firsties, but the good things we did today certainly outweigh the mistakes and the mood of the team was extremely positive and confident after the meet. I think they know that they are right there to win a title. We set meet records, school records and facility records today and our top performers did not disappoint. The day got started with Emily Fink's ('25) win in the weight throw. We went into the meet knowing that she was the best thrower in the competition and really, the best athlete in the entire meet. She made that clear in winning the weight throw with her best throw of the season on her fourth attempt (19.72 meters) and then passing on her final attempts to get ready for the shot put. She won the shot put easily (15.43, 50' 7") and then passed her final attempt. Emily has always had the tools to throw far and when she connects with her technique that is what happens. She did that today and won both events by a large margin. There is a lot more in her and I expect that I will be writing more superlatives about her in the future. We won both of the horizontal jumps today and while the long jump was expected, the triple jump was not. Kaulliauna Powers ('25) had the best mark on the field going into the meet and she jumped what she has jumped this year (5.75m, 18' 10") and it was enough to get the narrow win over her teammate Olivia Reed ('27). The 1-2 finish was the first for us in the long jump in a long time and while the marks will be near the top of the Patriot League list by Monday, what I valued more was the series that each of those women had. They were consistent in their jumps and they were getting on the board. Those two factors bode well for their chances of success going forward. Erin Allert ('27) won the triple jump on her fifth attempt. Erin is our most capable athlete in the triple jump and it was her consistency today that elevated her performance. There is certainly more room for her to improve but I think this was a big confidence booster for her. The other three wins that we had today came on the track and not surprisingly they came from two of our most accomplished distance runners. Charlotte Richman ('26) was our top runner in cross country this fall and has trained at a high level all winter. We put her out there in two events today knowing that she would be competitive in whatever she did. She showed some real maturity in commanding the mile from the front and then dominating the 3000m at the end of the meet. Her win in the 3K (9:29.23) was a meet record and a facility record. We have always known that she was capable of big performances and today for the first time on the track, we saw evidence of what is coming from her. She isn't the best distance runner to ever come through the Academy…yet. The way she managed both races today was very impressive. At a time when most track and field meets take place on banked or oversized tracks, Charlotte ran times today on the tight turns of a 200m flat track, that are competitive on any track at almost any meet. And while that is impressive in itself, the way she did it was even more impressive. She started both the mile and the 3k at a fairly modest pace and then at the halfway point (in both races) she blasted to the front and started to methodically hammer the pace. Only her teammate (Mikayla Cheney '27) could stay with her in the mile and in the 3k, she was unchallenged. In that race, her last mile was 4:57. To put that in perspective, there have been 39 Star Meets. The mile has been contested in 37 of them. In 26 of those 37 mile races, the race was won in a time slower than what Charlotte ran today for the last half of the women's 3000m and she did it all by herself. It is a staggering statistic that illustrates just how good she is running right now. She is as tough of a competitor as I have ever come across. Her willingness to go deep into the well in competition is striking, obvious and mirrors what we see from the best people out there. Our final winner on the day was Mikayla Cheney ('27). She won each time she stepped on the track. That is noteworthy because she has run four Star Meet indoor races in her career and won them all. She won the mile today in a meet record, facility record and school record time of 4:44.27. She followed Charlotte's move at the halfway point, and then narrowly edged her at the finish line to claim the win. Her time was a modest .7 seconds faster than her school record, but that record was set last year on the fastest track in the world and today she did it on a flat 200m track with a negative split. Her first 800 meters was 2:25 and she closed the last 800 meters in 2:18. The way Charlotte and Mikayla managed the race today was impressive. They were methodical in their approach and when they took control of the race at the halfway point, it was over for everyone else. Later in the day, Mikayla came back to win the 800m in a similar fashion to the way she won the mile. She took command of the race halfway through and never looked back. Her winning time of 2:11.84 narrowly missed the facility record. In watching her run, it was obvious that she was in complete control. She was relaxed, confident and very deliberate. There was little doubt that she would win once she took control. She, like Charlotte, possesses a tremendous will to win and it shows on her face once the gun goes off. The affable nature that is part of her everyday personality, disappears in competition; replaced by a ruthless competitive fire that runs deep within her. She is special. Overall, I think that the competitive effort of our team was as good as it has ever been today. And while that wasn't enough to produce a team win, we were very close. So close that the women left the meet confident that better days lie ahead. There is something to be said for determination. I saw an abundance of that today from all corners of our program. They will head into the championship season with a lot of momentum.
Hear from Coach Smith about the Men's Team:
We won our fair share of events today (eight out of 17) and our top guys were very good. But what plagued us today in the team scoring was our lack of depth. We didn't have enough supportive finishes in second and third place to go along with our winning efforts. The silver lining in all of it is that we have a lot of young winners on our roster and those guys are only going to get better in the coming weeks as we look ahead to the conference meet. Our field event people had one of the best showings that we have had since I have been here. They carried us. We won both horizontal jumps, we won both throws events and we won the pole vault. We won the hurdles, the 60m dash and the 800 meters. For the most part, were not successful on the oval and while that is concerning, there were enough good performances from some of our youngest guys that there is a lot of optimism in this team as we look ahead. The nature of the dual meet scoring sets up the meet to be close because two from each team score in every event. There is a premium on having winners but winning alone won't get you to the magic number of 91. Halfway through the meet, we were tied at 66-66. As the track events started to pile up points, we couldn't close the gap. Our winners were big and so were their performances. Robby Manse '26, dominated the weight throw and the shot put. His winning throws of (19.31m in the weight and 17.10m in the shot) easily outdistanced the opposition. He has made tremendous gains in technique and physical strength and the results are starting to show. He has also assumed a leadership role in the ring that is clear and present. He connected with his training back in the fall and that work has led to consistency in competition this winter. He was great today. Our horizontal jumpers showed their talent today and were rewarded with two very big wins. CJ Posey ('26) is fast, elastic and very dynamic. He won the meet handily but didn't get credit for how far he was jumping on some of his fouls. He is very close to putting down some rare marks in the long jump. If he connects with one sometime this winter, it will be a big jump. In the triple jump, James Beckett ('28) performed more like a veteran than the plebe that he is. He has been showing signs of some big marks since his arrival last summer and today we saw that potential realized. He won the meet on his fourth attempt and while the winning margin was a narrow five inches, his series was the most consistent. He is just getting started and there is much to look forward to with him as we head into the championship meets. Brian McSweeney ('25) won the pole vault with the best jump of his life (5.10m, 16' 8.75"). This was his first star meet win and was a sweet victory for him in his final indoor star meet. We have long felt like he possessed the ability to jump high and coach Ashton has done a nice job of bringing him along and getting him ready to challenge for higher bars. On the track, we swept the 60m high hurdles with Austin Hernandez '26 and Canyon Hall '26 going 1-2. Austin had struggled with his hurdling for much of the indoor season until today. He had seemed passive in his early season races and that can be costly in the hurdles. Today, it was the opposite. He was attacking from the gun and all of his hard work this fall paid off. His winning time of 8.19s was .23 seconds faster than he had run all season. Coming into the meet, we felt like Austin was the best hurdler in the field and that is how he raced. When he is on, he is tough to beat and he was on today. His confidence should be soaring as we look ahead to the championship meets. We also won the 60m race today (6.83s) and it was our 100m school record holder that brought home the win. Jaxon Hammond ('27) was a star for us last year and had been a little rusty in the early going this winter coming off the football season. But today, he looked like the champion that he is. He was explosive at the gun and reached top speed before everyone else and held it better than everyone else. He is just rounding in to form so there is more coming from him in the future. Our final winner on the track was Kasen Jeitz in the 800m. Kasen is in the best shape of his life and while there is little fanfare regarding what he has accomplished so far this season, that is likely to change as we move forward with the championship season. He possesses a rare combination of pure top-end speed and stamina. He has not run enough 800m races to really tap into his potential, but it is coming. Today, he was unchallenged. He knew he was the best athlete in the field and when the race started to slow down, he took command and won going away. We have had a number of good 800m men in recent years and Kasen is the next in line. His skill set mirrors that of Luke Griner ('24). The comparison is fair at this point in their careers. Now he needs to chase Luke's resume. Although the overall score doesn't show how competitive our team was today, it is evident to me that the men are not deterred by the outcome. They are disappointed but not defeated. There is a level of confidence, optimism and determination that I have not seen before in a team after a loss. They think they can win and that can be a powerful driver.
Players Mentioned
