Army West Point Athletics
Track and Field Complete Successful First Day at the Patriot League Indoor Championships
March 01, 2025 | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Army West Point Track and Field finishes a successful first day of the Patriot League Indoor Championships, earning three championship finals and several podium and top-five finishes.
As for point totals, men's track and field currently sits in first place overall in team scoring, earning 74 points. The women currently sit in second place with 53 points, 19 points behind the first-place Boston U.
The first champion of the day came on the men's side game from the pole vault, with Brian McSweeney claiming gold. McSweeney claimed the win with a 5.10m (16' 8¾"), earning his first indoor Patriot League title in his career.
On the women's side in the women's weight throw, Emily Fink claimed second place with an 18.39m (60 feet) throw. Kalliauna Powers would also claim third place in the long jump with a 5.96m (19' 6¾") mark.
Moving back to the men's side, the Black Knights completely dominated the weight throw, not only earning the top finish but also five of the top six finishes.
Robby Manse claimed gold with a 19.85m (65' 1½" feet) mark. Jonathan Segujja earned second with an 18.63m (61' 1½') mark. Collin Torres, Jake Nwosu and CJ Bowens finish fourth, fifth and sixth in the event, claiming 30 points from the event.
Still on the men's side, Carlos Posey and Javan Guevara-Cragwell earned second and third in the long jump.
Posey earned second with a 7.46m (24' 5¾") jump, which now sits as the third-highest mark in Army's program history. Javan Guevara-Cragwell earned third with a 7.30 (23' 11½"). Caleb Smith and Ethan Vess also finished seventh and eighth, giving the men a 17-point haul in the event.
Going back to the women's side, the biggest point haul from the 5000m run, with three runners finishing in the top four spots.
Charlotte Richman finished second with a 16:32.03 time, Claire Lewis earned third with a 16:45.05 time and Louisa Diamond finished fourth with a 16:48.27 time. At the end of the event, the Black Knights gained 19 points for their team score.
Zoe Eggleston also saw a top finish in the women's pentathlon, finishing second in the event in her final indoor meet of her colligate career. Her performance was highlighted by a 2:18.88 800m time, a personal best that helped her clinch the second place finish and eight points for Army's team score.
In the 4x800m relay, the first and only relay of the day, the men earned a second-place finish. Jack Musgrave, Ammon Smith, Brady Smith and Kasen Jeitz finished with a 7:40.41 time.
On the women's side to end the day, Hannah Andrews, Alma Lazo Cazares, Skye Chambers and Mikayla Cheney claimed gold in a dominant race. The four ran a second fastest time in the meet's history at 8:49.02, also setting a new Army program record.
The meet continues Sunday at 11 a.m., with 13 events left on the men's side and 12 events on the women's side. The meet will stream live on ESPN+.
Hear From Coach Smith:
Our men were great today. Coming into the meet I had us scoring around 50 points on the first day and we ended up with 74. Some of that can be attributed to my underestimation of what we could do and maybe some of it is our guys rising to the occasion in a big way. Either way, we scored well today. Our field event guys carried us today. The most impressive event was the men's weight throw. I expected Robby Manse ('25) to win the event but really didn't expect to have all five guys that we entered finish in the top six. It was huge for us. Robby has been a dominant force for us the entire year and today was more of the same. He set the tone early in the event with a 19-meter throw and then kept hitting that same mark through the first three rounds. The guys behind him matched his energy. Jonathan Segujja ('25) is a guy that walked onto our team. He had never thrown the weight before coming to the Academy and has steadily improved throughout his career. It was great to see him get on the podium. Collin Torres ('28) was a competitive javelin thrower in high school and that was what I am sure he thought he would throw when he joined our team but coach Woodbury saw his skill set and taught him the weight and today he finished fourth. Jake Nwosu ('25) is always a threat to score in the throwing events. He is a strong young man but has struggled with technical consistency. He didn't set a personal best today, but it was the first time he has scored points for the team at the indoor championship. The final scorer for our team was CJ Bowens ('27). CJ joined our team late in the fall after being a football manager. He has great size and is a powerful, athletic young man. He just picked up the weight in December and threw it for the first time in competition a week ago. I don't need to state how unusual it is for someone to go from never having practiced the event to competing in that same event at a Div. I Championship level after a few months of practice. It doesn't happen. But somehow CJ made it happen. The 30 points we scored in the weight was significantly more than I thought we could put up today. Our other men's champion on the day was Brian McSweeney ('25) in the men's pole vault. His win has been a long time coming. He came into the conference as an accomplished high school vaulter. He has had a nice career with us but could never win a conference title because he was stuck behind some of our better guys or other guys in the conference. But today, Brian came in as the best vaulter in the conference and that is how he jumped. He only missed once at the early bars and put himself into the lead for good with first bar clearances once the bars got up to 16 feet. We entered four guys into the long jump and only one of those guys was predicted to score based on the best marks from the season. But all four guys made the final and scored for the team. It was one of the best long jump days that our men's team has ever had. The guys did a good job of executing and coach Jordan Smith had them ready to go. CJ Posey ('26) was the runner-up with his 24' 6" jump. That was a personal best for CJ, and he is No. 3 on the Army all-time list in that event. He is agonizingly close to hitting a really big jump. It is only a matter of time. Javan Guevara-Cragwell ('25) struggled with some injury issues early in the season but he put those worries behind him and got hot at the right time. His series was the best of his career and although he didn't get the win today, he got on the podium and contributed mightily to the 17-point haul that we had in the long jump. Javan is a money jumper at big meets. When the pressure is on, he is at his best. We did well in some other areas and there are a lot of points up for grabs tomorrow. We qualified well to tomorrow's finals in most events so if we get on the podium tomorrow we have a shot at a pretty high finish in the team standings.
We have little room for error in the women's scoring if we want to compete for a title tomorrow. Our scoring went almost exactly as expected today. The good part about that is that we have the people in place we need to score high tomorrow. The downside of it is that we didn't overperform and we didn't get very lucky today. Zoe Eggleston ('25), closed out her indoor career with a runner-up finish in the women's pentathlon. She was sitting in third place going into the final event (800m) and needed a strong run there to give herself a shot at the win. She ran an aggressive race from the front and finished with a huge personal best of 2:18.88. It almost got her the win, but not quit. She has always been a hard worker and it was great to see her be rewarded for her exceptional work ethic with a runner-up finish. Emily Fink ('25) claimed a runner-up finish in the weight throw today and although I know she wanted to win, she just couldn't put together a big enough throw to make it happen. In the long jump, Kalliaunna Powers had the best series of her life and claimed a podium finish. Her best jump of 5.96m (19'6") was good enough for her to sit in first place for much of the competition. Two other jumpers passed her in the final and she hung on for third. Going into the weekend Kalliaunna was ninth on our all-time list in the long jump but today's mark moved her up to No. 4 all-time. On the track, we claimed our biggest point haul in the women's 5,000 meters. Charlotte Richman ('26) claimed the runner-up spot with a strong effort. She knew she would be chasing the Boston runner the entire race and that is how it developed. Charlotte has taken her training to a new level this year. She gained a lot of experience this fall in the cross-country season and that has carried over to the track. She challenged for the lead most of the race but the BU runner pulled away late and Charlotte settled for the runner-up finish. Behind her, there was a lot of hard work going on with Claire Lewis ('26) and Louisa Diamond ('27). Those two women have been stalwarts on the varsity cross country team and their training this winter has been very strong. They raced with a lot of confidence, and it paid off with third and fourth-place finishes. The 19 team points that we scored was not a surprise. We planned to have a good showing in the 5k but planning and executing are two different things and the women did a great job of executing. They were locked in on the plan from the gun and ran a smart patient race only cranking up the pace when they knew they could take it all the way to the finish line. They looked strong. Our lone win on the day for the women came in the 4x800m relay. We felt like we had the best team on paper, and we put the best team on the starting line. The women did the rest. We struggled with how best to set up the order of the women and in the end, we went with experience on the first leg, a fresh second leg, and two of the most dependable competitors on our team to close it down. Hannah Andrews ('25) led us off with a smart patient race. Hannah was disappointed in not advancing to the final in the open 800m and we were concerned that she might not have the legs to manage the difficult double. She relieved us of any concern as she patiently closed the gap on the leader after one lap and nearly handed off with the lead at the first exchange. Alma Lazo-Cazeres ('28) was our second runner and knowing that she might have been the only fresh runner in the field, she bolted right to the lead and held it until she was passed with two laps remaining. Alma didn't panic after getting passed and got right back to the shoulder of the leader at the third exchange where she handed off to Skye Chambers ('27). Skye did exactly what we expected her to do and got out hard and fast and broke the entire field. She extended our lead and by the time she handed off to Mikayla Cheney ('27), we had a commanding 20-30m lead on the field. Mikayla kept her foot on the gas, and we won with the second-fastest time in the history of the meet (8:49.02) setting a new Academy record in the process. It was a convincing win. We qualified well in all of the track events and we are in a good spot to score well tomorrow if we can continue to execute.
Players Mentioned
