Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
Virginia Challenge
Track and Field Makes Strong Mark at Virginia Challenge
April 19, 2025 | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. — Army Track and Field had an historic and record-breaking meet at the Virginia Challenge, with two athletes breaking program records and several athletes earning top 10 finishes alongside setting season and personal bests.
Junior distance runner Nathan Davis was the second Black Knight from Army Track and Field to make history this weekend, setting a new program record in the 3000m Steeplechase. The junior completed the race in 8:41.63, beating the former record set at 8:43.00 by just under two seconds.
Sophomore distance runner Mikayla Cheney beat the program record in the 1500m run that she had previously broken with a final time of 4:16.14, passing her old record by 3.19 seconds. With her time, the sophomore finished fifth overall in the field and now sits in the top 25 in the NCAA East Region in the event.
On top of setting a new record in the 1500m, the sophomore received the highest honor in the women's 800m run, winning the event in the stacked field with a final time of 2:09.10. Freshman Alma Lazo Cazares also finished eighth in the event with a personal best 2:10.55 final time.
As for the women's 800m invite, Skye Chambers saw the fasted 800m run on the women's side, finishing the day with a 2:07.56 final time, good for fifth in the event.
Zoe Whaley finished the high jump with a season-best 1.64m (5'4½"), good for finishing fifth in the event. Kalliauna Powers, who set a new program record (6.01m) in the long jump at the Bison Outdoor Classic, finished ninth in the long jump with a 5.95m jump.
Sophia Dykstra finished eighth in the women's discus throw, with a throw of 51.64m, setting a new personal best.
Claire Lewis finished in the top four in the 3000m steeplechase, finishing with a final time of 10:29.76.
Emily Fink rounds out the top finishes on the women's side, finishing fifth in the hammer throw with a final mark of 66.48m (218'1").
Moving back to the men's side, Ammon Smith finished ninth in the 800m run with a final time of 1:51.51.
In the men's high jump, Carlos Posey finished in eighth place with a 2.06m (6'9") jump.
In the men's pole vault, two Black Knights finished in the top six in the event. Brian McSweeney finished third in the field with a 5.00m final mark, while reigning Patriot League Co-Rookie of the Week, John Phelps, finished the meet in sixth with a final mark of 4.85m.
Javan Guevara-Cragwell served as one of the top marks in the triple jump, finishing with a final mark of 15.34m (50'4"), good to finish the event in second place. The senior also earned a top-eight finish in the long jump, finishing the meet with a final mark of 7.46m (24"5¾'), a season-best mark for the senior.
Robby Manse also made his mark in the men's hammer throw and shot put. The junior finished second in the hammer throw at 62.09m (203'8") and seventh with a 17.61m (57'9½") in the shot put.
Up next, the Black Knights head to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the Penn Relays. The meet will begin Thursday, April 24, and last through Saturday, April 26. The three-day meet will stream live on FloSports.
Hear From Coach Smith:
In August of 2024, we dedicated a plaque to the memory of Aaron Pouge '91. The plaque sits on a 300m granite post along a gravel running trail down by the Shea stadium track and the Hudson River. Each of the posts and plaques along that trail have a level of significance but the 300m post is a sentinel overseeing the mighty Hudson and keeping a watchful eye over the 400m oval where Aaron plied his trade during his time as a member of the Army track and field team. On that hot August evening last fall, friends and family of Aaron Pogue gathered to remember him as a friend, a son, and for many, the best teammate they ever had. There was very little mention of the Academy record in the 3000m steeplechase that Aaron set back in 1990. That is because Aaron's legacy was and remains, much more than an athletic mark. Aaron was a mentor and a leader of young men first and foremost. That is how he will be remembered. Aaron lost his life in a car accident in 1997, and his loss was a loss for us all. Aaron's name has been honored on the record board in Gillis Field House for 35 years. His time of 8:43.00 has withstood the test of time…until tonight. Tonight, at the Virginia Challenge, Nathan Davis '26 ran 8:41.63 and finished 6th in an elite field of runners. Nathan has been stalking greatness for some time now. He announced his presence as a plebe in 2023, qualifying for the NCAA regional meet and narrowly missing a qualifying spot to the NCAA championship in the 3000m Steeplechase. Last year he came into the regional meet with a realistic chance to advance to Eugene but came up short. Since that day in late May last summer, Nathan has been on a mission. He has always been a serious competitor but there has been a new sense of purpose in how he has handled his training and his races this year. His cross country season and NCAA qualification last fall was an indication of great potential this spring and that is what we saw tonight. The race went out fast, and Nathan did not shy away from the honest pace. He sat comfortably in the back of the field of 12 runners and then moved up to the top 5 in the middle of the race. He held onto the 5th spot on the final straight and was passed going to the finish line pushing him back to 6th. His performance places him in the top 10 in the NCAA East Region and ranks him among the best in the NCAA…for now. In speaking to Nathan after the race there was an acknowledgment of the improvement that he has made but still some frustration that he had not run faster and not finished stronger. The mission that he is on is a pursuit of his absolute potential. The best athletes are never satisfied. He will bristle at the mention of greatness associated with his name. I will humor him for now but to not acknowledge the significance of what he has accomplished would minimize what Aaron Pogue did 35 years ago. Nathan has reached a new level of good and his name will forever be linked to Aaron Pogue. Later this summer, Aaron Pogue's name will be replaced on the record board in Gillis with a new time and a fresh young name, but the granite post with his name and accomplishments will stand watch at the 300-meter mark of the North Athletic Field trail….. forever.
The Virginia Challenge is the most competitive meet on our schedule to date. It is deep in talent and large in scope. So our success here has largely been in the performances that we have put down. We have had some great improvements in our best marks of the year and our people have been forced to compete at a new level. After several weeks of sketchy weather here on the East Coast, we have been treated to real outdoor track and field weather in Charlottesville. It has been warm and breezy this weekend and we have taken advantage. We have had several good marks in the field events. Emily Fink competed well in an elite field of hammer throwers today and finished 5th behind 3 professionals and one collegiate athlete. Her consistency has improved from a year ago and she is now regularly throwing over what used to be our school record (66 meters). She (like Nathan Davis) is on a mission to reach her potential. For several years, she was uncomfortable with her talent and didn't know how to handle her success. But this year, she has accepted her talent and has resolved to make the most of the opportunity that she has been given. Her new outlook has started to produce great results, and she is on the cusp of doing some special things. Tonight's result will not please Emily (66.48). But it is farther than she had thrown all of last year when she finished 10th at the Olympic Trials. She is never satisfied and we have to give her the space she needs to keep chasing the big one. I think it is coming soon. On the oval, we had some nice improvements in the sprints and middle distance races but our most significant mark came from a distance runner. Shortly before the women's 1500-meter invitational race was scheduled to go off, I noticed a missed call on my phone from one of our team captains. As I was trying to figure out what I needed to respond to, Sophia Dykstra came running over to me to tell me that Mikayla Cheney '27 had sent her over to retrieve me with instructions to have me report to the 1500-meter starting line right away. It was an unusual request given that there were maybe 1 or 2 minutes until the start of that race. My immediate assumption was that something must be wrong. I hustled over to the start area and made eye contact with Mikayla. She met me at the fence near the starting line and told me that the pacer for the women's 1500m was taking the race out through 800 meters in 2:13. She had a look of concern on her face as if to say, "Can I do that?". Then she said, "What should I do?" I was very firm in my answer to her, "Try to win the race. Go out in the middle of the pack and then try to win the race. Don't allow any gaps and be there at the end". A calm settled over her and she said simply, "ok. That's what I'll do". Mikayla Cheney '27 is the Academy record holder in the 1500-meter run. The best woman to ever run the event for Army and also a relative newcomer to elite track and field. Her ascension to the highest levels of our sport has not come without a little doubt creeping in every now and again. Every elite race is a first for Mikayla. So today, when she heard what the split would be at the halfway point, she had a brief moment of doubt. 22 months ago, she could not run 2:13 for 800 meters. Now it is a split on her way to something bigger. When the gun went off, Mikayla executed the race plan as well as she ever had. She pushed hard off the starting line, established herself in the top 5, and then settled in behind the train of runners. At the halfway point the leader was 2:13 and Mikayla was comfortably off that pace at 2:16….and she looked strong. She then pushed past the 4th place runner and started hunting down the Penn State runner in 3rd. She got close but could not pull even with that runner and got nipped at the line to hold on for 5th. Her time of 4:16.14 eclipsed her previous academy record by 3.19 seconds. She was beaming with excitement post-race and confident that there was more that she could do. I can't say much more about the path that she is on. When the year started, the Academy record for 1500 meters was hers at 4:22.80. She has dropped 6 seconds with ease, and we are only in mid-April. She, like Emily and Nathan, has her sights set very high. We are all along for the ride. She is currently ranked among the top 25 in the NCAA East Region and while that means that there are at least 24 women who have run faster than her, she doesn't see that as an obstacle, she sees it as the next challenge to get better. She will run the 800 meters tomorrow and the rest of our team will get another chance in the sprints and the field events before we head back to West Point tomorrow night.
We closed out the weekend with some more outstanding marks here in Charlottesville. Sophia Dykstra '25 came within 3 cm of breaking the Academy record in the women's discus today. Her best throw of 51.64 meters (169' 5") is only 1 inch short of the mark set by Kayley Ragazzini '24 last year at the Patriot League Championship. The wind was great for discus throwing today. It was a quartering wind that lifted the disc and kept it afloat for a little bit longer which led to some great marks across both the men's and women's events. The benefits of that wind were numerous across the field events. In the men's triple jump, Javan Guevara-Cragwell '25 had the best series of his life. His wind-aided jump of 15.34 meters (50' 4") pushed him over the 50' foot mark for the first time in his career. He long jumped well yesterday and followed that up with today's series in the triple. I think this was the best weekend of jumping that he has ever had. He looked great out there. The big winds limited our performances on the oval today. We had some good results but it was blowing pretty hard and we didn't have any record-breaking performances. On the whole, this was a very successful weekend for us. We set 3 new Academy records and had several NCAA qualifying performances. We are in a good spot as we head into the championship season.
Players Mentioned
