Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
IC4A/ECAC Championships
Track and Field Excels at IC4A/ECAC Championships and Princeton Elite Invitational
May 18, 2025 | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
WEST POINT, N.Y. — Army West Point Track and Field continued to set top marks in meets across the East Coast, with many athletes setting program records and top marks in the NCAA East Region at the Princeton Elite and IC4A/ECAC Championships.
At the Princeton Elite Invitational at Weaver Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey, two Black Knights set new program records, Josh Duncan in the 200m run and Mikayla Cheney in the 1500m run.
Mikayla Cheney set a new personal best and a new program record best mark in the 1500m with a 4:16.05 final time, shaving .10 seconds off the program she set at the Virginia Challenge in April. The time also gave her a first-place finish at the meet.
Josh Duncan finished the 200m with a final mark of 20.92 seconds, setting a program record in the event. With the finish, Duncan earned a second-place medal at the meet.
Nathan Davis also earned a first-place finish at the Princeton Elite, finishing with the top mark in the 3000m Steeplechase with a final time of 8:46.88.
Along with the top finishes at the Princeton Elite, many Black Knights traveled to Fairfax, Virginia, to compete in the IC4A/ECAC Championships.
Senior thrower Emily Fink continued her record-breaking campaign by winning the hammer throw with a mark of 71.12 meters (233 feet, 4 inches) — setting new meet and facility records and ranking No. 1 in the NCAA East Region. Fink also set a Service Academy record, as well as having the No. 6 throw in the country and the No. 23 mark on a global record. For her efforts, Fink earned the meet's Women's Athlete of the Meet.
On the men's side, Robby Manse captured gold in the shot put with a mark of 17.99m (59-00.25) and took silver in the hammer throw at 58.94m (193-04). Manse also earned the meet's Men's Athlete of the Meet.
Senior Isaac Morris led the men's distance squad, winning the 10,000-meter run with a time of 31:09.26, earning 10 points.
Elijah Goodwin, a sophomore, delivered a key win in the javelin, throwing 66.69m (218-09) to secure 10 points and solidify his regional qualifying status.
In the men's sprints, freshman Levi Ferrell ran a personal-best 10.90 in the 100m, and junior Austin Hernandez clocked a personal best 21.71 in the 200m, finishing 11th. Hernandez also competed in the 110m hurdles, running 15.20, while freshman Dylan Foster set a PR in the 400m hurdles with a time of 55.67.
Other top finishes for the men included:
- Zane Hicke, third in the high jump (2.00m / 6-06.75)
- James Beckett, fourth in the triple jump (14.32m / 46-11.75)
- Javan Guevara-Cragwell, seventh in the long jump (6.90m / 22-07.75)
- John Phelps, eighth in the pole vault (4.74m / 15-06.50)
- Jake Nwosu, third in the hammer (56.68m) and tenth in the discus (44.33m)
- Matt Palchak, second in the shot put (16.99m), with Luke Noonan placing fifth (16.14m)
On the women's side, freshman Faith Kibbe shined in the sprints, placing fifth in the 400m with a time of 55.07, and adding a personal best 25.21 in the 200m. Junior Chadon Foreman finished 14th in the 200m with a personal best 24.89, and senior Hannah Andrews placed 7th in the 800m (2:13.95).
In the 3,000m steeplechase, junior Lindsay Cook finished fifth (11:19.94), with freshman Alexandra Volkart ninth (11:35.24).
Women's field performances also led to multiple podium finishes.
Sophia Dykstra followed her first-place finish at the Patriot League Championships, finishing second in the discus (47.10m).
Thai Douglas led the way in the high jump, finishing fifth with a 1.64m mark, with Zoe Whaley also competing in the event and finishing in tenth.
Alexah Zaczynski also earned a gold medal finish at the meet, finishing first in the javelin with a 45.36m final mark. Three other Black Knights finished in the top fifteen in the event, with Christiana Belcher finishing fourth (40.48m), Sophia Gimino earning seventh (38.37m) and Claire Wimer finishing 14th (33.80m).
Freshman Emilia Labruyere competed in all three throws, finishing ninth in discus (40.18m), 11th in hammer (44.21m) and 10th in shot put.
Freshman Brooke Munoz earned a personal best in the 400m hurdles (1:04.90).
The Black Knights will now turn their attention to NCAA East Preliminaries, with qualifiers being announced on May 22, with the meet starting in Jacksonville, Florida on May 28 and last through May 31.
Hear From Coach Smith:
We split our team this weekend to take advantage of competitive opportunities for different event groups. We took the majority of our post-season team to the IC4A/ECAC championship at George Mason, and we took our NCAA postseason hopefuls in the distance events to an elite invite at Princeton. We came away from the weekend with three new Academy records and a lot of nice developmental performances from our up-and-coming young talent. Josh Duncan started the record-setting on the oval with a big improvement in the 200 meters. His time of 20.92 was a significant improvement over what he has done in the past (.3 seconds) and was a realization of the talent that we know he has. He has struggled at times with consistency, but today, in nice conditions, he put together his best race. Seeing the joy on his face after the time was announced was a nice moment for me. Josh needed that result. His confidence is soaring right now as he heads into the offseason. Mikayla Cheney ('27) won the 1500 easily tonight and narrowly improved (4:16.05) on her own school record (4:16.14) set earlier this spring at the Virginia Challenge. She carries some good momentum into the postseason. We had one other record go down this weekend.
At the Patriot League Conference championship two weeks ago, Emily Fink took three attempts in the hammer throw and fouled all three. I was working with some of our other athletes at the time and did not get a chance to watch Emily in the hammer, so when I saw the live results showing her with three fouls, I immediately made my way over to the hammer throw area. I wanted to find Emily as soon as possible to lend my support to her. I found her in tears at the back of an area where her teammates were gathered as the competition continued without her. She saw me and immediately gave way to the disappointment that was so obvious on her face and in her body language. She struggled to speak, "I'm sorry coach," was the only thing she could muster. Her head was down. She was devastated. I told her that we needed her and that she was a valuable part of what we were doing, and that she had the shot-put left. I said the things that a coach says, and you just hope that the athlete will absorb it…but you never really know for sure until they show up for the next event. History will show that Emily set the meet record, service academy record, and school record in the shot put later in the meet. It was a remarkable display of overcoming adversity. I have spoken about Emily Fink for going on 4 years now. And much of what I have said about her has been related to her physical gifts. Her strength, speed, technical prowess, athleticism, and skill have always been evident. But there is another side to Emily, equally as important, and just as incredible. She has always had the physical gifts to be a dominant thrower, and that has been at the forefront of any talk about her accomplishments. But what we saw two weeks ago is the "IT" factor that defines her greatness more so than her physical talent. She is resilient in a way that most people can't imagine. She is one of the best hammer throwers in the world. Emily knows this. It is a tremendous burden for her to carry. She has put a lot of pressure on herself to live up to her potential. She has fought a battle against herself…. for four years. If you are average, you don't carry the burdens of expectation. But Emily Fink carries weight every day. Two weeks ago, she struggled. That is what happened. An average person might have just quit at that point or made excuses to explain it away. She did neither. She threw hammer at the West Point Twilight five days later and shook off the demons from the conference meet, very nearly eclipsing her personal best. A rebound for sure. And then she took things to another level. Yesterday, at the ECAC championship, Emily Fink opened up the competition with a 70.35-meter throw. It was a huge mark, and if the meet ended at that point, we could have celebrated Emily's comeback and her place in Academy history. But it didn't end there. On her second attempt, Emily launched the hammer 71.12 meters (233' 4"). Here is how good that mark is: It is a new school record, a new Service Academy Record, it is the number one throw in the NCAA East region, it is the number one throw in the NCAA, it is the number six throw in the United States and the number twenty-three best throw in the world. After exiting the ring, Emily walked off to the side and waited for the official to announce the mark. When it was announced, she started skipping and hopping toward her teammates as they ran toward her to mob her and celebrate the accomplishment. The scene was the opposite of what I encountered two weeks ago at the Patriot League meet. That is sports. It ebbs and flows. You have to keep the needle pointed in the right direction and just put your head down and grind. That is what Emily did. She is resilient in the most uncommon way. She now stands alone in the hammer throw among collegians. She will have more challenges ahead and a more competitive balance to manage for sure, but what she can take from this two-week period of time is the confidence that when the chips are down and things don't go her way, she has the tools to make the comeback. I have anointed her as the best we have ever seen in the ring at the Academy. Let me add to that…she is also one of the most competitive and resilient athletes that I have ever been around. That counts for more.
The season is now over for the majority of our team. We will have a group of about 13-15 that should advance to the NCAA regional in 2 weeks when selections are announced on Thursday, May 22.
Players Mentioned
