Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
Patriot League Outdoor Championships
Men’s Track and Field Finishes Second at the Patriot League Championships
May 03, 2025 | Men's Track and Field
WORCESTER, Mass. — Army West Point Men's Track and Field saw several top finishes at the Patriot League Championships, ultimately finishing second overall.
The Black Knights earned the second place finish with 201 total points, finishing only behind meet champion Navy, who finished with 239 points.
The standout athlete of the meet for the Black Knights was thrower Robby Manse, finishing the meet and reaching the podium in three throwing events, one first-place finish and two second-place finishes.
Manse earned the individual title in the hammer throw, claiming the top mark with a 64.03m (210' 1") throw. Manse also finished second in the shot put and second in the discus.
With the three finishes, Manse also earned Men's Field Athlete of the Meet and Men's Highest Point Scorer.
Nathan Davis saw two first-place finishes in the meet, winning both the 3,000m steeplechase and the 5,000m run on Saturday.
Davis finished both runs with 10:23.69 and 13:55.70 final times, respectively. The distance runner also was a part of the second-place 4x800m relay team.
Brian McSweeney took the top spot in the pole vault, finishing with a final mark of 5.26m (17' 3").
Javan Guevara-Cragwell also added a first-place finish, earning gold in the triple jump with the final mark of 15.37m (50' 5 ¼").
Alongside Manse's dominance in the throwing event, Jacob Bowersock earns top honors in the discus, finishing with a 51.38 (168' 7") final mark.
The Black Knights also saw several second-place finishes, all finishes earning athletes Second-Team All-Patriot League honors, with first-place finishers earning First-Team All-Patriot League.
Second-place finishers include Shawn Carter, Owen Lang, Jordan Taylor and Kasen Jeitz in the 4x400 relay; Jaxon Hammond, Lang, Joshua Duncan and Trey McGinnis in the 4x100m relay; plus Jordan Taylor, Ammon Smith, Adam Furman and Jeitz in the 4x800m relay.
Hammond also earned second in the 100m dash, Zane Hicke earned a silver medal in the high jump, Jeitz saw second in the 800m and Collin Torres rounded out the group with a second place finish in the javelin.
Up next, the Black Knights run their first outdoor meet in West Point at Shea Stadium this season at the West Point Twilight, with the meet starting on May 8.
Hear From Coach Smith:
If you followed the live results of the Patriot League Outdoor Championship meet this weekend, you would know that our men were in the lead all of Friday and most of Saturday. We dominated the field events scoring over half of our overall total in those nine events (118 points). We won six of the 22 events in the meet, we set two Academy records, and one meet record, we had the field event athlete of the meet and the high point scorer of the meet, as well as numerous lifetime best performances. But it was not enough to win. We finished as the runner-up for the ninth consecutive year and for the men, the individual accolades were not enough to soothe the pain of coming up short again. But the mood was not down. It was pensive. They didn't hang their heads in disappointment, rather their body language spoke of resolve. As I listened to them speak, I heard "Got to get better", and "Keep moving forward". There is a great deal of momentum in this group knowing that our youth drove most of our point total this weekend.
In the spring of 2024, Cliff Rovelto, the director of track and field at Kansas State University, announced his retirement. Cliff mentored me and is widely considered one of the best jumps coaches in the world. So, when I have hired assistants to work with our jumpers, I have always leaned on Cliff's expertise to mentor them. Last spring, we sent Mike Ashton out to Manhattan, Kansas, to shadow Cliff for a few days. I saw it as an opportunity for us to get better in the vertical jumps and in turn take advantage of what I saw as a weakness in our opponents. It was a great mentee opportunity for Mike and when he got back from Manhattan, I knew we were going to get better in those events in a hurry. We saw that come to fruition this weekend in the pole vault and the high jump. Brian McSweeney ('25) was our first champion of the weekend. He won the pole vault at the indoor championship and followed that up with a great winning performance on Friday. He cleared 5.26 meters (17' 3"), a new personal best and the second-best vault in Army history. He had two misses at opening height and gave us a bit of a scare and then cleared that bar easily on his third attempt. After that, he was clean for the next five bars, clearing each height on his first attempt. Brian has had a great career for us and this weekend was a great capstone to his career. Jacob Bowersock ('25) won his first Patriot League title on Saturday with a throw of 51.38 meters (168' 7"). He was buried in 5th place after a series of average throws and a couple of fouls. He is our best discus thrower and we were counting on him to put up the big mark. It came on the fifth throw of the series and vaulted him to the lead. It was not the best throw of his career, but it was his best throw of the season and came at the right time. Jacob has great size, great athleticism, and great length. He regularly puts all of those physical traits to work when he steps in the ring. But today, he showed me an added sense of competitive fire that got him the win and will pay off in the future. There are bigger marks coming from him.
Javan Guevara-Cragwell ('25) is a quiet leader. He says little and lets his actions do the talking. His actions spoke loudly this weekend. Javan won the triple jump (50' 5.75") and claimed 5th in the long jump (24' 3.5") with personal best marks in both events. He now sits as the No. 3 triple jumper in Army history and No. 4 in the long jump. In the triple jump he was having a great series and going into his sixth and final attempt, he sat in second place. His early jumps (15.12 and 15.14) were right at his personal best. The leader going into the 6th and final round, had put up a mark of 15.36 meters. In the horizontal jumps and throws, the order of competition is reversed in the final so that the ninth qualifier competes first, and the leader competes last. The leader knows what mark is needed to win the event and gets a chance to win the event on the final attempt or has the knowledge that they have won the event, and thus the pressure is off. Javan was the penultimate jumper in round six. He needed to improve by 23 cm to win the event. Before that final attempt, I noticed Javan on the turf near the top of the runway. At first, I thought he might be injured so I walked over to him. As I approached him it became clear that he wasn't hurt he was focused, deep in concentration almost in a trance-like state. I watched him as he gently rocked back and forth, back and forth. I thought about asking him what he was doing but decided against it and moved away preferring to let him do what he needed to do to get ready to jump. When he was called up to jump, he stood at the top of the runway, planted his feet firmly in the rubber, and encouraged the crowd to clap for him to get the energy up. He got ready. The event area was electric at that moment and then he started ripping down the runway and hit the board with a loud pop. His second phase was excellent, he extended his body and actively landed in the pit. There was a loud cheer from his teammates and the fans that were in the area of that pit. Everyone knew that the jump was big. There was a moment of silent anticipation as we waited for the mark to be read and then the official read aloud "Fifteen point three seven meters." The guys erupted in a cacophony of shouts and "LET'S GO!!!" and then Javan leaped as high in the air as he had before he landed in the pit. It gives me goosebumps replaying the image in my mind. He had taken the lead at that point..by 1 cm. The final jumper stood at the top of the runway for his last attempt and then proceeded to foul the final jump. Javan had won his first Patriot League title. It was a great moment.
Jaxon Hammond ('27) had the top time in qualifying for the 100m on Friday (10.40). It was a new school record for Jaxon, eclipsing the mark from last year when he ran 10.42 in the prelims of the Patriot League Championship (10.42). He carried that momentum into Saturday's 4x100m final. We had the second-best mark in the field of 8 teams and we felt like we had a shot to compete for a title. Our exchanges were clean (Hammond, Lang, Duncan, McGinnis) and we handed off in a virtual tie for the lead at the final exchange. We were edged out at the finish line and ended up with a new school record time of 39.89 seconds. There was a time not that long ago when 39.89 was a lock for the NCAA meet in Jacksonville at the end of the month. Not now. So while we were happy with the improvement and the Academy record, I think the guys feel like they can run faster. There was a good vibe from those guys afterward. They know they can get better.
Nathan Davis ('26) came into the meet this weekend as the prohibitive favorite in the 3000m steeplechase. His best time of 8:41.63 stood as one of the top times in the NCAA East region and was 15 seconds better than any of the other entrants on the starting line Saturday. Nathan has been on a mission since he failed to advance to the NCAA finals in the steeplechase last spring. He has been relentless in his pursuit of training gains and has been anything but satisfied with his results. We have had to manage his effort to keep some of his training at a sub-maximal level or risk him running himself into the ground. He is capable and willing to push at supreme effort in practice and is unwilling to accept excuses for failing to achieve what he thinks is possible. There is great value in coaching an athlete with that type of "want to". The trick is to temper the drive just enough so that we don't leave races at practice. I think we have managed to do that with Nathan. When it comes to racing, Nathan has a competitive edge that cannot be softened. He will not give in to pain or discomfort and is willing to go deep into the well to get to the line first. Whatever fitness level he has will be attained in his races. So, as he toed the line for the Patriot League final my concern was not that he would be able to win but that he would be careful to conserve energy in winning so that he could come back later in the day to try and win the 5000m. He did just fine in cruising to the win in 8:50.97. He was never challenged and won the race going away. The bigger challenge for Nate was the 5000m toward the end of the meet. Nathan has had his sights set on winning the 5k at this meet since the start of the outdoor season. It is one thing to win the event, it is an entirely different enterprise to try to win the 5000m after having run a 3000m steeplechase only hours earlier. In early April, Nathan tried this double at the Star Meet and came up short. But he has gained significant fitness in the month since that race and what's more important, he has become hardened and steadfast in his determination to win this particular 5000m. He was eager to step on the line against a field of men that had not raced at all or had at least 24 hours of recovery. The temperature had climbed to 80 degrees with plenty of sunshine and humidity by race time and there was a wind from the south that made the conditions feel less than ideal for a 3.1-mile race. Despite those conditions, the race went out with an aggressive pace. It was clear that there was an attempt by the navy guys to drop Nathan. Not only could they not break him, but he also looked easy. The field of men at the front of the race whittled down and with two laps to go they were running at a meet record pace with Nathan comfortably sitting in third place and then at the bell he was in second place still looking comfortable. I asked Nathan what he was thinking as the race came down to the last couple of laps. "I knew that with 800 to go, the navy runner was going to try to get away from me but I felt confident in my training, and he wasn't going anywhere without me. At the bell, I was thinking I am just going to wait and wait until I am ready to unleash my kick." As he came down the backstretch with about 250 meters to go, he looked at me and gestured with his hands motioning to me that he was going to be patient and wait until the last possible moment to kick by the navy runner for the win. If there was any doubt as to how the race was going to end, it was erased at that moment. In the last 100 meters, Nathan moved easily by the struggling leader and cruised to the win - his first in a 5000m at the Patriot League meet. His winning time of 13:55.70 set a new meet record and moved Nathan to No. 5 on the Army all-time list. Notably, the four men on the list ahead of Nathan are all in the Army sports hall of fame (Curt Alitz, Jason Stewart, Tyno Carter), all were also All-Americans and one (Dan Browne) was a United States Olympian. Nathan is in good company.
Robby Manse ('26) won the most outstanding field athlete of the meet this weekend and he won the high point award after scoring 26 points in his three events. He told me in the week leading up to the meet that he was going to add the discus to his meet calendar in addition to the shot put and hammer throw. He was eager to score big in as many events as possible. Robby's first event of the weekend was the men's hammer throw. He won that event with a throw of 64.03m. That was a 1.75-meter personal best for him and moved him to No. 3 on the Army all-time list. Robby followed that up with a runner-up finish in the shot put. I know that he felt like the shot was a missed opportunity for him. He got out to an early lead and then back to second after another thrower opened up a narrow lead on him. He pressed over the final attempts but was not able to get the win. Then came the discus. Robby had only thrown the discus once this spring. He opened his season up in rainy conditions at the University of Redlands on our spring break trip. He threw discus at that meet and sent it 42.12 meters. It wasn't an impressive mark but it was an event that he had not given much attention to so there were very low expectations. But as we drew near to the conference championship, I think Robby devoted a little more time to discus preparation. And it paid off with the end result. He had the best series of his life and on his fifth attempt, he claimed the runner-up spot to his teammate Jacob Bowersock '26. Robby has become the emotional leader of this team. He has led us with his performance, his work ethic, and his words. What he has done this winter and spring has been truly remarkable as he has climbed the all-time program lists in multiple events. He is the most versatile athlete on our team and is a point-producing machine. He doesn't own any of our school records…yet. He is tracking to do some special things in the coming month and best of all, he has one more year to get better and further etch his name into the history of this program. The next thing on his list to accomplish is to lead his team to a team title. I have little doubt that he will do that.
Next up for the men is the NCAA postseason. We will look to add to our qualifiers list this week and next.
Players Mentioned
