Women's Track and Field Win Patriot League Outdoor Title

Friday, May 15

Annapolis, Md.

9 a.m.

Army West Point

Patriot League

Women's Track and Field Win Patriot League Outdoor Title

May 16, 2026 | Women's Track and Field

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Army West Point women's track and field team claimed its second consecutive Patriot League Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday afternoon at Ingram Field.

It came down to the final two events of the day, as Army took home first place in the discus and 4x100m relay to jump ahead of Navy and win the championship with 201.58 points. The Midshipmen finished with 197.33.

This marks the first time in 28 years that the women's team has won back-to-back championships. Charlotte Richman was dominant all weekend and was named the Patriot League Women's Outdoor Track and Field Highest Point Scorer and Track Athlete of the Meet.

Led by Director of Track and Field Mike Smith, Army won Coaching Staff of the Year.

The women entered Day 2 of the meet with a slim lead on second place after a strong opening day of the championships.

How it Happened – Day 2
The Black Knights first podium of the day came courtesy of Jordan Hecht who posted a remarkable distance of 17.23m to win the shot put. The mark was a personal-best, program record, service academy record, facility record and meet record. It was nearly three meters clear of second place.

Army followed with a strong showing in the 3000m steeplechase, as Claire Lewis finished first with a time of 10:23.16. Freshman Abigail Ringwood recorded a crucial set of points, finishing third with a time of 10:39.48.

In the high jump, Thai Douglas recorded a personal-best mark of 1.66m to finish second.

In the 1500m, it was all Army as Charlotte Richman (4:16.25) and Mikayla Cheney (4:16.26) finished first and second. Richman's time was a personal-best and facility record. Mia Royall also recorded key points with a seventh-place result.

Erin Allert finished third in the triple jump with a mark of 12.22m.

Skye Chambers finished second in the 800m with a time of 2:04.38. Freshman Sabrina Sardar finished second in the 400m hurdles with a personal-best time of 1:00.26.

Entering the final three events of the day, Army was trailing by almost 20 points and needed to have a nearly perfect end of the day to come away with the championship.

The Black Knights completely dominated the 5000m, which Richman won with an impressive time of 16:37.69. Claire Lewis (16:57.98), Mikayla Cheney (16:59.66) and Louisa Diamond (17:03.57) finished third, fourth and fifth. Army scored 25 total points in the event and found itself nearly tied with Navy.

The Black Knights got a first-place finish in the hammer throw from Emilia Labruyere, who threw a personal-best 49.26m.

Army sealed the deal and clinched the championship with a historical performance in the 4x400m. The quartet of Faith Kibbe, Chadon Foreman, Sardar and Chambers posted a program record, service academy record, meet record and facility record with a time of 3:39.42.

While the podium finishers played a major role in the team championship, Army got a number of single-point performances that proved just as crucial down the stretch.

Quotables
Director of Track and Field Mike Smith
"Simone Tillman '29 is one of our most consistent and valuable performers. She is only a plebe but the performance level that she achieved at the Star meet this spring vaulted her to the top of the conference lists in the 200 and the 400. She has been a stalwart on the 4x100m relay and our record setting 4x400m relay. We all know that there are no guarantees in sport but when you find a talented athlete that is both dependable and available, you have something special. That is Simone Tillman. On Tuesday of last week I woke up to an early text from coach Graupmann stating that Simone had been ruled out for the conference meet due to illness, the good feeling that I had about our chances this weekend at the Patriot League Championship left me and was replaced by a pit in my stomach. It was the kind of body blow that knocks you down. Simone was devastated and our team was without a key figure in the title hunt. We gathered our staff together and went through our options. Coach Graupmann had planned for exactly this situation with the 4x100 and had Milan Smith '29 all cued up as a replacement for any leg of the relay. Problem 1 solved. Several women had emerged in recent weeks as viable options for the 4x400m relay. Skye Chambers '27, Faith Kibbe '28 and Sabrina Sardar '29 were fixtures on the relay all year….but what to do about the 2^nd leg. Coach Graupmann offered up another solution in Chadon Foreman '26. Even though we anticipated Chadon running multiple races, he was confident that she was ready to throw down a fast time in the 400. Problem 2 solved. But there was no solution to replacing Simone's potential points in the 400 and the 200. In my mind, this was a 10 point hit to our team total. To their credit, the women stood tall in the face of this great disappointment. In the team meeting the night before the meet, the captains focused their comments on what the 35 women in the room could and would accomplish. They reiterated their commitment to performing for the team and their desire to bring home another title. That "can do" attitude pervaded the room that night and the sense of optimism never left our women all weekend. Fast forward to the end of the meet on Saturday and Emelie Labruyere '28 in the discus. Her clutch 2^nd throw of 49.26m held up as the winning mark through the rest of the competition. She had been seeded 6^th going into the meet so there was certainly no expectation that she was going to win let alone throw 2 meters farther than she had ever thrown before, but that is what she did. Emelia leans into pressure situations and the pressure could not have been any higher than it was for those women. They all knew that we needed significant points from that event and she delivered it to us. The other event that came at the end of the meet was the women's 5k. We were very intentional in how we entered the 5k. We entered 9 women all of whom were key players in the our cross country success in the fall. I knew we would not score all of those women, but at the team meeting on Thursday night, I challenged our team to keep the meet close until that 5k. I told them that we would be wearing the white singlets on Saturday and the 5k was going to be a "white out". It was a blizzard of Army women in white at the front of that race when the gun went off and after a few tepid laps of quiet stumbling and pedestrian running, Charlotte started the attack, throwing down a 72 second lap to shock the field. The message she sent with that move was clear, "catch me if you can". Only one runner from another team tried. The BU runner chased Charlotte for 3 or 4 laps, clinging to a 5 meter gap that was never really a full commitment to sticking with her. And ever time she tried to narrow the gap, Charlotte drove the pace a little more. Behind those two leaders, the Army pack of women was charging hard and we held the 4,5,6 spots and it looked like we could collect 22 points at the finish. We needed 25. And then the 80 degree heat, the humidity, the wind took its toll on the field. The BU runner gave up the chase of Charlotte and started to stagger ever so slightly. Then she drifted into lane 2, started to jog and finally sat down on the track. The race went on without her and so did Charlotte. When the BU runner abandoned the race, our chase pack of women moved into the 3,4,5 places of the race. Louisa Diamond '27, Claire Lewis '26, and Mikayla Cheney '27 were no strangers to pressure and certainly not afraid of the challenge to score 25 points. They were in it for the team and seeing that runner quit…in their minds was a kill shot and they drove on…the race finished with Army women going 1, 3,4,5 for a team point total of 25. If you were following the meet online, you might have seen Army down 25-30 points going into the 5k and thought, "there is no way they can overcome this deficit" you would have been wrong. We knew that the meet could come down to the 5k and we planned for a 25 point tally from the event. When we got exactly 25, the meet scoring stood at 193.33 for navy and 191.58 for Army. The winner would be determined by the 4x400m relay. Now obviously the final outcome was determined by the entire weekend of point scoring, but the drama of the meet was reserved for one race. A race, that should have included Simone Tillman. Without Simone, we lined up with the best people available…and before the gun went off, I met with each of them and told them directly, "We win this relay, we win the meet." Everyone knew what was at stake. Faith Kibbe '28 led us off. She drove hard from the blocks and tried to measure up with the BU runner that caught her on the back straight. Coming down the home stretch it was apparent that we were in 2^nd and that BU had the slight edge. At the handoff to Chadon Foreman '26, there was a slight slowing of the stick at the exchange and then recognition by Chadon of how hard she needed to go out…and out she went. Faith gave us a 55.25 leadoff. Chadon matched the speed of the BU runner on the backstretch and closed the gap slightly to maybe 15 meters at the 3^rd exchange and handed off smoothly to Sabrina Sardar '29. Chadon's split was 55.29. Prior to the exchange I reminded Sabrina firmly of the need to "GET OUT". ….as she collected the stick from Chadon, there was no issue with her intensity…she was on the move. But so was the BU runner and down the backstretch there was no shrinking of the gap. At the final exchange BU had a full 1.5 seconds on us….and it looked like it was going to be tough sledding. Sabrina split 55.23 and handed off to Skye Chambers and put our team title hopes on her shoulders. At some point during this outdoor season I suggested to Skye that we take another shot at an open 400 and she looked at me in silence. No acknowledgement or agreement…she didn't give me anything. I asked her pointedly, "what? Don't you want to run another 400?"…her reply was simple and to the point. "I like the 400 better with a baton in my hand and I like to chase people." That is all you need to know. Fast forward to the final exchange and the 1.5 second gap behind BU. Skye got out hard. She was hunting the BU runner. " I knew going into the race that we would need first place to have a shot at winning the meet. I got the baton behind feeling a little worried. I continued to be worried 150 meters into the race but once I passed by all of my teammates cheering for me on the final turn, I felt inspired and got the 2^nd gear I need to pass the BU runner" With 200m to go the gap was still 1.5 seconds and I have to admit I was also a little nervous. But the nerves evaporated quickly as the two women entered the final 100m. Skye started to make up ground and then with a final burst she pulled even with the BU anchor and drove past her with ease all the way to the line. Skye's split was 53.44. over 2 seconds faster than the BU anchor leg. Our winning time of 3:39.42 set a new Patriot League meet record, new facility record, new Service Academy record, new school record and pushed our final point total to 201.58 giving us the team title. The last couple of events at the meet this weekend were full of high drama, the kind of drama that speaks to how "cool" track and field championship meets can be. We have been on the losing end of that drama before, but today, that quartet of women would not be denied. We won the meet this weekend with 35 women in Annapolis competing hard for number 36, stuck at home, unable to participate. We won it and collected back to back outdoor titles for the first time in 28 years. We are not entitled to a third. We will get back to work with our NCAA people and see how many we can send on to compete against some of the best people in the country in 2 weeks."

Charlotte Richman on the 5000m
"The last few laps definitely got hard but I was pretty confident I had built up a big enough lead at that point to pull off the win. I was honestly just trying to get to the line so I could see if my teammates were doing their jobs behind me. I was glad we were able to get the 25 points we needed to get the overall win!"

Claire Lewis on the 5000m
"I am so proud of these incredible women and what we did today! Going into the 5000m, we knew we had a job to do, so getting it done was the number one priority. That race is pure grit and all heart, and fortunately those are the kind of people in our pack. Mikayla and I worked together really well today, so I was also incredibly lucky to feel that energy every step of the way."

Skye Chambers on the 4x400m
"I knew going into the race that we would need first place to have the best shot at winning. I got the baton while behind and was feeling a little worried. I continued to be worried 150 meters in, but once I passed by my teammate and heard them all cheering for me. It felt inspired and got the second gear needed to get the win."