Black Knights Finish 2nd at Championships

WEST POINT – The Army West Point men’s track and field team placed second at the Patriot League Indoor Championships with a score of 197.

This was the team’s highest score since 2002 when the team placed first with a score of 210.5.

“We scored more points today than we have scored since 2002,” said head coach Mike Smith. “We had so many great individual performances, but we just did not have enough of the smaller places to pull off the win. We won 7 event titles. Navy won 9. The rest of the conference schools won the other 4 events. We outperformed what we had on paper going into the meet, but Navy did as well. Once again, they were the better team. We return a lot of our points from this meet so we won’t hang our heads too much. We just have to keep working and keep pushing.”

Men’s Track
* Keagan Smith won the title in the mile run, clocking in at 4:10.14.
* Ross Puritty placed third in the 60m hurdles, clocking in at 8.27 seconds.
* Army took second and third in the 60m dash. Tyler Davis clocked in at 6.88, while Kevin Dyer timed in at 6.89.
* Tyrell Maddox finished first in the 500m, claiming the title with a time of 1:04.68. Christian Wright followed in seventh with a time of 1:06.80.
* Nick Causey took third place in the 800m, clocking in at 1:55.96. Jackson Sullivan finished in seventh with a time of 1:57.25.
* In the 1000m, Ben Boswell finished third with a time of 2:29.79.
* Army took second and third in the 200m dash. Dyer clocked in at 21.84, with Kedrin Jefferson close behind with a time of 21.91.
* Ben Petrella won the 3000m clocking in at 8:18.74 to take first place. Roman Ollar finished third with a time of 8:20.77, while Robbie Santoyo claimed fourth with a time of 8:20.87.
* Army won the distance medley relay with a time of 10:05.45. The team consisted of Causey, Wright, Boswell, and Smith.
* In the 4×400 Army placed fourth with a time of 3:23.18. The squad consisted of Davis, Bullen, Bradley Gibson, and Maddox.
Men’s Field
* Jeff Giannettino won the high jump with a height of 2.09m. Bernard Jenkins followed in third with a height of 2.04m, and Bryce Samuel was close behind in fifth with a height of 194m. Jaeden Watson (1.89m) closed out in a tie for seventh.

Geoff Kirk took third place in the shot put with a distance of 15.95m. Kenneth Brinson finished fifth, throwing for 15.35m. Grant Alter (15.29) and Michael Renard (15.17) placed seventh and eighth, respectively.

In the triple jump, Tyrese Bender jumped for a distance of 14.47m which was good for third place. Gibson earned eighth place with a distance of 13.73m.

Up next, the Black Knights will travel to the FastTrack Last Chance Invitational on Feb.24