Army Cadets Open Outdoor Season In California

FULLERTON, CA – The Army West Point track and field team opened its outdoor season with two meets in California this weekend.

Action began on Friday, when several Cadets competed in throwing competition at the Ben Brown Invitational in Fullerton, Calif.. The day was highlighted by sophomore standout and 2018 NCAA Championship qualfier August Cook, who posted a 69.61 in javelin.

Saturday’s competition took place across two meets, with a small group of Cadets participating at the Occidental Distance Carnival in Los Angeles and the rest competing in Fullerton. The Black Knights produced strong results across the board, with 11 event winners and several academy top-ten performances.

Head Coach Mike Smith said, “We took a small group up to Occidental College for a distance carnival and the majority of our team competed at Fullerton. The results from both meets were good for the most part. The objective for us with these early season meets is to get good competitive efforts in, while managing a heavy training load. So, the marks we saw were indicative of better things to come.

At Occidental, Luca Mazzanti stood out for me with his steeplechase performance. That was his first ever 3k, so I am pretty pleased with how he competed. The 5k guys did a nice job in a competitive field.

At Fullerton, the highlight from Friday was August Cook. His throw moved him to number two all-time at the academy and his series was the best of his young career.

Saturday was a good day for us. I was really impressed with our throwers. We had multiple top ten all-time marks from that group. On the men’s side, Kenneth Brinson and Jamir Gibson had some really nice throws. On the women’s side, Emily Mikoud and Abigail Green served notice that they will be top performers in the Patriot League in multiple events. Our men’s 4×100 time was an excellent opener. That group is capable of some really good things this year.

All in all, it was a very good opening weekend for both our men and women. Now we have the rest of the week to get in some great work.”

Event Winners: Ben Brown Invitational – Fullerton, Calif.
Women’s 100m – Calli McMullen – 11.90
Men’s 400m – Tyrell Maddox – 47.66
Men’s 400mh – Aidan Christensen – 53.46
Women’s 800m – Hannah Deines – 2:17.69
Men’s 4x100m relay – Andre Vaughn, Ben Sims, Kedrin Jefferson, Kevin Dyer – 40.65
Men’s Long Jump – Josh Heiman – 7.10m
Women’s Triple Jump – Bonvie Fosam – 11.40m
Men’s High Jump – Bernard Jenkins – 1.98m
Men’s Discus Throw – Jamir Gibson – 54.35m
Men’s Shot Put – Geoff Kirk – 16.22m
Men’s Javelin – August Cook – 69.61

The Black Knights compete at the Spring Break Invitational in Irvine, Calif. on March 15 and 16.