BOONE, N.C. - The App State men's and women's track & field team is set to open the 2025 outdoor season at the Myrtle Beach Invitational, hosted by the City of Myrtle Beach at the Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium on March 14-15. The meet will be available to stream on RunnerSpace. Field events will start at 10 a.m. with track events to follow at noon on Friday. Saturday's action will resume at 9 a.m. with field events and 10:15 a.m. for track events.
The women's squad enters the outdoor season after finishing third in the team standings at the Sun Belt Indoor Championships on Feb. 25. The team's finish was the highest in the team standings since the Mountaineers' 2016 Sun Belt Indoor Women's title. Freshman
Lilly Nichols, who made an impressive debut in the Black and Gold by shattering the App State, Sun Belt regular season, and Polish U20 indoor pole vault record with a clearance of 4.26m (13' 11.75") at the Virginia Tech Invitational (Jan. 17-18), was named the SBC Women's Indoor Track and Field Freshman of the Year. She also collected Second-Team All-SBC honors after securing silver with a clearance of 4.18m (13' 8.5") at the SBC Indoor Championships. Nine Mountaineers, including Nichols, earned All-SBC honors for their efforts at the conference championship. Senior
Jasmine Donohue was the women's top scorer at the meet, scoring 24 points, earning First-Team All-SBC honors, and landing on the podium in the women's 5,000 meters, women's 3,000 meters, and women's mile. Over the course of the season, she also broke the program records in the women's 3,000 meters (9:32.67), and women's 5,000 meters (16:31.02). The women's 4x400-meter relay team (sophomore
Nicole Wells, junior
Addison Ollendick-Smith, freshman
Ja'Naya Linder, and sophomore
Jayla Adams) and women's distance medley relay team (freshman
Savannah Moore, Wells, Ollendick-Smith, and senior
Lauren Johnston) also clinched second-team all-conference honors. Additionally, senior
Emma Russum earned second-team all-conference honors for her performance in the women' 5,000 meters. Nineteen Mountaineers return from last season's outdoor squad and are joined by 18 newcomers.
The men's squad welcomes back 22 Mountaineers and adds 20 newcomers to its ranks. Senior
Garrett Bivens and sophomore
Matthew Gray, who hold the men's 5,000 meters and men's pole vault records, respectively, return for the spring. Joining Bivens in the distance categories is graduate student
Oliver Wilson-Cook, redshirt senior
Calbert Guest and junior
Ethan Lipham. The trio rank among the program's top-10 in the men's 15,000 meters, men's 3,000-meter steeplechase, and men's 10,000 meters, respectively. Sprinter
Parker Kinney, who is fifth in the App State men's 400 meters top-10, and hurdler
Christian Gore, who is seventh in the program top-10 in the men's 400-meter hurdles, as well as
Deuce Crawford, return for their junior seasons. Additionally, sprinter Armonté Ferguson will enter his sophomore season for the Mountaineers. Returning with Gray in the men's pole vault category is graduate student
Patrick Freeman and senior
Matthew Bigelow. In the throws category,
Jeremiah Burch Jr. and
Jake Stanley are back for their junior seasons.
Last Season | Outdoor Competition
Wells and
Kendall Johnson, who return this spring for their sophomore seasons, represented the Mountaineers at the USATF U20 Championships in Eugene, Ore. on June 12-13. Wells placed ninth in the women's 200-meter final with a time of 24.52. The pair also finished among the top-20 in the women's 100 meters.
Seven Mountaineers represented App State at the NCAA East Preliminary Round, the most the program has sent to the preliminary meet in program history. SBC Outdoor Track and Field Newcomer of the Year
Ashlee Osaji landed 14th in the women's long jump with a leap of 6.14m (20' 1.75"). In his freshman appearance at the preliminary meet, Gray tied for 27th in the men's pole vault with a clearance of 5.22m (17' 1.5"). In the women's pole vault,
Ava Studney, who is back for her junior season this spring, tied for 37th with a clearance of 3.80m (12' 5.5").
Taylor Smith,
Niejel Wilkins, and
Harrison Robinson also represented the Black and Gold in the women's long jump, men's triple jump, and men's 110-meter hurdles, respectively.
In addition to Osaji's SBC Newcomer of the Year honor, the Mountaineers saw 13 All-SBC honorees at the Sun Belt Outdoor Championships. The men's team finished fourth with 98 points, recording its highest finish at the championship meet since joining the Sun Belt in 2014. The women's squad finished sixth in the team standings with a score of 53.2. App State totaled 10 medals at the SBC Outdoor Championships and saw the quartet of Wells,
Sierra Smith,
Daye Talley, and Adams set a new 4x400-meter record with a time of 3:40.01.
Studney opened the 2024 outdoor season with a new women's pole record, clearing a bar of 4.04m (13' 3") at the Lenoir-Rhyne Open (March 16). On April 19 at the Wake Forest Invitational, Bivens broke the men's 5,000-meter record with a time of 14:18.05. He had also collected First-Team All-SBC honors for his first-place finish in the men's 5,000 meters at the conference championships. Gray broke and reset the men's pole vault record two weeks in a row, setting the new program and facility record of 5.34m (17' 6.25") in front of a home crowd at the App State Open on April 27. Additionally at the App State Open, the Mountaineers saw 10 new facility records at the Randy Marion Track & Facility.
Up Next
The Mountaineers will return to Boone to host the Mountaineer First Chance meet at the Randy Marion Track & Field Facility on March 21.
