BOONE, N.C. - The App State men's and women's track & field team will head to Raleigh, N.C. for N.C. State's Raleigh Relays on March 27-29.
Action at the Raleigh Relays starts at 9:15 a.m. on Thursday with field events. Track events are scheduled for a 4:15 p.m. start Thursday afternoon. On Friday, field events are scheduled to resume at 9:45 a.m. and track events are slated for 11:45 a.m. Saturday's action will start at 9:30 a.m. with field events. Saturday's track events will begin at 1 p.m.
Last Time Out
App State hosted the Mountaineer First Chance meet at the Randy Marion Track & Field facility on March 21. A pair of facility records highlighted the meet in addition to 10 first-place finishes.
Senior
Emma Russum broke her own facility record in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase with a personal best of 10:58.10. She placed first in the event and moved to 10th in the App State all-time list. She set the previous facility record of 11:07.06 at the 2024 App State Open meet. Sophomore
Rhys Ammon also broke a facility record after recording a time of 4:42.06 to place first in the invitational section of the women's 1,500 meters. The previous facility record was 4:55.24, set in 2023.
The Mountaineers took the top-three spots in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase as junior
Ethan Lipham led the pack with a time of 9:22.62. App State also finished 1-2-3 in the men's 5,000 meters, which was led by freshman
Memphis Rich. Rich recorded a time of 15:11.22 to clinch first. Freshman
Christopher Stewart recorded a pair of first-place finishes in the men's discus (45.98m (150' 10")) and men's shot put (15.99m (52' 5.5")). In the women's shot put, fellow freshman
Brittany Ellis placed first with a toss of 11.64m (38' 2.25"). Freshman
Ja'Naya Linder and junior
Christian Gore registered first-place finishes in the women's 400 meters (57.39) and men's 400-meter hurdles (57.98), respectively. In the invitational section of the men's 1,500 meters, redshirt sophomore
Rylan Haskett stopped the clock at 1:55.64 to place first, coming within one second of the facility record (1:54.58), which was set in 2024.
Last Time at the Raleigh Relays
The Mountaineers tallied 32 top-25 finishes at the 2024 Raleigh Relays.
Matthew Gray garnered gold in the invitational section of the men's pole vault, clearing a bar of 5.20m (17' 0.75"), while
Ava Studney tied for seventh with a clearance of 3.85m (12' 7.5") in the invitational section of the women's pole vault. The women's 4x100-meter relay team stopped the clock at 45.27 for a third-place finish and the men's 4x100-meter relay quartet placed eighth with a time of 41.14.
Ranked Mountaineers
Around the Sun Belt, Gray and
Patrick Freeman lead the league in the men's pole vault category, while Russum and Lipham lead the league in the women's and men's 3,000-meter steeplechase categories. Joining Russum in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase top-five is freshman
Savannah Moore. Lipham is joined by redshirt junior
Steven Smith and freshman
Josh Pote in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase top-five. Freshmen
Thomas Wlazlowski and
Breanna Budzinski rank third in the men's 1,500 meters and women's 5,000 meters, respectively. In the men's 5,000 meters, freshman
Memphis Rich and redshirt junior
Chase Burrell check in at third and fourth, respectively. The 4x100-meter relay team of freshman
Zaniya Littlejohn, sophomore
Nicole Wells, senior
Mariah McCord, and sophomore
Kendall Johnson stand fourth in the league. Individually, Wells ranks fourth in the women's 400 meters. Rounding out the SBC's top-five in the men's long jump category is sophomore
Jared Hiatt.
Thirty-six Mountaineers in 25 events stand among the top-25 in the NCAA Southeast Region.
In the NCAA East Preliminary qualifying list, 16 Mountaineers stand among the top-48 in eight events. Lipham ranks fourth, followed by Smith, who ranks 12th, in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase. Joining Lipham and Smith in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase top-48 is Pote and freshman
Eli Griggs, who stand 26th and 36th, respectively. Gray and Freeman rank eighth in the men's pole vault, while Russum stands eighth in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase. Joining Russum in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase category is Moore, who ranks 33rd. The women's 4x100-meter relay quartet of Littlejohn, Wells, McCord, and Johnson stand 22nd in the qualifying list, while Johnson ranks 29th individually in the women's 100 meters. In the women's 5,000 meters, Budzinski stands 34th and senior
Linnea Maynard checks in at 37th. Freshman
Jahaila Wright and Hiatt round out the top-48 in the women's triple jump and men's high jump, respectively. Russum, Gray, Freeman, Lipham, Smith, and the women's 4x100-meter relay team also rank among the NCAA's top-50 in their event categories.
Up Next
The Mountaineers will head to Durham, N.C. for the Duke Invitational on April 10-12.
