BOONE, N.C. - The App State men's and women's track & field team is set to host the App State Open on Friday and Saturday at the Randy Marion Track & Field Facility. A handful of Mountaineers will also make an appearance at the Wake Forest Invitational in Winston-Salem, N.C. on Friday.
App State Open
Action at the App State Open is set to start at 10 a.m. on Friday with field events. Friday's track events are slated to begin at 6 p.m. On Saturday, track events will start at 10:30 a.m. and field events will start at 11 a.m. The Mountaineers will also recognize their seniors on Saturday at 5 p.m.
Joining App State in the field of competition will be Anderson (S.C.), Bob Jones, Carson-Newman, Catawba, Cleveland Comunity College, East Tennessee State, Flagler, King, Lees-McRae, Lenoir-Rhyne, Lincoln Memorial, Radford, and UVA-Wise.
Wake Forest Invitational
Freshman
Rowan Gwin, redshirt senior
Calbert Guest, junior
Ethan Lipham, freshman
Henry Stark, and graduate student
Ethan Turner will compete at the Wake Forest Invitational on Friday. Gwin and Lipham will compete in the men's 1,500 meters, which is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. In the evening session of the meet, Guest, Stark, and Turner will compete in the men's 5,000 meters, which is scheduled for 8:33 p.m.
Last Time Out
The Mountaineers competed at the Duke Invitational on April 11-12, where the women's 4x100-meter relay quartet of freshman
Zaniya Littlejohn, sophomore
Nicole Wells, senior
Mariah McCord, and sophomore
Kendall Johnson garnered gold with a time of 45.40. Guest and Lipham clocked times of 9:00.16 and 9:06.85 to place second and fourth, respectively. Senior
Patrick Freeman and sophomore
Jared Hiatt recorded fourth-place finishes in the Group A section of the men's pole vault (5.07m (16' 7.5")) and the Group B section of the men's high jump (1.86m (6' 1.25")), respectively.
Junior
Ray Lee placed sixth in the men's 100-meter final with a time of 10.57. Lee had advanced to the final after clocking a time of 10.56 in the preliminary round. He also joined freshman
Brandon Parker, sophomore Armonté Ferguson, and freshman Johnathan Wilson for the men's 4x100-meter relay, where App State placed seventh with a time of 40.84. In the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase, senior
Emma Russum stopped the clock at 10:34.13 to place seventh. With a time of 3:16.97, the men's 4x400-meter relay quartet of junior
Christian Gore, Parker, junior
Parker Kinney, and sophomore
Miller Brannen placed eighth. Additionally, freshman
Christopher Stewart and sophomore
Caleb Lopez notched top-10 finishes in the men's discus (46.67m (153' 1")) and men's triple jump (14.18m (46' 6.25")), respectively.
Last Time at the App State Open
The 2024 App State Open was highlighted by a new men's pole vault record, 10 facility records, and 64 top-five finishes.
Matthew Gray broke the men's pole vault school record for a second consecutive week, recording a clearance of 5.34m (17' 6.25"). Led by
Jayla Adams, who clocked a time of 23.94, the Mountaineers took top-five spots in the women's 200 meters. Additionally, the Black and Gold went 1-2-3-4 in the women's 100 meters and women's 400 meters. Kinney and
Cole Krehnbrink took the top-two spots in the men's 400 meters with times of 47.89 and 48.21, respectively, while
Jasmine Donohue and
Rhys Ammon took the top-two spots in the women's 800 meters with times of 2:14.40 (facility record) and 2:16.62, respectively. App State also saw first-place finishes in the women's long jump, men's high jump, men's triple jump, men's and women's hammer throw, men's 100 meters, men's 5,000 meters, women's 100-meter hurdles, men's 110-meter hurdles, women's 400-meter hurdles, women's 4x100-meter relay, women's 4x400-meter relay, and men's 4x400-meter relay.
Last Time at the Wake Forest Invitational
At the 2024 Wake Forest Invitational,
Garrett Bivens recorded a time of 14:18.05 to place fourth overall in the men's 5,000 meters. Bivens held the program record for the men's 5,000 meters until graduate student
Ethan Turner reset the record at the 2025 Raleigh Relays with a time of 14:08.07.
Additionally in the men's 5,000 meters,
Dwayne Lillie (14:26.87),
Jonah Bird (14:29.04), and
Oliver Wilson-Cook (14:38.91) finished among the top-20 in the event. Lipham placed 22nd in the men's 1,500 meters with a time of 3:47.24.
Ranked Mountaineers
Russum continues to lead the Sun Belt in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase and the women's 10,000 meters. Freshman
Breanna Budzinski remains third in the league in the women's 10,000 meters. In the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase category, Guest leads the conference and Lipham ranks third. Guest also ranks second in the men's 10,000 meters and is joined by Wilson-Cook, who rounds out the top-three. Gray and Freeman stand tied for second in the league in the pole vault category. Turner, Stark, and freshman
Thomas Wlazlowski rank second, third, and fourth, respectively, in the men's 5,000 meters. In the men's 1,500 meters, Lipham and Gwin rank third and fourth. The quartet of Parker, Ferguson, Wilson, and Lee round out the league's top-five in the men's 4x100 relay category.
Twenty-one Mountaineers in 13 events stand among the top-25 in the NCAA Southeast Region.
In the NCAA East Preliminary Qualifying List, four Mountaineers stand in the top-48. Freeman and Gray stand tied for 23rd in the men's pole vault category and are also tied for 53rd nationally. Russum ranks 37th in the women's 10,000 meters and 45th in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase. Guest checks in at 40th in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Up Next
The Mountaineers will split for the Penn Relays and LR Open next week. The Penn Relays, also known as the Penn Relay Carnival, is scheduled for April 24-26 in Philadelphia, Pa. The LR Open, hosted by Lenoir-Rhyne in Hickory, N.C., is scheduled for April 26.
