BOONE, N.C. - Six Mountaineers will represent App State at the NCAA East First Round in Jacksonville, Fla. on May 28-31. The meet will be available to stream on ESPN+.
Competition will start on Wednesday, where graduate student
Patrick Freeman and sophomore
Matthew Gray will compete in the 5:30 p.m. men's pole vault. Freeman and Gray had simultaneously broken the program record with matching clearances of 5.35m (17' 6.5") at the App State Open (April 18-19). Gray reset the record twice after the App State Open, first clearing a bar of 5.38m (17' 7.75") to secure silver at the Sun Belt Championships (May 8-10), before recording a personal best clearance of 5.43m (17' 9.75") at the Sunday Night Qualifier (May 18). Gray's clearance of 5.43m (17' 9.75") was also a Randy Marion Track & Field Facility record. Freeman, who was the 2025 Penn Relays men's pole vault champion with a clearance of 5.26m (17' 3"), stands second in the App State all-time list.
Freshman
Lilly Nichols, junior
Ava Studney, and sophomore
Kendall Johnson will compete on Thursday. At 5:30 p.m., Nichols and Studney will compete in the women's pole vault. Nichols, who holds App State's indoor and outdoor women's pole vault records, first broke the outdoor record with a clearance of 4.11m (13' 5.75") to secure silver at the Sun Belt Championships. She then recorded a personal best of 4.16m (13' 7.75") to surpass the previous record in front of a home crowd at the Sunday Night Qualifier. Studney, who is making her second consecutive appearance in the regional meet, also registered a personal best clearance at the Sunday Night Qualifier after clearing a bar of 4.11m (13' 5.75"). She stands second in the App State all-time list.
The first round of the women's 100 meters, which will feature Johnson, is slated for 7 p.m. on Thursday. The top-24 from Thursday's race will advance to Saturday's 6:35 p.m. women's 100-meter quarterfinal. At the Sun Belt Championships, Johnson stopped the clock at 11.33 to place fifth in the women's 100-meter final. She rose to second all-time, just shy of Lamonda Miller's 1989 program record of 11.22. Johnson also stands second all-time in the women's 200 meters with a time of 23.50, which she set at the Sunday Night Qualifier.
Redshirt senior
Calbert Guest will make his return to the Visit Jax Track at Hodges Stadium, having previously appeared in the 2023 NCAA East First Round meet in Jacksonville. Guest will race in Friday's 5:40 p.m. men's 3,000-meter steeplechase. With a personal best of 8:42.01, Guest broke the program record at the Penn Relays (April 24-26) and collected Sun Belt Men's Track Athlete of the Week accolades. The previous school record was 8:51.28, which Ryan Brown set in 2022. In addition to breaking the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase record, Guest also broke the men's 10,000-meter record with a time of 29:12.85 at the 2025 Raleigh Relays (March 27-29).
The NCAA Championships are slated for June 5-8 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. The top-12 finishers in each individual event and 12 teams from each relay event from the NCAA East First Round will punch their tickets to the NCAA Championships.
