Koala Men Finish 5th at AAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships

BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. - The Columbia College Men's outdoor track and field team finished in a program-best 5th place out of 13 schools at the AAC Outdoor Championships on Friday afternoon. The AAC Championships are being held at Montreat College in the NC mountains.

The Koala men finished with 73 points, six points ahead of SC rivals CIU and 9 points ahead of SMC. Milligan (TN) won the conference for the 3rd straight year while Truett-McConnell was 2nd, Montreat 3rd and Reinhardt 4th.

Finally on Saturday, the Koalas ended the meet by winning the 4x400 meter relay in a season-best time of 3:14.97 as the team qualified for nationals with the 15th-best time. The team featured freshman Meshach Guadeloupe, freshman DJ McGriff-Agers, sophomore Ashton Pouncie, and freshman Alex Smith and outran runner-up TWU by 0.5 seconds.

Freshman national qualifier Alex Smith finished 3rd in the 400 meters on Friday in 48.5 seconds while sophomore Ashton Pouncie came in 6th in 49.6 seconds as the duo combined for 9 team points. Freshman Meshach Guadeloupe and sophomore Kamron Holman then each tied for 15th place in 50.8 seconds.

In the 100 meters on Friday, Champion of Character and Koala Leadership Award Winner, Willy Calcano finished 13th overall out of 26 in 10.8 seconds. 

Then, in the 4x100M relay, the Koalas finished 5th of 10 in 41.7 seconds, just missing 4th place by .02 to earn four team points to set a season-best time and the 46th fastest in the NAIA and it featured K. Holman, Tijai Hartwell, Jaden Barnette, and W. Calcano in the anchor leg.

In the 200 meters on Saturday, Smith led the Koalas placing 4th in 21.8 seconds for 5 team points while Pouncie was 13th of 26 in 22.3 seconds. Calcano and J. Barnette also finished 15th and 16th in 22.4 seconds.

The Koalas then had two sprinters compete in the 400 meter Hurdles with sophomore Jayden Young finishing 9th of 19 in 58.3 seconds while freshman Jaden Barnette was 13th in 59.18 seconds. 

In the 800 meters on Saturday, freshman DJ McGriff-Agers finished 7th overall out of 16 in 1:57 for two team points.

In the 4x800 meter distance relay, the Koalas finished 9th in a season-best time of 9:11 and it featured freshmen Will Parker, Jalen Miller, Jimmy Bates and Jusaint Conde in the anchor leg with the top time of 2:12 in his 800 meters.

In the men's 5K Racewalk on Friday evening, the Koalas had six men compete and four finish in the top five led by sophomore Jude Dill finishgin 2nd in 29:58 for his personal best and 8 team points while freshman Jordon Miller was right behind in third place in 30:01. Freshman twin brother Jalen Miller then came in 4th place in 33:22 while Parker was 5th in 34:32. The quartet combined for 23 team points. 

Dill also finished 10th in the Decathlon with 2,202 points. Dill was 9th in the Javelin on Friday at 29.2 meters and was 5th of 10 in the 1500 meters in 5:15.

In the field events, CC was led by Nevan Gaither in the Long Jump placing 5th with a mark of 6.63 meters (21.9 ft) while J. Young was 7th at 6.55 meters. Both marks were personal-bests and they combined for 6 team points. Gaither also placed 8th of 15 in the High Jump with a mark of 1.82 meters (nearly 6 ft) for his season-best and one team point.

Gaither then finished as the runner-up in the Triple Jump on Saturday with his mark of 14.33 meters (47 ft) for his season-best mark and #22 best NAIA jump and 8 team points. Sophomore Jaylen Bostic also finished 7th of 12 in the TJ with a mark of 13.34 meters (43.9 ft) and two team points.

In the Shot Put on Friday, freshman Jaden Reed finished 10th with a throw of 12.9 meters (42 ft). Freshman Amon Moise then finished 6th in the Javelin throw to score 3 team points with a mark of 45.85 meters (150 ft) for his personal-best throw. In the Discus throw on Saturday morning, Columbia was led by junior Jonathan Davis placing 9th with a throw of 42 meters (137 ft) while junior Guruveer Jhaj was 18th of 24 in 37.5 meters.

The Koalas track and field team will now start preparing for the NAIA national meet from May 20-22 in Asheville, NC on UNC-Asheville's campus with Alex Smith and the 4x400 relay team qualifying. 

The men's team also broke 22 records combined between indoor and outdoor seasons.