Men's Track & Field 2/1/2025 8:00:00 PM Quin Meyer

Southern Virginia Track and Field Concludes VMI Winter Relays With Several All-Time Marks

Lexington, VA - After a successful stint at the VMI invitational last weekend, the Southern Virginia University men's and women's track and field teams returned to Lexington for the VMI Winter Relays. In a meet featuring many of the best athletes throughout the region, the Knights stacked up well and produced fifteen top-ten finishes during the two-day meet.

Day One

While there were less events being contested on the first day, the Knights still collected many notable performances. The field events once again took center stage and were led by nationally competitive marks from Zeke Newman and Mikki Prows who found themselves second on the program's all-time list in the long jump and high jump, respectively.

Newman's jump of 6.70 meters (21' 11.75") was not only the second best in program history, but it placed him inside the top ten in the event and leaves him ranked 84th in the country amongst all athletes in Division lll, as he beat out several Division l competitors. Prows' personal-best clearance of 1.57 meters (5' 1.75") placed her tied for third and is the 70th best performance in Division lll this season.

The Knights had a trio of other jumpers finish with marks high on the program's all-time list, including Ryan Pascual (Long Jump), Andee Nelson (Long Jump), and Elyssa Holman (High Jump). Garrett Rogers capped the day with a good showing in the men's 5,000 meters. His time of 16:12.48 placed him ninth in his first time running the event collegiately.

Day Two

After a successful first day of competition, the Knights on the track were also determined to leave their mark. One of the best performances of the meet came from Joseph Hughes. Hughes has enjoyed a quality start to his season, but he put an exclamation mark on this meet in particular. In the first event of the day, the mile, he nearly outran the entire field of 26 runners on his way to a personal best of 4:20. He finished second in the event and is now second on the program's all-time list.

Only two hours later, Hughes doubled back in the 800 meters and walked away with a time under two minutes (1:59.16) for the second consecutive weekend. Other Notable performances were Ryan Pascual in the 400m (51.28) and Heidi Barton in the 800m (2:24.16). Barton's performance was an improvement on her time in the same event last week and placed her in the top ten for the second straight week.

Folole Torres followed up her historic performance last week with a blazing time of 26.23 in the 200m. Her eighth-place finish booked her as the second fastest Division lll runner in the event, behind six Division l athletes. In total, Southern Virginia finished the weekend with fifteen top-ten finishes and fourteen performances worthy of a spot on the program's all-time list.

Looking ahead, the Knights will travel to Lynchburg for the Liberty Open which will be held on February 7-8th. For the most up-to-date information and details on the team, visit knightathletics.com and follow @knightxctf on Instagram.