Buena Vista, VA - As one of the most decorated programs of the last four years, 2025 brought another season of optimism for the Southern Virginia University men's outdoor track and field team. On the heels of another team title at the USA South Indoor Championship, a talented roster of Knights set their sights on an outdoor championship and the opportunity to rise the ranks in the South Region.

Regular Season

The team opened the outdoor season close to home at the W&L Carnival in Lexington, hosted by Washington and Lee. Joseph Hughes and Dylan May, both double conference champions during the indoor season, ran program records in their respective events to begin the season on a high note.

The early success rubbed off on the field athletes, as the javelin throw and pole vault records were rewritten by the end of the weekend. Nolan Opp won the javelin throw and was already amongst the country's best throwers in the national rankings, while the freshman duo of McCormick Johnson and Alex Silvester finished in the top four to highlight a deep group of pole vaulters.

After the season, Head Coach Kyle Chandler expressed his excitement for his core of pole vaulters.

"We are excited to continue developing quality depth in our event groups. The pole vault was a top 20 nationally ranked event squad this season, and though we will lose a couple to missions, we have some good vaulters coming in to help continue success in that event."

The team posted another couple of first place finishes at the Doc Jopson Invite the following week, before traveling to William & Mary for the highly touted Colonial Relays. Nolan Opp was the highlight of the weekend in the javelin throw, finally establishing himself atop the record books with a throw of 57.60m (188' 11.5"), keeping him in the mix to qualify for the national meet.

In the distance events, Garrett Rogers and Kedryn Chandler joined Hughes and May for the 6,000m relay, running a superb time of 16:22.56 to establish a quality program record. Isaac Armstrong and Nik Del Pontone both recorded sub 60 performances in the 400H, with Pontone clocking in at 57.64 for his best ever time.

With little time between the first meet of the outdoor season and the conference championship, the Knights did their best to train through many of the regular season meets in order to obtain the best results during the postseason. The team competed in two more meets after Colonial Relays before gearing up for a long weekend of events at the USA South Championship meet.

USA South Championship

A week before the championship, held in Concord, North Carolina, the conference released its pre-championship poll which was voted on by the coaches. The Knights were picked as the favorites by a slim margin over Pfeiffer, who finished just behind them at the indoor championship. Even with the wear and tear of a long season, the Knights were determined to become just the third team in USA South history to win four consecutive championships.

The typical point getters produced well for Southern Virginia, bringing home several individual wins. In the 100 and 200, Jalen Williams performed admirably and captured key points in stacked events. Zeke Newman and Ryan Pascual both mounted the podium in the 400m to continue very impressive rookie campaigns.

Another freshman, Damarion Bonds soared to a program record in the triple jump around the same time that Nolan Opp secured his second straight title in the javelin, leaving the Knights within striking distance of first place after day one.

The distance runners put on a clinic, claiming individual titles in the 10K, 5K, 1,500, and 800 events. Dylan May won three of them to help him win Track Athlete of the Meet and cementing himself as perhaps the most decorated athlete in program history.

McCormick Johnson was the fourth Southern Virginia athlete to be crowned an individual champion, taking the pole vault title to sweep the event during the indoor and outdoor seasons. Despite having great success in most event areas, Pfeiffer's tremendous depth proved enough to defeat the Knights' high-end talent as they became the first team to defeat Southern Virginia in a conference championship meet since 2021.

"Towards the end of the season we ran into some injury challenges. Despite that, the team competed really well at conference. We felt they outperformed at conference what they were showing on paper and that is a credit to their collective grit to try their best," stated Chandler.

While finishing as the conference runner-up might be disappointing for a squad that has been accustomed to winning the meet, there are still many positives to be taken from the season. The Knights developed a mightily impressive core of freshman who helped several event areas become regionally competitive, and even nationally relevant. 

The Knights anticipate losing some key athletes to graduation, but Kyle Chandler and his coaching staff are confident they can recruit quality replacements to continue building towards greater team accomplishments.

For the most up-to-date information and details on the team, visit knightathletics.com and follow @knightxctf on Instagram.