Men's Track and Field Finish 7th at AAC Meet

JOHNSON CITY, TN - The Columbia College men's track and field team finished in 7th place at the 2025 Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The three-day event was held at Tipton Stadium in Johnson City, Tenn.

Milligan won the men's meet with 199 points while Reinhardt was the runner-up with 126 points. Finishing third in the team standings with 123 points was Montreat College while Truett McConnell was 4th with 115 and Tenn. Wesleyan fifth wth 80 to round out the top five men's teams. CIU finished 6th with 63 and Columbia was 7th with 54 points. 

Leading the men was 5000m Racewalk Champion Dorde Racic as he set a school and AAC record with a time of 23:07 for 10 points. Then, finishing 2nd and earning 8 team points in the 400m Hurdles was sophomore Kimarje White in a time of 56.4 seconds while freshman teammate Jayden Young was 9th in 1:01. Young also placed 7th in the 110m Hurdles in 16.8 seconds for two points. 

Leading the Sprinters was freshman Tristen Patterson as he placed in the top six in three different events. He finished 6th in the 100 meters on Friday evening in a time of 10.63 seconds, falling only .28 milliseconds off the winning time of 10.35. Sophomores Bradley Tilby and Willy Calcano also tied for 10th in the 100m in times of 10.75 seconds while freshman William Smith was 17th in 11 seconds.

Later on Friday night, Patterson competed in the 400 meters and finished 3rd overall in 48.5 seconds to lead a pack of 7 Koalas in the race. Senior Xavier Linen then came across in 8th place in 50.5 seconds while freshman Ashton Pouncie was 10th out of 24 runners in 50.65 sec. K. White also finished 15th in 51.3 seconds while Ryan Flowers was right behind in 18th in 51.5 seconds.

Patterson's final race of the weekend was the 200m on Saturday afternoon and he finished in 5th place running a time of 21.8 seconds to finish just .7 seconds behind the winner from Truett-McConnell. Calcano also placed 9th in the 200 in 22.2 seconds while Linen was 12th in 22.3 seconds.

In the Relays, Columbia's 4x100m team of Calcano, Patterson, Tilby, and Young went on to finish in 4th place out of 7 teams in a time of 41.6 seconds to earn five team points. Then, in the final event on Saturday, the 4x400m relay team placed third out of nine teams to grab the bronze medal in a time of 3:18 led by White, Patterson, Pouncie, and Young for 6 team points for a total of 11 points from the men's relay teams.

Onto the field events, Columbia was led by sophomore Jarek Asencio's 4th place finish in the Javelin Throw on Thursday with a mark of 46.6 meters. Fellow sophomore Jonathan Davis then stepped up in the Discus on Saturday and placed 8th overall out of 23 with a throw of 40.5 meters while senior Daylon McDonald placed 13th at nearly 39.4 meters. In the Hammer throw on Friday, senior Gavin Rice finished 16th out of 26 at 36.5 meters while McDonald was 20th in 35.1. The Shot Putthen saw sophomore Sam Ah Ping place 15th out of 24 in nearly 12.3 meters while Rice was 17th at 11.7 meters.

Finally in the jumping events, the Koalas were led by the duo of Tyler Dixon and Jayden Young. Young finished tied for 6th of 10 in the Long Jump on Friday with a mark of 6.48 meters while Dixon was 8th of 12 in the Triple Jump at 12.93 meters.