SATURDAY RECAP
 
SEWANEE, Tenn. – Behind outstanding depth and a total team effort in every area, the Centre men's track & field team dominated at the Saturday session at the Southern Athletic Association Championships, capturing their first SAA outdoor title since 2015.

Centre held the lead after day 1 of competition and never lost it, finishing with a total of 255 points to take first place. Berry finished in second with 202 points, with Rhodes, Oglethorpe and Sewanee rounding out the top five in order.
 
The Saturday championship session kicked off with the 5k and Centre's top showing came courtesy of James Schroeder as the junior clocked in at 15:43.29 to come in fifth place.
 
In the discus, a pair of Centre freshmen posted a 1-2 finish as David Harless got the win with a mark of 150-11, followed closely by Luke Cole in second place, marking Cole's second runner-up finish of the championships. A seventh place finish by Damien Josaphat gave the Centre freshmen 20 of the 39 available points for the event.
 
Another huge scoring event for the Centre men was the triple jump as the Colonels had half the scoring marks in the event, including two of the three spots on the podium. All-American Cree Ross got the win with a mark of 44-9.5 (13.65m), with Philippe N'Dia in third, Jacob Rogers in fifth and Nick Whitlow in sixth.
 
The men's 4x100m was next and Ross teamed with Isaac Johnson, Dirk Gambrel and Blake Busson to take second place with a time of 42.21.
 
In the high jump, Johnson and Michael Smith tied for first place after clearing 1.95m, with Johnson getting the tiebreaker for first place due to the number of fouls at the highest clear. Whitlow and N'Dia also cracked the scoring column for the Colonels to give the Centre men 21 of 39 total points in the event.

The 1500m saw Reeve VanDemark get into the scoring column for the second time at the championship meet as the steeplechase runner-up finished eighth overall with a time of 4:06.14.

In the 110m hurdles, school record holder Justin Lewis picked up a runner-up finish as he posted a time of 15.13, with Whitlow and Gambrel also getting into the scoring column to give Centre 15 more points.

The shot put showcased the marked improvement of the Centre throws team with three more throwers registering points. Harless earned his second win of the day with a throw of 50-1.25, the only person in the field to post a mark over 50 feet, while Cole finished fourth overall and Tyler Vaughn finished seventh as the Centre men picked up another 17 points.

In the 400m, Centre earned another win as Jackson Heim took first place with a time of 48.52. Centre had three more runners score in the race as Hunter Foster finished fourth, Corbin Ison took seventh and Teague Roth finished eighth as Centre added to its lead with 18 more points.

In the 100m, Busson paced the Centre men with a fifth place time, crossing the finish line in 11.01, with Johnson taking eighth place as the Colonels crossed the 200-point mark as a team.

Noah George led the way for the Colonels in the 800m as he posted a time of 1:58.52 to come in fifth place, followed immediately by Carter Russell in sixth place to help Centre maintain the lead.

Another school record went down in the 400m hurdles as Gambrel posted a time of 52.70 to break the record he set in the event as a junior. He came in second in the race by 0.006 seconds, with Lewis in third and Landon Binion in seventh.

In the 200m, the Colonels racked up ten more points as Heim finished fifth overall with a time of 22.42, with Whitlow, Busson and Johnson all finishing behind him in the scoring column.

The final event of the day was the 4x400m relay and Centre finished off the meet with a bang, picking up another win as Foster, Heim, Gambrel and Whitlow clocked in at 3:23.26 to take first place.
 
FRIDAY RECAP
 
SEWANEE, Tenn. – Day 1 of the 2025 Southern Athletic Association Outdoor Track & Field Championships has come and gone, and through the first six scored events of the day, the Centre men sit in first place.
 
This year's conference championship meet began with the 10k and Centre's Ike Synnestvedt posted the fastest time for the Colonels, finishing fifth with a time of 33:40.91.
 
Both of the Friday events produced major points for Centre on the men's side. In the javelin, Luke Cole threw an even 179 feet (54.56m) to take second place, with Erik Backstrom finishing right behind him in third to give Centre an event high 14 points. In the hammer, Centre and Berry took home all of the available points, with the Colonels finishing with 18. David Harless led the way for Centre, finishing second with a mark of 165-1 (50.31) to set a break Hunter Gann's previous school record, followed by Terique Murphy-Adams in fourth, Xavier Hayden in sixth and Cole in seventh.
 
In the jumping events, Centre came away with five of the eight scoring marks and 24 of 39 possible points in the long jump. Nick Whitlow got the win with a mark of 22-7.25 (6.89m), followed by Cree Ross in third, Carter Chandler in fifth, Isaac Johnson in seventh and Jacob Rogers in eighth. In the pole vault, Alex Hibbens earned a spot on the podium, clearing 13-10.5 to finish in third, followed by Whitlow in fifth and Backstrom in seventh.
 
ALL-SAA
 
All-SAA honors are given to those student-athletes who finish in the top three in their respective events. A running tally of Centre's All-SAA performers and their events based on their highest finishes will kept here during the conference championships.

FIRST TEAM

Hunter Foster (4x400m)
Dirk Gambrel (4x400m)
David Harless (Discus, Shot Put)
Jackson Heim (400m, 4x400m)
Isaac Johnson (High Jump)
Cree Ross (Triple Jump)
Nick Whitlow (Long Jump, 4x400m)
 
SECOND TEAM

Blake Busson (4x100m)
Luke Cole (Javelin, Discus)
Justin Lewis (110m Hurdles)
Michael Smith (High Jump)
Reeve VanDemark (3000m Steeplechase)
 
HONORABLE MENTION
 
Erik Backstrom (Javelin)
Alex Hibbens (Pole Vault)
Philippe N'Dia (Triple Jump)

Head Coach Lisa Owens and her staff were named Coaching Staff of the Year, giving them a sweep of this year's awards, after leading Centre to its first title in ten years and the first shared title for the men's and women's teams in the SAA era.