Army West Point Athletics
Nathan Davis Becomes Second Black Knight to Qualify for NCAA National Championship Meet
May 30, 2025 | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Army Track and Field saw another athlete punch their ticket to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, while three other athletes competed strongly on the third day of the East Regional Round.
Nathan Davis joins Emily Fink in competing on the national stage in two weeks, qualifying for the national championship meet in the 3000m steeplechase.
The junior, competing in the 3000m steeplechase at the regional meet for the second straight year, clinched his spot in Eugene finishing ninth in the event with a final time of 8:38.72. The mark not only was a personal best for Davis but also set a program record.
Emily Fink and Jordan Hecht both did battle in the women's shot put, both finishing in the top 20 in the event, but fell just short of qualifying for the national meet.
Fink finished 14th overall in the event with a final mark of 16.54m, while Jordan Hecht finished 18th with a final mark of 16.24m, a new personal best for the junior.
Javan Guevara-Cragwell rounded out the Black Knight athletes that competed on day three, competing in the triple jump. Guevara-Cragwell finished the event in 37th place with a 14.74m final mark.
Three more Black Knights will fight for their ticket to join Fink and Davis on Saturday.
Sophia Dykstra will compete in the women's discus at 1:00 p.m., Mikayla Cheney will compete in the quarterfinal round of the 1500m run at 5:15 p.m. and Joanna Halfhill will round out the group battling in the 3000m steeplechase at 5:40 p.m. Friday evening.
Hear From Coach Smith:
We had two regional qualifiers for the women's shot put this week. Jordan Hecht '27 came in as the 29th seed with a best of 15.93 meters (52' 3.25") and Emily Fink '25 came in tied for 14th with her personal best mark of 16.79 meters (55' 1"). As a result of the weather issues last evening, the shot was moved to this morning. Jordan set the tone with a personal best of 16.24 (53' 3.5") meters on her first attempt in flight two. She couldn't better that mark and finished 18th overall in the event; a result that won't sit well with her. Jordan doesn't go to meets to lose. She comes to win. So even though the mark she put up today was a significant personal best, is the second-best mark ever at the Academy and she finished much better than her incoming seed, Jordan is not happy. She has a sharp competitive edge in her personality that is shaped by winning. She has her process and that is part of what makes her so successful. I won't make excuses for her, she wouldn't like that, but I will tell it like it is. Jordan played soccer for the Army team in the fall. She missed out on a lot of development in the throws. What we are seeing now from her is a product of coach Woodbury's training, her discipline, and her talent. There is a lot of room for improvement and that will come with a full year of training and technical development. She is going to be dangerous in the future. A year from now, with a full fall preparation period, the shot is going to travel a bit farther than it did today. But for now, Jordan is unsatisfied and angry. I am sure she has a countdown going until this event is contested in 2026. Emily's first attempt on flight three (16.53m) was her best today. That mark held up as the 12th-best mark in the meet until the final few attempts in flight 4. The final scoreboard will show Emily finishing in 14th place at an event where the top 12 advance to the NCAA championship in Eugene. There can be no disappointment in the shot put career of Emily Fink. She will likely never pick up a shot again. That's ok. She retires from the event as the Army school record holder indoors and out. She is a multi-time Star Meet champion, a multi-time champion in the Patriot League, and the Service Academy record holder in the event both indoors and out. She is the best ring thrower in Army history. We will see her again in two weeks at the NCAA championship in the hammer throw. Two women in the top 20 is a great result for us today in the shot. We are having a very good meet as measured by where our people are ending up. It used to be that we would qualify a few people to this meet and they would get overwhelmed by the competition and struggle to match their seed position. Now we have multiple people competing to make the national championship. The bar has risen to a much higher level.
Second Lieutenant Javan Guevara-Cragwell '25 competed in the triple jump here today, and his collegiate career came to an end. His best mark came on his first attempt (14.74/48' 4.5"). He fouled his next two attempts and finished the competition in 37th place. He had a great career and in particular a great senior year. A quick glance at his competitive history tells the story. At the meets that mattered the most, where the team points were on the line, Javan got it done. Every time. The 2025 outdoor season was his best. He won the triple jump at the outdoor Star meet leading a 1-2 Army sweep and finished second in the long jump as part of a 1-2-3 sweep in that event. He followed up that success at the outdoor Patriot League meet with an individual title in the triple jump and a personal best in the long jump on his way to a fifth-place finish. The success that our team experienced in the horizontal jumps this winter and spring is in large part, due to his leadership. He will leave the Academy with his name firmly etched in the top 10 list in both the triple jump (third) and the long jump (fourth). However, it is his leadership that I will miss the most. He presided over one of the most successful horizontal jump groups that we have ever had at West Point. His guys didn't get the program record in either event, but they rewrote the top 10 list, they are young, and he leaves behind a legacy of hard work, attention to detail, and a winning attitude that will carry forward in his absence.
Nathan Davis '26 was our final competitor today in the 3000m Steeplechase. This is Nathan's third time competing at the NCAA East preliminary in the steeplechase. Last year, he came into the meet as one of the favorites to advance and just had a bad day and left the meet with some serious disappointment. Nathan has carried that feeling with him for the last 364 days. I know this because he told me the other day that he has been dreaming about his race tonight for an entire year. He has carried himself in training like he had some unfinished business and when he checked in with me last night, he told me "I'm so excited for tomorrow." The conditions today were not ideal. The conditions were difficult. The real feel temperature as we started the warm-up was in the mid 90's and the sun refused to hide behind any of the clouds. It was hot. We shortened his warm-up run to avoid raising his core temperature too much and had him wear a cooling vest during all of his mobility after he returned from the run. He told me later that during the run he looked down at his watch and noticed that he was running 6:00 minute mile pace "I was in the zone. I wasn't even trying to do that. I was just trying to get my legs going". That is pretty fast for what should be a simple jog. It was probably a function of his excitement and his fitness. Nathan was in the third of three heats in the steeple with the top 3 automatically advancing from each heat and the next three fastest times to the semifinal in Eugene, Oregon in two weeks. When the gun went off there was no clear separation of the runners and a tight pack formed with Nathan sitting in about 8th place for the first couple of laps. Nathan held the fourth best time of the men in his race so it was reasonable to expect him to compete near the front of the race and as the race started to spread out, he did exactly that. Nathan found himself in a pack of six men halfway through the race and that pack whittled down to four men over the last couple of laps. At the bell, Nathan was in fourth when one of the top three runners in front of him stumbled and fell right in front of him. Nathan hurdled him while he was down on the ground and found himself in third with 300 meters remaining. He looked good and kept pushing hard down the backstretch and caught a struggling Alabama runner right before the last water jump. Down the final straight, Nathan was clear of all but the leader and easily claimed the runner-up spot in 8:38.72. His time set a new personal best and new Academy record. Most importantly, he avenged his disappointment from a year ago. It was a great race under some very difficult conditions. Afterward, he was brimming with confidence. In the tent post-race, Coach Moore asked him, "Nathan, when did you know you were going to make it?" Without hesitation he replied, "When I was on the starting line". He said it with a smile on his face and while there is great humor in that statement there is also a hint of truth lying underneath it. He was determined, he was physically prepared, and he was confident. And then he went out and ran to his potential. Today was a big step forward for him. He has a new challenge awaiting him in Eugene in two weeks. He will be ready for that one as well.
Players Mentioned
