Conference Carolinas

Mount Olive Ranked First in Men’s Track & Field Coaches Preseason Poll

12/18/2014 12:00:00 AM

 

High Point, NC – Conference Carolinas Track & Field Coaches have voted the University of Mount Olive as the top Conference Carolinas Men’s Track & Field Team coming into the 2014 - 2015 season.

Mount Olive enters the 2015 season as the defending Conference Carolinas Men’s Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Champions. The Trojans claimed their third outdoor championship and first-ever indoor title in 2014.

The Trojans return virtually all of their All-Conference performers from last year. Karl Goodman, Akiharu Kitagawa and Jacob Urys not only won the distance medley at last year’s indoor conference championship; they also earned All-America honors at the 2014 NCAA Division II Men’s Indoor Track and Field Championship.

Other returning event champions from last year’s conference championships include Angus Sinclair (outdoor high jump), Austin Steagall (indoor 5000 meters) and Donavann Thornton (indoor weight throw). The Trojans also return their entire All-Conference First Team outdoor 4x100 relay team: Stedmond Hampton, Eric Jones, Lamonte Taylor and Cedric Thomas.

Mount Olive was ranked as high as No. 21 in the USTFCCCA Division II Men’s Indoor Track and Field Top 25 and as high as No. 18 in the Outdoor Track and Field Top 25.

North Greenville has been voted to finish second. Last year the Crusaders finished 2^nd in both the Indoor and Outdoor Conference Carolinas Championships. With the loss of only 3 scorers and the addition of a talented 2014 recruiting class this team is determined continue on its path of improvement.

Highlighting the returners are Devin Wannamaker, Terry Davis, Ahmad Nesbitt, Kreig Lowe and Jared Bolin. All are All conference/All Region recipients.

Coach Jacob Simms in his 2^nd year as Head Coach had this to day about the upcoming season: “This off-season has been an all-time high point for the program. All of the track and field student-athletes are working incredibly hard at their strength and conditioning. It is a blessing to see how quickly this group is becoming unified. We are in an ever-improving Conference but we feel like this is an outstanding group, capable of our best season yet. This is the highest we have ever been projected to finish in conference, and while our attitude is fixed on winning. The reality is that we as a staff and our Student-Athletes have to daily commit to the development of every area our Program.”

After a third place finish in last year’s Conference Carolinas championships, the Limestone men’s indoor track and field team has been picked to repeat as third place finishers again in the 2015 season.

The Saints are led by a healthy mix of returners and newcomers this season as Joe Wassink takes over as head coach. Senior sprinter Jeremy Griffin was a national qualifier for the indoor 400m last season and has finished second in that event at the Conference Carolinas championships for two consecutive seasons. Marquette Simmons Jr., Jonathan Ross, and Jonathan Morris have each broken school records already this season and several more school records are well within reach.  

King finished fourth in the poll with Barton fifth, followed by Belmont Abbey, Lees-McRae, and Pfeiffer University respectively rounding-out the poll standings.

 

Conference Carolinas Track & Field Pre-Season Poll 

(# of First Place Votes in Parenthesis)