Track and Field Enjoys Excellent 2022 Season

The VMI track and field teams turned in excellent performances throughout the 2022 indoor and outdoor seasons to add another chapter to a traditionally strong program.

Under Zack Scott, first-year head coach, the Keydet men placed third overall at both the indoor and outdoor SoCon Championships, and the women placed sixth overall at the indoor meet with 20.5 points. The VMI men logged 90 points at the SoCon Indoor Championships for third place and 123 points at the SoCon Outdoor Championships to take third overall.

Jordin Poindexter ’22, sprinter, was the highlight of the year for both the indoor and outdoor campaigns. He earned the Southern Conference’s Heath Whittle Award as the Male Most Outstanding Track Athlete following his performance at the SoCon Indoor Championships, where he came in first in the 60m with a career-best time of 6.74 seconds, as well as first place in the 200m in 21.41 seconds to earn All-Conference in both events. He also helped the 4×400 relay to a firstplace finish in 3:17.13 at the SoCon meet for All-SoCon honors.

During the outdoor season, Poindexter was named the SoCon Most Outstanding Track Performer for the second year in a row, following his performance at the SoCon Outdoor Championships. He placed first in the 100m in a career-best 10.27 seconds—a facility record and second-fastest all-time at VMI before earning a career-best 20.89 seconds in the 200m (a new VMI record) to earn the individual title. The Richmond, Virginia, native was named SoCon Men’s Track Athlete of the Week April 6 following his performance at the Colonial Relays and then was later named the SoCon Men’s Track Athlete of the Month for the month of April.

Several program records were broken during both seasons, including a 40-year mark in the discus when Solomon Ghosh ’22 threw the discus 51.99m (170’6”) at the Mason Spring Invitational, breaking the prior record of 167’8” set by Tony Edwards ’82 in 1982.

Poindexter earned a 200-meter time of 20.89 seconds at the SoCon Outdoor Championships, a new VMI record that broke the time of 20.90 seconds from the 1991 season set by Mario Small ’91.

Trent Whittaker ’23 broke the 1,000m run (indoor) VMI record by completing the run in 2:24.31 at the VMI Winter Classic, besting the previous mark of 2:25.45 by Avery Martin ’16 in 2016.

On the women’s side, Eleyah Armstrong ’25 earned All-Conference honors in the 100-meter run at the SoCon Outdoor Championships by placing second overall in 11.83 seconds.