Keyandre Midgett ’24 (center) was named the Male Most Outstanding Field Performer after taking home individual titles in both the long jump and triple jump at the 2024 Southern Conference Outdoor Championships.—Photo courtesy VMI Athletics.
The VMI track and field teams enjoyed a remarkable 2024 outdoor season, highlighted by a second-place finish by the men’s team at the Southern Conference Outdoor Championships and Eleyah Armstrong ’25 qualifying for nationals on the women’s side.
Armstrong qualified for the 100-meter dash at the NCAA East Preliminaries by way of her SoCon meet record and VMI school record time of 11.35 seconds—logged at the SoCon Championships May 9—to earn an individual title for the event. The first VMI female track athlete to qualify for nationals since Jennifer Sing ’12 in 2011, Armstrong represented the program well by finishing 46th overall in the opening round of nationals with a 100-meter time of 11.80 seconds. The Hampton, Virginia, native also won the long jump at the SoCon Championships on the first day of competition in addition to running a leg of the 4×100 relay team to help the squad to All-SoCon honors with a third-place finish.
The men’s track and field team earned its best finish at the SoCon Championships since 2016 with its second-place finish at the event.
Eleyah Armstrong ’25 (left) qualifies for nationals during the VMI track and field team’s 2024 outdoor season.—Photo courtesy VMI Athletics.
Keyandre Midgett ’24 was named the Male Most Outstanding Field Performer after winning individual titles in both the long jump and triple jump at the league championship. The Portsmouth, Virginia, native won the long jump on the first day of competition with a distance of 7.36 meters (24’ 1.75”) to earn All-SoCon honors, then proceeded to win the triple jump on the second day with a first-place distance of 15.24 meters to again earn All-SoCon recognition. He also ran a leg of the 4×100 relay to help the squad to a fourth-place finish at the meet.
Midgett earned the same honor following the 2024 indoor season—for the second year in a row—after winning both the long jump and triple jump at the SoCon Indoor Championships.
Andrew Granger ’24, thrower, won the hammer throw for a second year in a row at the SoCon Championships, claiming the title this time around by 12 feet.
Zack Scott ’89, director of track and field, was named the Southern Conference Coach of the Year after leading the men’s team to its second-place finish, marking VMI’s first SoCon coaching honor since the 2000 season. Five separate athletes earned six individual championships between the men’s and women’s teams at the league meet. Between both squads, a total of 18 All-SoCon honors were recorded.
Scott’s leadership was instrumental in allowing the coaching staff to condition and train the cadet-athletes to be in peak shape and performance for the league championship meet as numerous Keydets broke school records during the course of the outdoor season, including Shea Hart ’26 (heptathlon), Cameron Thomas ’27 (pole vault), Armstrong (long jump and 100-meter), and Alina LaForest ’26 (400-meter hurdles).
