HIGH POINT, N.C. – For the sixth time in program history, the High Point University men's track and field team dominated the Big South Conference Outdoor Championships across the three-day event at Vert Stadium, earning the programs sixth Big South Championship title. The Panthers finished with 263.5 points, defeating second place Charleston Southern by 96.5 points. HPU won eight different events throughout the meet.
The event rounded out Head Coach
Mike Esposito's final Big South Championship meet as he will retire at the end of the 2026 outdoor season. Since taking over the program in 2005, Esposito has led High Point to 24 Big South Conference Championship titles across the indoor, outdoor and cross country seasons. He has been named the Big South Coach of the Year 17 times and has coached 113 NCAA First Round Qualifiers and 23 NCAA All-Americans.
"Winning is fun," Coach Esposito stated. "You want to win the right way and I think we do. All other team championships last 90 minutes and ours is spread over three days, so the ebbs and flows of emotions are incredible. There's a lot of emotions over three full days for everybody. One of the things we preach to our athletes is, you have to handle the setbacks. It's not going to go perfectly, and it didn't go perfectly but it went pretty darn well."
On day one of the championships, HPU crowned several individual medalist in the field events and two distance running events.
Justin Sluijter won the first men's event in the long jump after jumping 7.48m in his first long jump of the outdoor season. Sluijter was crowned the indoor long jump champion and completed the season sweep on Monday. Joining Sluijter on the podium,
Ricardo Montes de Oca jumped for the first time in his collegiate career and landed a 7.43m mark which is sixth all-time in program history.
Montes de Oca went on to win the pole vault with a 5.50m mark, which set a Big South Championship meet record. The Panthers went 1-7 in the rankings, as
Jackson Tuomey and
Jason Olivera Jr. joined Montes de Oca on the podium with 5.22m marks for second and third place respectively.
Grant Gogel,
Reid Holloway,
Maxwell Robinson and
David Caivano went 4-7 in the rankings earning multiple points towards the team score.
In the javelin, High Point had. Multiple athletes place in the top five as
Drew Noblet was crowned the Big South Champion for the first time in his career after throwing 64.67m. Henry Zeif placed third with a 58.55m throw followed by Jake Gheradi in fourth with a 58.24m throw and
Demetrio Lukaitis in fifth with a 58.01m throw.
Closing out the night on day one, HPU's
Avery Crowell placed fourth in the 10,000m after recording 30:41.83 time.
Day two started off with the decathlon events, rounding out the two days of 10 events. High Point swept the podium as
Cole Wilson was crowned the decathlon champion for the third straight outdoor season with 7,777 points. His 7,777 points was a program, Big South Championship meet and facility record. Wilson posted personal bests in the shot put (14.46m) and pole vault (5.12m).
Nigel Steenwinkel placed second with a personal best 7,261 points after registering personal bests in the long jump (6.79m), shot put (12.42m), high jump (1.80m), and pole vault (4.72m).
David Caivano placed third with a personal best 6,483 points. He recorded new personal best marks in the 110m hurdles (15.63), discus (37.72m) and javelin (49.76m).
Kelan McCullough placed fourth with 6,266 points for a season best.
In the shot put,
Caleb Barley placed second with a 17.90m throw.
Mobu Nwakor also placed second in the triple jump after jumping 14.71m.
Rounding out the evening on Tuesday in the running events, the 3000m steeplechase was the lone finals event on the track.
Alex Contreras placed fourth after clocking a 9:25.34 time.
On Wednesday it was a jammed packed day of finals. Rounding out the field events, HPU crowned a high jump champion.
Shaun Thomas cleared 2.09m for gold followed by his two teammates
John Connors in third with a 1.99m clear, Nwakor in fourth place with a 1.99m clear and a Wilson in fifth place with a season-best 1.94m clear. Barley placed fourth in the discus with a 49.22m throw and
Bradley Weiner placed 10th with a 45.67m throw.
In the running events, the 4x100m relay team kicked off the day with a third place finish after clocking a 40.59 time.
Gavin Stevens put on a show in the 1500m after trekking out on a big lead. Holding onto the lead with strong stamina, Stevens took first-place by a landslide with a personal best 3:45.75 time.
AJ Miller joined Stevens on the podium in third place with a 3:50.58 time for a new personal best.
Dominiq Northington turned on the heat in the 110m hurdles and won the event with a 14.04 time. Right behind him was teammate
Ethan Stallone in second place with a personal best, 14.34 time.
In the 400m
Tim Brown placed second with a 46.77 time. In the 800m,
Camerin Williams did what he does best went out with determination from the jump. He clocked a 1:49.05 time for first-place while Miller placed second with a 1:49.23 time to hold off the Winthrop runner.
In the 400m hurdles, Allon Suggs Sweeney posted a new personal best with a 52.28 time for fourth place.
High Point picked up another second-place title as
Avery Crowell clocked a 14:29.49 time in the 5000m. Stevens placed sixth with a 14:41.21 time.
In the final event of the night, fans witnessed an exciting finish to the 2026 Championships. In the 4x400m race, High Point pulled out the win after trailing through three exchanges of the relay. The team consisted of Steenwinkel, Williams, Miller and Brown. Brown tracked down the runner in front of him and helped the Panthers take gold with a 3:09.08 time.
Following the final race of the night, High Point was given the championship trophy,
Cole Wilson was named the Big South Men's Most Outstanding Performance and the coaching staff was named the Coaching Staff of the Year.
Athletes who qualified for the NCAA East First Rounds in Lexington, Kentucky will begin to prepare to compete on May 27 through May 30.
#GoHPU x #DefendTheTeam
