RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – On Thursday, the Great American Conference announced the results of its 2024 GAC men's track & field coaches' poll. Harding received all six available first-place votes from the league's head coaches to enter the season as a unanimous favorite.
Last season, the Bisons claimed their second-straight GAC Championship title. Two standouts - Dakarai Bush and Vlad Malykhin - went on to win national titles. Bush won the 400-meter dash and Malykhin claimed victory in the pole vault. They each added national titles in those respective events at the 2024 NCAA Indoor Championships. Bush also won GAC titles in the 200 and the 110-meter hurdles. He ran the anchor leg on a 4x100-meter relay team. The Bisons return six additional GAC individual champions in Kelmen deCarvalho, Antiwain Jones, Anton Kopytko, Tad Kirby, Casen Hammitt and Yves Bilong. deCarvalho set a scoring record in the decathlon. Jones established a championship record in the high jump; Kopytko won the long jump; Kirby took first in the 100, Hammitt posted a record in the javelin and Bilong produced a record in the triple jump.
Oklahoma Baptist took second in the poll. This year's Bison bring back three reigning GAC champions. Alexander Schovanec won a pair of throwing events - shot put and the discus - and qualified for the NCAA Championships in the discus. Maxamillian Wheeler took first in the 3000-meter steeplechase and Jentezen Smith won the 400-meter hurdles.
Southern Arkansas edged out East Central by three points for third place. The Muleriders' Ja'Kamron Zackery registered three top-three finishes in field events at the GAC Championships while Travon Johnson took second in the 100 and ran on the 400-meter team that placed second to Harding.
ECU dominated the distance events at last year's GAC Championships. Amos Pkiach won the 10,000 and Aspel Kiprob edged out Pkiach by three one-hundredths of a second in the 5000.
Southern Nazarene placed fifth, followed by Ouachita Baptist. Last year, the Tigers' Dylan Dew won the 800 and 1,500 - as he became the first Tiger crowned a men's GAC Track & Field champion. Northwestern Oklahoma State introduced a men's team this season and rounded out the voting.
The 2024 GAC Championships return to Magnolia, Arkansas with all seven teams competing from Thursday, May 2 through Saturday, May 4.
