JOHNSON CITY, Tenn.— The Montreat women's track and field team had one of its best conference showings in program history over the weekend at the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Johnson City, Tenn. Across the two days of competition, the Cavaliers racked up one individual championship, seven All-AAC performances, six school records and a team finish of sixth place.
 
Montreat registered an all-conference performance twice on Friday while also mixing in a pair of school records. The Cavaliers' 4x800m relay team finished second with a time of 9:47.43, good enough for All-AAC honors. That time was also fast enough to set a new school record, shattering the previous-best effort by 7.96 seconds.
 
Lillie Siniard garnered All-AAC recognition for the second consecutive year thanks to her third-place time (40:59.69) in the 10,000m Friday night. Meanwhile, Emily Standifer was busy setting a new Montreat-best mark in the 800m. The Maylene, Ala. native ran her race in 1:01.44, something no other Cavalier has done in official competition.
 
The Cavs scored four times across two other events on Friday. Staying on the track, three Cavaliers finished in succession in the 1,500m. Mahaley Cronk led the way with her fourth-place time of 4:48.88, while Dylan Garcia (4:53.59) and Yessenia Castellanos (4:55.23) finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Over in the field events, Jessica Gakeri tallied a personal best in the long jump, leaping 5.41m into fifth place.
 
Saturday featured Montreat's lone AAC championship of the weekend. Castellanos delivered that championship performance in the 800m as the Cavaliers took four of the top five spots in the race. The freshman from Pelion, S.C. not only earned the distinction as an AAC champion and All-AAC honoree, but she also bested the Montreat women's 800m record by finishing in just 2:17.62. Garcia also beat the previous-best time, finishing right behind Castellanos in second to earn All-AAC recognition (2:18.75). Cronk (fourth; 2:24.36) and Kilia Hasty (fifth; 2:27.36) rounded out the top five for Montreat.
 
Three other Cavs earned All-AAC distinction on Saturday. For Gakeri, that meant hitting an NAIA "A" standard mark of 11.75m in the triple jump. Gakeri ultimately finished as runner-up in the event.
 
Meanwhile, in a combination of track and field events, Anna Tastinger earned All-Conference honors and a runner-up finish with her Montreat-record showing in the heptathlon. Tastinger broke her own school record by over 300 points, totaling 3,325 points across the seven events.
 
Jenna Mallory was responsible for Montreat's final All-AAC effort on the weekend. In the 3,000m steeplechase, Mallory recorded a personal-best time of 12:09.81 to lead another succession of three Cavaliers across the finish line. While Mallory finished third, Catherine Slack (12:20.99) and Raquel Smith (12:38.81) finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Smith's time was also a personal best.
 
Montreat totaled two other program-best marks on the weekend. In the field, Makayla Anderson surpassed her own Cavalier record in the shot put. Hitting a distance of 9.98m, Anderson finished 16^th at the conference meet. Meanwhile, after also setting a record earlier this season, the 4x100m relay team broke its own mark by 2.37 seconds, placing seventh on Saturday with a time of 51.35 seconds.
 
The Cavaliers' 18^th and final scorer at the AAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships also proved to be a relay team. Running 4:13.12, the 4x400m relay pieced together the sixth-fastest time on Saturday.


In total, Montreat scored in 11 different events to directly contribute to the program's best score of 97 points. The sixth-place team finish is the program's highest since it finished sixth in 2017.
 
"It was definitely a long day, but we're very proud of our group of ladies for taking advantage of the good weather and scoring the most points ever at the AAC Championships in school history," said head coach Chester Hightower.
 
For a complete list of results from the AAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships, click here.
 
"Our athletes are setting the bar for our program with the mentality that tradition never graduates," Hightower added. "We're very proud of the foundation our seniors have laid down for Montreat College Track and Field as a whole."
 
The Montreat women's track and field team now turns its attention to its second and final home meet of the outdoor season, the Last One Best One. Events are scheduled to begin on Friday, May 6 at 10:00 a.m. in Black Mountain, N.C.