ELON, N.C. – The UNCW men's and women's outdoor track and field teams closed the 2026 Coastal Athletic Association Outdoor Track and Field Championships with three individual podium finishes and a podium appearance from the men's 4x400-meter relay team.
Sadie Buchanan, Jesse Helton and Ivan Poag each earned individual medals for the Seahawks during Saturday's competition.
"What a meet," head coach Jeff Klaves said. "This conference is the real deal, and the presence our team brought today to finish out the championships is everything we want to be about. In our culture, we want to compete. We want to fight. We want to put ourselves in position to win, and we had athletes all over the track doing just that.
"I'm so proud of this team. They are the standard of what we're chasing every year. I'm excited to tell the stories of how these athletes put themselves in position to make conference finals, compete for points and earn podium finishes. Proud of all that happened today on the track and excited about what's next. Let's go, Hawks!"
Poag captured the conference title in the men's triple jump after recording a mark of 49 feet, 9 1/4 inches. The jump came just shy of his season-best mark set earlier this season at the Duke Invitational and moved him further up the program's all-time list.
Buchanan earned a podium finish in the women's 400-meter hurdles after clocking a time of 59.53 seconds. The performance broke her own school record of 59.94 seconds, set earlier this season at the Raleigh Relays, and also established a new freshman record.
Helton added another medal for UNCW in the men's discus with a throw of 172 feet, 2 inches. The mark ranks second in program history behind his own school-record throw set earlier this season at the VertKlasse Meeting.
The Seahawks' final podium finish came from the men's 4x400-meter relay team of Jace Wynn, Robert Wade, Justin Bryant and Lucas Smith, which placed third overall with a time of 3:11.50.
Among the other notable performances, Brylee Montanari placed fourth in the women's 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.91 seconds, while Cameron Wright finished fourth in the men's 110-meter hurdles in 13.91 seconds. Wright also earned a fifth-place finish in the men's 100 meters with a time of 10.82 seconds.
Jace Wynn and Lucas Smith both recorded top-eight finishes in the men's 400 meters. Wynn placed fifth overall in 46.54 seconds, moving to No. 2 in program history while also breaking the freshman record in the event. Smith finished eighth overall in 46.75 seconds and moved into the program's all-time top three.
In the women's heptathlon, Kaylee Franklin set a meet record in the javelin portion with a throw of 39.84 meters.
Myla Watson placed fourth in the women's high jump after clearing 1.71 meters, while Poag added a fifth-place finish in the men's high jump with a clearance of 2.01 meters. Bailey Willard also moved into third in program history in the women's shot put with a mark of 42 feet, 11 3/4 inches.
