For the first time in school history, the Virginia Union men’s indoor track & field team took home the conference title in a landslide win.
Virginia Union tallied 164 points, including first-place finishes in five individual events, beating out Claflin, which came in second with 123 points.
This ends a near century long drought without a first track & field championship, marking their first of any kind since its men’s outdoor team won the conference’s outdoor title in 1934.
In addition, the Panthers put an end to Claflin’s championship streak, having won each of the previous three indoor conference championships.
The bulk of their points came in the shot put, racking up 25 points with three athletes placing in the top four (Zachary Jones, first; Dequan Boone, second; Trevion Hooker, fourth).
This was one of two events in which Virginia Union scored 20 points or more, also achieving this feat in the 5000 meters, highlighted by Rodger Korir’s (15:38.86) and Darryl Hawkins’s (15:46.46) first- and second-place finishes, respectively.
The Panthers’ men’s team entered the indoor track & field season after a strong cross-country performance, in which they claimed second place in the CIAA Cross Country Championships.
Virginia Union’s historic win comes after a 2025 season in which they finished second in the CIAA Men’s Indoor and Outdoor Championships, the first time they had done so since 2016.
