GREENSBORO – It was a big season for North Carolina A&T men’s track and field, culminating on Thursday with two postseason outdoor track and field awards from the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) for two of its student-athletes.

Sophomore Xavier Partee claimed CAA Men’s Field Athlete of the Year. Sophomore teammate Xzaviah Taylor captured CAA Men’s Athlete of the Year.

Taylor earned second-team All-American honors from the United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) in the 400H. Taylor advanced to the NCAA East Prelims in 2024 in the 400H, but this season, he elevated to a new level. He won CAA outdoor titles in the 400H, 400m and he helped the 4×100 team finish second.

Taylor entered NCAA nationals with the best qualifying time coming out of the NCAA East Prelims in the 400H, running a time of 49.18 to break the program record. Additionally, he ran on the 4×400-meter relay team that won at the prestigious Drake Relays.

“It means a lot to me,” said Taylor. “I went through a couple of struggles my freshman year, learning how to run my races. Coming into my sophomore year, I made a conscious effort to put in the work. I focused on my craft. I did what I had to do, and I came to conference, and I doubled. It showed how much work I put in over the years.”

In addition to having a twin brother who excels at track, his father, Angelo Taylor, was a three-time Olympian and three-time world champion in the 4×400 relay. Therefore, he fully understands the journey and is going through the process to reach his ultimate goals.

“I just need to compete more, and having competed at NCAA nationals helps,” said Taylor. “I have to compete against the best even more. That was my first time there in my individual event, so it was a little nerve-wracking for me.

Taylor also acknowledged how much fun he had at nationals competing against the nation’s best.

“It showed me how much experience they had and that they had to wait their turn. The guy who won finished fifth two years ago, then he finished second the next year, and then, of course, this year, he won. It showed me he put in the work and just stayed patient.”

XAVIER PARTEE

Partee also has a father with a familiar name. Derrick Partee is a 2000 graduate of North Carolina A&T and the head boys basketball coach at Ben L. Smith High School in Greensboro. Xavier said there is no question he comes from a basketball family. He planned to become a walk-on for the A&T men’s basketball team upon becoming a student at A&T.

Then, by some random chance, someone encouraged him to try track and field during his senior year at Smith High School. Partee started with the high jump, but he wasn’t sold on the event. Therefore, someone suggested the triple jump. Bingo!! That led Partee to come across another familiar name and face in the Triad area – Roy “Spaceman” Thompson.

Thompson is the former legendary director of track and field at A&T and a former track and field athlete at A&T who has coached a few jump champions over the years.

“Shout out to Space,” said Partee. “He showed me so much about the event. I fell in love with it.”

During his freshman outdoor season, Partee finished second in the triple jump at the 2024 CAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Before winning the CAA indoor championship in the triple jump in 2025, Partee jumped 51 feet, 1 ¾ inches, at Texas Tech’s Corky Classic to finish eighth.  

“To go from 49 (feet) to skip 50 and go to 51, I wondered if it was a fluke,” said Partee.

He wondered about that for a while. Partee opened the outdoor season by sustaining an injury at High Point University during the Aggies outdoor track and field opener, forcing him to miss a month. When he returned, the Aggies were hosting the Aggie Invitational at Johnson Track. It was no fluke. Partee jumped 50 feet, 10 ½ inches, to win the event.

“I religiously rehabbed my hamstring injury every day,” Partee said. “Then, to do that, my first meet back, I believed I could really be something happen in this event.”  

Partee jumped 52 feet, 4 ¾ inches at the NCAA East Prelims to qualify for nationals as a sophomore. He finished 17th nationally at nationals, jumping 50 feet, 3 ¼ inches.

“I really haven’t had a second to sit with it,” said Partee about being named CAA Men’s Field Athlete of the Year. “Right now, I just feel ready for the next step. I feel ready for next year. We put in a lot of work obviously to get here, so I’m excited about getting back to work to see how much better we can do.”

Track & Field | 6/26/2025 5:59:00 PM

GREENSBORO – Allen Johnson pulled off the double on Thursday by winning Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the Year three months after winning CAA Men’s Indoor Coach of the Year. The conference announced its postseason honors on Thursday.
 
“I’m humbled, really,” said Johnson. “It is a time of reflection. To realize where the program was when I got here in 2022. Looking back on the journey we undertook in 2023 and seeing what we have accomplished to date is humbling.
 
There were so many trials and tribulations along the way, which was unbelievable. If it weren’t for the type of student athletes we have in this program, this wouldn’t be possible. It wasn’t for the kind of coaches I have on this staff, this wouldn’t be possible. If it weren’t for the type of people I work with in athletics and at the university, this wouldn’t be possible. I didn’t do this alone. I have had a lot of help.”
 

Johnson led the Aggies to the 2025 CAA men’s indoor and outdoor track and field championships, winning the outdoor title at A&T’s Marcus T. Johnson Track. The Aggies won the outdoor title by 36 points over Monmouth, claiming titles in the 400 meters, 800m, 400-meter hurdles, triple jump, shot put, and the 4×400-meter relay.
 
In addition, the Aggies took the top four spots in the 400m, the top three spots in the shot put, and the top two spots in the 800m and the 400H. Johnson then sent 14 male student-athletes to the NCAA Division I East Preliminary Round at the University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla.
 
Xzaviah Taylor (400H, 4×100, 4×400), his twin brother Isaiah Taylor (110H, 400H, 4×100), Partree (triple jump), Correy McManus Jr. (4×100), Jaeden Gumbs (4×100), Brandon Nya (4×100), Elijah Thomas (4×400), Caleb Gurnell (4×400), and Dyimond Walker (4×400) all advanced to the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
 
 

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Fighting Illini women’s track and field team has won all three University of Illinois Annual Athletic Awards including Athlete, Newcomer and Freshman of the Year as voted on by Illinois head coaches and DIA executive staff for the second-consecutive season.

Long jumper Tacoria Humphrey earned the title of Dike Eddleman Female Athlete of the year on the heels of earning All-America honors and Big Ten Champion status during both the indoor and outdoor seasons.

She won her Big Ten Indoor title with the third-furthest long jump in NCAA Indoor history, 6.94m (22-9 1/4). This mark is also the Big Ten, program and B1G Indoor Championships record. Following this performance she was named to The Bowerman Watch List, only the third Illini woman ever to be named to that prestigious list. She finished the indoor season with a silver medal at the NCAA Indoor Championships, the highest finisher ever in program history.

In the outdoor season she won her second-consecutive Big Ten Outdoor title to become a three-time Big Ten Champion. At the NCAA Outdoor Championships, she became an All-American in her fourth-place finish which is the highest finish in program history. She’s only the program’s second All-American in the event as the last was 43 years ago with Becky Kaiser on Illinois’ first NCAA-qualifying team in 1982.

Humphrey is the fifth consecutive recipient from the Illini women’s track & field program to earn the Eddleman award, and the third of coach Petros Kyprianou‘s three-year tenure. She is the 23rd winner overall from track since the Illinois Female Athlete of the Year award was first presented in 1977. Track & Field has the most selections among Illini women’s sports programs.

Shot putter Abria Smith was named Illinois Newcomer of the Year from her incredible growth in her first year in the Illini throws program. Working with coach  J.C. Lambert she improved her personal best by over three meters from 15.84m (51-11 3/4) to 18.92m (62-1). Her 18.92m heave is not only a program record, but it’s the 14th-furthest throw in NCAA Outdoor history.

She finished the outdoor season as the shot put national runner-up, throwing 18.85m (62-1 1/4), to become the highest finisher ever in program history. A month prior she became the Big Ten Outdoor Champion in the shot put throwing 17.95m (58-10 3/4), the program’s first B1G Outdoor Champion shot putter since Olympic medalist Ashley Spencer in 2009.

During the indoor season Smith earned All-America honors with her program-record throw of 17.99m (59-0 1/4) to place seventh at the NCAA Indoor Championships after a fourth-place finish at the Big Ten Indoor Championships with a mark of 17.87m (58-7 1/2).

Smith is the second consecutive member of the Illini women’s track & field program to earn Newcomer of the Year, joining 2024 honoree Darja Sopova.

Melissa Wullschleger was tabbed Illinois Freshman of the Year to go along with her Big Ten Freshman of the Year honor. She became a first-team All-American in the heptathlon with a program record 5,928 points in her fourth-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. She’s the program’s third-ever All-American in the event and the first since Carmel Corbett in 1996. As part of her school-record breaking score, Wullschleger also threw the program’s third-furthest javelin, 44.20m (145-0), to propel her into the top-4 at the national meet.

A month prior to the national meet she took fourth in the heptathlon at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships with 5,749 points. During the indoor season she placed seventh in the pentathlon at the Big Ten Indoor Championships with the program’s fourth-highest score of 3,984 points.

Wullschleger is the 11th Freshman of the Year for the Illinois women’s track & field program and the second-consecutive one following teammate Elizabeth Ndudi’s selection in 2024.