Birmingham, Ala. – Western Carolina's Damon Worley broke a 16-year-old school record on day two at the 2025 Southern Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championship as the Catamount men and women teams both powered to runner-up finishes.

The Catamount men's team was led by a championship effort from Worley, a senior who set a WCU record with 6,690 total points in the decathlon, while Sadler Miller and Imani Boyd paced the women's team as the duo split the high jump title with a 1.71m clear.  

WCU women's team recorded its highest placement at the champion-crowning event since winning the team title in 2018, finishing in second with a 136.5-point total marking the most earned at the championship meet since notching 193 that same championship season. The men's team rolled to 175 points, its most since recording 186 in a championship-winning effort in 2019.

Meet host Samford claimed the SoCon championship titles on both sides, with their men's and women's teams earning 217.5 and 213 points, respectively.  

Heading into the 4x400m relay, the remaining spots on the team podium remained up for grabs on the women's side. The Catamounts held a slim 4.5-point lead over third-place Wofford, who entered the week the favorites to win the event. However, Samford battled to the upset event win, leading in all four legs of the relay as the Terriers took second and the Catamounts third to maintain their second-place overall standing, just edging out the Terriers, 136.5-to-134, in the final rankings. 

Worley stole the spotlight at the championship meet for the Catamounts, claiming the decathlon title on a record-breaking 6,690-point effort, surpassing the 2009 total of 6,493 accrued by Sean Reardon by 197 points. The senior ranked either first or second in the two-day event for much of the meet, ending the first day of competition only eight points behind Samford's leading scorer, Garnel Ezell.

Worley secured his victory with a pair of first-place finishes in the discus (36.78m) and the javelin throw (48.32m). He additionally took a third-place podium finish  in the pole vault (4.10m) and fourth in the 110m hurdles (16.02s). The Seneca, S.C. native took a victory lap in the 1500m to close out the event but held on to his placement with a 288-point win in the event.

Worley is the first Catamount to wear the decathlon crown since Christian Carswell earned it in 2016 with a 6,340-point effort.  

Sadler Miller and Imani Boyd split the women's high jump title as the Catamount pair were the only two to clear the height of 1.71m on the day. Both Catamounts opted to begin the event at the opening height of 1.51m, rolling through the next three heights on their first attempt at the bar. Neither was able to get over the 1.71m bar on their first attempts, but did so on their second to claim a tiebreaker over Samford's Dorsey Parker and VMI's Morgan Fraser. The latter two failed to clear the height on their third attempts, sending Miller and Boyd to a jump off at 1.76m. Again, neither WCU jumper was able to clear the height, securing the shared title for the duo.

The split title is the first in the women's high jump since individual champions were recorded in 1987. It also gives the Catamounts back-to-back outdoor women's high jump titles as Heidi Hudson claimed the crown last season.  

Western Carolina's men combined for nine additional podium finishes on Tuesday with Ethan Long posting runner-up finishes in both the 100m and 200m events, just milliseconds off the winning time. Long was also part of the second-place finishing 4x100m relay team. CJ McFerrin grabbed silver in the 110m hurdles and joined Long on the 4x100m squad. Quinton Godfrey earned bronze in the 400m and a second as part of the men's 4x400m relay.

Including the first-place tie in the women's high jump, the Catamount women climbed atop the podium 12 times over the final day. Cymoria Thomas collected a runner-up in the 200m and a p air of third-place showings, matching Armani Blair in the 100m and ran a leg with Blair on the third-place 4x100m squad. Erika Jackson scored in both the discus (2nd) and javelin (3rd).

The season isn't quite over for the track and field team just yet, as a handful of Catamounts are expected to make an appearance at the High Point-hosted Dani Palooza Last Chance Meet this weekend to push for a regional appearance.  

Catamount Medalists 

Catamount All-Freshman Selections Day Two: 

Decathlon – Bennett Whitefield 

110m H – Christian Roberts 

Men's Discus – Trez Fouch, Kolton Weaver 

Men's 400m – Trevor Williams 

Men's 100m – Ethan Long 

Men's 400m H – Christian Roberts 

Men's High Jump – Elijah Cochran 

Men's 200m – Ethan Long 

Men's Shot Put – Kolton Weaver 

Women's Shot Put – Lexie Durban, Emmie Finley 

Women's 400m H – Marie Harris 

Women's Triple Jump – Octavia Massena 

Women's Discus – Lexie Durban