ELON, N.C. – After filling two more fingers with jewelry last season, the Elon University track & field team is sprinting into the 2024 outdoor season with high ambitions on its mind. 

Following a record-breaking 2023 campaign, in which the Phoenix became the first school in CAA history to win the "Triple Crown" by taking home the women's cross country, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field championships, Elon is looking to defend its outdoor title again in 2024.

The Phoenix features star student athletes in nearly every category of track & field, varying in age and event type. Elon returns several indoor and outdoor reigning champions, including junior Jette Beermann in the mile, redshirt senior Kaitlin McGoogan in the hammer throw, redshirt junior Leandra Lorenz in the 1,500 & 5,000 meters, senior Piper Jons in the 4x100 relay and Meghan Wilcox in the 4x100 relay. 

As Elon embarks on its outdoor season, Rising Phoenix sat down to learn more about the team's six captains. Check out the video embedded below. 
 
*All stats and records are updated as of March 29, 2024

Piper Jons
In the four years Piper Jons has dedicated to the Phoenix, she has claimed three school records in the 200, 300 and 400, respectively. All those records coming indoors, Jons has proven her environmental versatility, blazing a time of 54.02 in the 400 during the 2023 outdoor season to bring her school record count to four. 


Hannah Miller
A steeplechase and mile specialist, Hannah Miller has earned back-to-back All-CAA honors in the steeplechase. Additionally, her consistent sub-five mile ability has been incredibly valuable for Elon, as she placed sixth in the event at the 2023 CAA Indoor Championship, helping the Phoenix to the inaugural title.  


Meghan Wilcox
One of three junior captains this year, Meghan Wilcox has proven herself on and off the track. Wilcox is already a CAA champion in multiple events, climbing the mountaintop in the 400 relay in 2023 and the 1600 relay in 2022. She was also All-CAA in the 400-meter relay and 100 in both years. 


Leandra Lorenz
The distance runner from Kleinmachnow, Germany, has done her fair share of damage the last two years. At the 2023 CAA Outdoor Championship, Lorenz claimed the 1,500 and 5,000 titles for the second straight year. Maybe the most impressive of her many accomplishments at Elon was being named the 2022 CAA Women's Track Athlete of the Year.
 

Meghan Coyne
The second junior of the six captains, Meghan Coyne, a Barrington, Rhode Island native, has left her mark as a thrower. In her two years of collegiate competition thus far, Coyne has impressively progressed, in her throw distances and leadership. After launching a season best mark of 151' 4" (46.13m) in the hammer throw at the High Point Meet of Champions in the 2022 outdoor season, Coyne catapulted a personal best 158-feet-7 (48.34m) at the 2023 Charlotte Invitational. 


Jette Beermann
Another Germany native, Jette Beerman has shone bright with the Phoenix. In all three years of competition, Beermann has been All-CAA in both the 3,000 and mile. Since claiming CAA Rookie of the Year in 2021, Beermann has not slowed down, running a season-best time of 4:27.55 in the 1,500-meters at the Virginia Challenge in 2022, and coming fifth overall in the 1,500-meters at the CAA Championships with a time of 4:40.84. This past indoor season, Beermann continued to speed up, becoming CAA Champion in the mile after running 4:56.43 in the finals to earn Elon's only individual title at the indoor meet. 
 

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'Rising Phoenix' is a new student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on Twitter (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Jacob Kisamore at jkisamore@elon.edu.

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