WILLIAMSBURG - The College of
William and Mary is proud to announce that the 44th Annual Colonial Relays are
here, and will take place this Friday and Saturday, April 3-4. All running and
jumping events will take place inside of historic Zable Stadium, while the
throwing events will be held 250 yards away at the Stimson Throwing Events
Area.
Top Storylines for the 44th Colonial Relays
- The teams. There will be a number of high quality track and field programs
participating. In the 2009 USTFCCCA Outdoor preseason rankings, five teams
attending this weekend rank among the top 100 schools nationally, including #31
Norfolk State, #39 Georgetown, #43 Virginia Tech, #74 Seton Hall, and #87
William and Mary on the mens side; and #2 Virginia Tech, #60 Hampton, #65
William and Mary, #85 Seton Hall, and #95 Howard for the women.
- The 44th Colonial Relays will have teams from all three NCAA divisions
competing. While most of the schools are in Division I, Bowie State will be
representing Division II, and Christopher Newport and Virginia Wesleyan compete
in Division III. Total, more than 1,500 individual entries and over 250 relay
teams were accepted into the meet.
- The mens teams that will be competing include William and Mary, Rutgers,
VCU, St. Francis (Pa.), Yale, Virginia Tech, Georgetown, Seton Hall, University
of Long Island, Hampton, Bucknell, Delaware, Christopher Newport, Monmouth,
Iona, Buffalo, Norfolk State, Mount St. Marys, George Mason, Farleigh
Dickinson, Fordham, Bowie State, Virginia Wesleyan, Saint Josephs, and Howard.
- The womens teams competing will be William and Mary, James Madison, VCU, St.
Francis (Pa.), Yale, Virginia Tech, Georgetown, Seton Hall, University of Long
Island, Hampton, Bucknell, Delaware, Christopher Newport, Monmouth, Iona,
Buffalo, Norfolk State, Mount St. Marys, George Mason, Farleigh Dickinson,
Fordham, Bowie State, Virginia Wesleyan, Navy, Saint Josephs, and Howard.
- All-American performances. 22 All-Americans are entered in the meet, 21 from
Division I and one from Division III. Included in that number are Isaac Bell of
Christopher Newport; Corey Vinston and Marlon Woods of Norfolk State; Christo
Landry, Emily Anderson, and Ian Fitzgerald of W&M;
Harbert Okuti and Mohamed Khadraoui of Iona; Natalie Sherbak and Jess Fanning
of Virginia Tech; Kate Grace of Yale; Landria Buckley of Howard; Maggie Infeld,
Emily Infeld, Buky Bamigboye, Carmen Ballard, Abigail Johnson, Sandy Roberts,
Renee Tomlin, John Maloy, Levi Miller, and Danny Harris of Georgetown.
- Team USA experience. Current William and Mary assistant coach Ed Moran 03,
a four-time All-American while enrolled at the College, will be competing for
the third year in a row as a professionally sponsored athlete. In addition to
being a two-time Colonial Relays Champion in the 5,000m, Moran won the 5,000m
gold medal at the 2007 Pan-American Games and competed at the World Cross
Country Championships each of the past two years, including last weekend in
Amman, Jordan. W&M sophomore Betsy Graney took second in the 3,000m
steeplechase at the U.S. Junior Championships last summer and ran for the
United States at the World Junior Championships in Poland, and junior Harry
Miller was part of the Team USA contingent at the NACAC U-23 Championships
in Mexico. Christo Landry was a member of the 2005 U.S. Junior Cross
Country team, finishing as the third-fastest American and 46th overall at the
World Cross Country Championships.
- Olympic Quality. Both Moran and Tribe runner Emily Anderson competed
at the U.S. Olympic Trials last June and July. Moran finished fourth in the
10,000m finals, while Anderson advanced from the 1,500m preliminary heats to
the semifinals, where she finished 19th.
- Building towards national success. While meets in the first month of the
outdoor season rarely qualify competitors to regional and national
championships, last years meet produced a slew of IC4A/ECAC qualifiers, more
than 15 NCAA Division I Regional qualifications, eight NCAA Division III
national-provisional marks, and one provisional qualifier to the U.S. Olympic
Trials.
- School pride. The athletes arent just competing for their own qualifying
marks team trophies are awarded to the top mens and womens teams, with the
top eight athletes in each event scoring points. Last year, the William and
Mary men and Michigan State women took home the titles.
- Repeat performances. Returning champions include Stephen Small-Warner of
Howard in the mens long jump, Nicole Kazuba of W&M in the womens
pole vault, Cam Shriver of W&M in the mens high jump, Betsy
Graney of W&M in the womens 3,000m steeplechase, Ian Fitzgerald
of W&M in the mens 1,500m, Daniel Kinney of Howard in the mens 110m
hurdles, Steve Swern of Rutgers in the mens 400m dash and mens 400m hurdles,
Jernail Hayes of Seton Hall in the womens 400m hurdles, and Tanique Carter of
James Madison in the womens 200m dash.
- The Relays. Teams are entered in the 4x100m, 4x200m, 4x400m, 4x800m, 4x1500m,
Distance Medley, and the Shuttle Hurdle Relays. The last features the most
exciting minute in track and field, as each of four athletes must run a full
110m or 100m hurdle course before handing off to a teammate in the neighbouring
lane to go back down the track in the opposite direction, sometimes mere inches
from colliding with an opposing team.