(photo by Tim O'Dowd)

The William and Mary men's track and field team continued competition at the NCAA East Preliminaries Friday, with athletes competing in two events in Greensboro, N.C.  The Tribe's efforts on the second day of competition were in the javelin throw and the 3,000m steeplechase.

Complete Results

First, in the javelin, freshman Bob Smutsky (Dillsburg, Pa.) threw two personal-bests and finished 15th overall with a mark of 67.77 meters (222-4).  Only ranked 29th coming into the event, Smutsky popped a big PR-throw in the first round at 67.40m (221-1), and then improved to 67.77m in the second round.  That toss was good for 13th after the first three rounds and earned Smutsky three more chances, but he was unable to continue climbing the leaderboard and was not advanced to the NCAA finals in two weeks.  Still, Smutsky's throw was the 15th-best ever at W&M, and ranks the CAA Champion third all-time in school history.  He still has one more meet on the schedule, the USAT&F Junior Championships in one month in Des Moines, Iowa.

In the 3,000m steeplechase, senior Liam Anastasia-Murphy (Gloucester, Mass.) brought his long and distinguished career to a close by timing 9:04.42 for 10th in his heat and 26th overall.  It was the best-ever showing for Anastasia-Murphy in the NCAA quarterfinals, and improved his pre-meet ranking by 19 spots.  His time was the fifth-best of his career, and earlier this month Anastasia-Murphy won his first CAA title while leading W&M to a sweep of the scoring places in the steeplechase and its first team championship since 2004.

Coming up on Saturday in the final day of competition is the 5,000m run, where William and Mary has two athletes looking to earn a top-12 finish and advance to the NCAA Finals.