William and Mary Track and Field Pursues Conference Championships

Tribe Travels to JMU for CAA Championships

04/19/07 5:45PM

WILLIAMSBURG - The William and Mary men's and women's tracka nd field teams travel to Harrisonburg, Virginia this weekend to try and capture the Colonial Athletic Association Conference Championships. James Madison University is hosting the event this Friday and Saturday, April 20-21.

Powerhouse
The women’s track team will be looking for its seventh consecutive Colonial Athletic Association title this weekend. Only George Mason has more titles than the Tribe’s seven, winning the first nine championships contested.

Women’s Titles By School
George Mason 9 (1990-98)
W&M 7 (1999, 2001-06)
East Carolina 1 (2000)

Finding the Way Back
The men’s team will be looking to reclaim the conference crown for the first time since 2004. William and Mary has four men’s titles, second only to UNC Wilmington’s seven in CAA history.

Men’s Titles By School
UNCW 7 (1997-2002, 2005)
W&M 4 (1992-93, 2003-04)
George Mason 3 (1990, 1994-95)
Va. Commonwealth 2 (1996, 2006)
Navy 1 (1991)

Run Far, Run Fast
Senior Keith Bechtol (Alexandria, Va.) achieved several notable marks when he ran 28:55.57 in the 10,000m at the Stanford Cardinal Invitational on April 1st. His time broke the provisional qualifying standard for not only the NCAA Championships, but also the USAT&F National Championships and the 2008 Olympic Trials.

Top W&M 10,000m Runners
Matt Lane ‘01 28:28.97
Ken Halla ‘86 28:35.20
Keith Bechtol ‘07 28:55.57

Champs
The distance medley relay team of Sean Anastasia-Murphy (Gloucester, Mass.), Matt Wolak (Richmond, Va.), Matt Warco (McMurray, Pa.), and Ian Fitzgerald (Glenshaw, Pa.) joined a select group of athletes in March when they won the IC4A indoor title in a time of 9:54.10. In the 86 years the IC4A has held an indoor championships, the Tribe has only won an event 10 other times.

W&M Indoor IC4A Titles
55m Hurdles 4
800m 1
3,000m 1
5,000m 1
Distance Medley Relay 2
Pole Vault 1
Long Jump 1

Record-breaker
Senior Bonnie Meekins (Herndon, Va.) set a pair of school records during the indoor season. She opened the year with the top pentathlon performance in school history when she provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships with a score of 3,757 points. At the Virginia Tech Challenge, Meekins jumped 18’ 7.75” in the long jump, shattering the indoor school record and tying for the best mark in school history, indoor or outdoor.

Mr. Freshman Record
Freshman multi-eventer Marty Ross (Brentwood, Tenn.) mounted his own assault on the school record books this winter, setting a trio of freshman records. He scored 4,481 points in the heptathlon on the season’s first weekend, and along the way, set the top marks in the 60m dash and hurdles by timing 7.44 seconds and 8.92 seconds, respectively. In February, at North Carolina, he broke his own mark in the 60m hurdles, timing 8.85 seconds.

Dropping the Hammer
Sophomore Abby Lemon (Berryville, Va.) enters the CAA Championships as the top seed in the hammer throw after breaking the school record at the Colonial Relays. In a title-winning performance, Lemon launched the hammer 161’ 3” to earn a bid to the ECAC Championships. History favors her as well -- at the 2006 Championships, she set a personal-best with each of her six throws en route to finishing third.

The College of Champions
William and Mary athletes won four titles at the snow-shortened Colonial Relays two weeks ago. In addition to Lemon’s school-record performance in the hammer throw, senior Sean Anastasia-Murphy won the men’s steeplechase in a NCAA-qualifying time of 9:04.23, senior Meghan Bishop (Blue Bell, Pa.) won the women’s 5,000m in an ECAC-qualifying 16:55.09, and sophomore David Groff (Centreville, Va.) broke the meet record with his NCAA-qualifying time of 3:46.98.

The College of Champions, Part Two
William and Mary is returning six CAA Champions with 10 titles to this year’s meet (three women, three men). Interestingly, seniors Matt Keally (Virginia Beach, Va.) and Keith Bechtol have won the same events in opposing years: Keally won the 2004 10,000m race and last year’s 5,000m, and Bechtol won the 5,000m in 2004 and the 10,000m last year.

Returning W&M CAA Champions
Jen Showker (Harrisonburg, Va.) 2004 Discus, 2006 Discus
Meghan Bishop 2004 1,500m, 2005 1,500m
Bonnie Meekins 2005 Heptathlon
Matt Wolak 2004 800m
Matt Keally 2004 10,000m, 2006 5,000m
Keith Bechtol 2004 5,000m, 2006 10,000m

Qualifier Town, USA
William and Mary has had a banner-year qualifying athletes for championship meets.

W&M Qualifying Marks
Outdoor ECACs 10
Outdoor IC4As 23
NCAA Regional 3
NCAA Provisional 1
USAT&F Junior 9
USAT&F Senior Provisional 1
Olympic Trials Provisional 1

Fabulous Freshwomen
Rookie harriers Emily Anderson (Golf, Ill.), Anna Brousell (Wilmington, Del.) and Kayley Byrne (Oak Hill, Va.) have served notice that the future is now for the Tribe women.

Anderson is the top seed in the women’s 1,500m after running 4:31.26 at the Colonial Relays. Her time has qualified her for the ECAC Championships as well as the USAT&F Junior National Championships, and is the ninth-best mark in school history. During the indoor season, she earned her first All-East award running lead-off for the fifth-place 4x800m relay.

Brousell earned all-conference and All-East accolades on the cross country trails, and has been dominant this spring in the steeplechase. She’s the number-two seed this weekend in the event, after running 11:08.21 to finish third at the Colonial Relays.

Byrne has been solid for the Tribe all year. In the fall, she won the Cavalier Open cross country race. She qualified for the 3,000m race at Junior Nationals after running 10:12.15 in the first race of the outdoor season, and qualified for the Junior National 5,000m championship by timing 17:41.35 at the Colonial Relays.

Fantastic Freshmen
The men’s team has had its own bumper crop of newcomers.

Patterson Wilhelm (Lynchburg, Va.) and Jeff Perrella (Westfield, N.J.) both qualified for the IC4A Championships with their performances in the 5,000m at the Colonial Relays. They’re both also qualified for the USAT&F Junior Nationals in the 5,000m, as well as the 1,500m run.

Kiernan Lofland (Crozier, Va.) has been aggressively gunning for the freshman pole vault record, which was set in 1975 (16 feet, Dave Lipinski). At the Tribe Invitational, he soared over the bar at 15’ 7” to become the first W&M pole vaulter since the 1980’s to qualify for the IC4A Championships.

Ben Massam (Chatham, N.J.) led the Tribe in his first collegiate cross country meet, and hasn’t let up since, earning the eighth-seed in this weekend’s 10,000m race. He ran 32:15.77 to open the outdoor season at Richmond, qualifying for the Junior Nationals.

Walk-on Rob Sagar (Alexandria, Va.) rounds out this impressive group, as perhaps the most impressive. His steeplechase time of 9:32.66 last weekend qualified him for the Junior National meet, and he is less than a second-and-a-half from qualifying in the 1,500m run as well.