Women’s Track and Field Releases 2007-08 Meet Schedule

Colonial Relays and CAA Championships to Grace Williamsburg

11/29/07 2:30PM

WILLIAMSBURG - Director of Track and Field Dan Stimson announced today the 2007-08 competition schedule for the William and Mary women’s track and field program. Thirty-one invitationals and championships will test the Tribe this year, with 12 indoor appearances and 19 outdoors.

Complete Schedule

The slate begins in earnest, as the College travels to Liberty University tomorrow and Saturday, November 30-December 1, for the Liberty Kickoff Invitational. Before the semester break, the Tribe will also participate in the CNU Holiday Open, December 8 in Newport News, Virginia.

After the new year, W&M will travel to Blacksburg, Virginia, on January 12 for the Virginia Tech Invitational. January 19 brings a trip to Annapolis, Maryland for the Navy Invitational, and the weekend of January 25-26 brings the first multi-meet weekend of the year. The CNU Captain’s Invitational will take place over both days in Newport News, while George Mason hosts the Patriot Games on Saturday, January 26.

February 1-2, the Green and Gold will race down in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at the Carolina Fast Times Invitational, before returning to Newport News for the Vince Brown Invitational on February 9. Familiar roads will be traveled on February 16, with the Tribe heading back to UNC for the Tar Heel Classic. February 22-23 marks a return to Blacksburg for the Virginia Tech Challenge, the final regular-season indoor meet.

The championship phase of the indoor season begins March 7-8 in Boston, Massachusetts, with the 31st ECAC Indoor Championships. The 26th NCAA Division I Indoor Championships will take place March 14-15 at the University of Arkansas.

Outdoors, the College runs March 21-22 at the VCU Ram Invitational in Richmond, Virginia, before facing the prospect of four different meets in the three days between March 27-29. The heptathletes will travel to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for the Alabama Relays on March 27-28, while the rest of the team splits three ways between the Liberty Asics College Invitational in Lynchburg; the Fred Hardy Invitational in Richmond; and the Raleigh Relays, in Raleigh, North Carolina. All three of those meets are two-day events being held March 28-29.

The Colonial Relays makes its 43rd appearance on April 4-5, the first of two events being held in Williamsburg this year. Last year’s edition, the first since 2003, featured two gold medals and six ECAC qualifications for the Tribe before the second day was snowed out. One week later, W&M will race at the Lou Onesty Invitational in Charlottesville, Virginia, on April 11-12; as well as the UNC Outdoor Invitational in Chapel Hill on April 12.

April 18-19 is CAA Championships weekend, with the conference meet returning to Williamsburg for the third time in 19 years, but the first since 1998. Next up is the 114th edition of the Penn Relays Carnival in Philadelphia, April 24-26.

The month of May opens with the Tribe in Fairfax on May 3 for the Mason Outdoor Invitational. The regular season concludes the next weekend, May 9, with the UNC Elite Meet serving as the last-chance qualifier for the Green and Gold.

The 25th ECAC Outdoor Championships return to Princeton, New Jersey this year on May 16-18, where senior heptathlete Brenna Blevins (Pulaski, Va.) will try and reclaim the crown she won in 2006. The NCAA East Regional stays in Florida this year, moving to the state capital of Tallahassee on May 30-31. All events but the 10,000m and the decathlon must go through the regional to qualify for the national championships. The 27th NCAA Championships finish off the collegiate season at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 11-14.

The season continues after the NCAA Championships for national and international-caliber athletes, however, of whom the College has its fair share. The USAT&F Junior National Championships will be held June 19-21 in Columbus, Ohio, and are open to all athletes 19 and under who meet the qualifying standards. Seventeen of the Tribe’s athletes meet the age criteria this year, seven men and 10 women.

The 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials are being hosted by the University of Oregon at Hayward Field from June 27 to July 6, and will feature more than 1,000 athletes and over 100,000 fans chasing dreams of Olympic glory. Already guaranteed spots at the Trials are assistant coach and 2007 Pan-American gold medalist Ed Moran ’03 in the men’s 5,000m and 10,000m, and classmate Sean Graham ’03 in the men’s 5,000m. Qualified provisionally are Graham in the men’s 1,500m, head women’s coach Kathy Newberry ’00 in the women’s 10,000m, and 2007 Academic All-American Keith Bechtol ’07 in the men’s 10,000m.

The top finishers in each event from the USAT&F Junior National Championships will travel to Bydgoszcs, Poland, from July 8-13 for the IAAF World Junior Championships. In addition to finishing in the top three at the national meet, athletes must also meet qualifying standards for the World Championships to be eligible to compete. Bechtol was the last Tribe athlete to compete at the World Juniors, finishing as the top American in the 10,000m in 2004.

The final event of the year is THE event of the year, the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing, China. Track and field competition begins August 15th and concludes August 24th with the men’s marathon. To compete, athletes must not only qualify through their nation’s trials, but also exceed qualifying standards for the Olympics themselves. Moran has already achieved automatic-qualifying times in both the 5,000m and 10,000m, meaning all he must do to race at the Olympics is finish in the top-three at the Olympic Trials. Graham has achieved a provisional-qualifying mark in the 5,000m, and will chase an automatic-qualifying time this year. Both men are striving to join W&M Hall-of-Famer Brian Hyde ’96 as the only track Olympians in school history.