By Rick Platt
The 47th annual Colonial Relays track meet will conclude at 6 p.m. Saturday at Zable Stadium, a three-day event featuring 50 college teams and team scoring for men and women, selected feature high school events, and participation by invitation for unattached, post-collegiate athletes, including past William and Mary greats. Events will take place at the W&M track, as well as at the nearby Dan Stimson Throwing Field.
All track events, from 100 meters to 10,000 meters, all relays from the 4 x 100-meter to the 4 x 1,500- meter, hurdles, steeplechase, and all field events will be held. The high school events will be limited to the mile, 3,000 meters, 4 x 800-meter, 4 x 400-meter and distance medley relays, and pole vault. Selected events this year will be webcast live on TribeAthletics.TV. Check tribeathletics.com for details.
W&M had a tune-up for the Colonial Relays, the Tribe Invitational, March 23-24 at Zable Stadium. Under warm conditions Friday evening, W&M’s four-time All-American and Olympic hopeful Ed Moran, 30, set the pace (4:45 per mile) the entire race in the 10,000 meters to lead two W&M athletes to NCAA regional qualifying times—sophomore Josh Hardin, first in 29:28.07 (No. 8 all-time for W&M), and junior Alex McGrath, third in 29:51.31. The Saturday events for the Tribe Invitational were hampered by heavy afternoon rain, which cancelled some of the races. Highlights included a second by Katie Buenaga (4:36.94), a third by Michelle Britto (4:38.45) and a win by David Gunnerson (3:58.17) in the 1,500 meters. W&M law student Alex Grout ran an 8:44.38 in the rain in the 3,000 meters, with Jamestown High grad Joshua Schlickenmeyer (competing for George Mason) second in 9:18.25. W&M’s Natalie Baird won the discus in 149-2, to go with a 154-7 in the hammer throw and a 42-2 ¾ in the shot put. Ben Katz took the long jump at 22-10. Lynnie Bresnahan (37-2 ¼) and Grace Oxley (36-6 ¾) both made the all-time top ten list for W&M in the triple jump. Also top 10 W&M all-time were freshman Sydnee Pierce in the women’s 100 meters (12.60) and Maggie Gutierrez in the 400 meters (57.97).
A week later, at the Fred Hardy Invitational in Richmond, Elizabeth Crafford set the W&M freshman record in the pole vault, winning in 12 feet, 5 1/2 inches, with teammate Nicole Dory second at 12-1 ½. Katz high jumped 6-4 ¾ and long jumped 22-9 ¾. Baird improved to 151-8 in the discus to win that event. Another win came from Britto, 2:14.07 in the 800 meters, with Buenaga second in 2:14.70. Gunnerson had a 1:53.77 in the 800 meters. The 3,000 meters had Jess Cygan second in 10:02.85 and Lauren Strapp third in 10:03.73. Will Bass ran 8:32.17 in the 3,000.
W&M showed their outdoor track potential indoors in early March with many outstanding performances at the IC4A (men) and ECAC (women) championships in Boston . Earning All-East honors for the men were Josh Hardin (1st, 5,000 meters, 14:04.12, #4 all-time for W&M), Alex McGrath (2nd, 5,000 meters, 14:07.65, and 4th, 3,000 meters, 8:10.44), Rad Gunzenhauser (5th, 3,000 meters, 8:10.64) and Chris Tyson (3rd, mile, 4:06.57). For the women, All-East were Christina Lee (7th, 2:52.47, No. 4 all-time for W&M) and Katie Buenaga (8th, 2:56.22, after a PR 2:51.83, No. 2 all-time for W&M in the heats) in the 1,000 meters, Elaina Balouris (8th, 5,000 meters, 17:11.46) and the 4 x 800-meter relay team of Maggie Gutierrez, Olivia Harding, Buenaga and Michelle Britto (7th, 9:11.16).
As a team the W&M men were fifth place with 33 points in the IC4As, their best since 2000. The women tied for 36th place in the ECACs. Although not scoring, good performances also came from Ben Katz in the long jump (22-8), Gunnerson in the 1,000 meters (2:28.14), Gunzenhauser (14:20.17) and Tom Burke (14:29.10) in the 5,000, and Heather Beichner (9:52.43) in the 3,000.
Find out more at http://www.tribeathletics.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=25100&ATCLID=205357432&SPID=83597&SPSID=608333
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