44th Annual Colonial Relays Are This Weekend

William & Mary Press Release
April 2, 2009

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.

Live Results
Heat Sheets
Final Time Schedule (Revised April 2)

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 men’s 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 men’s 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. Mary’s, George Mason, Farleigh Dickinson, Fordham, Bowie State, Virginia Wesleyan, Saint Joseph’s, and Howard.

- The women’s 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. Mary’s, George Mason, Farleigh Dickinson, Fordham, Bowie State, Virginia Wesleyan, Navy, Saint Joseph’s, 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 year’s 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 aren’t just competing for their own qualifying marks – team trophies are awarded to the top men’s and women’s 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 men’s long jump, Nicole Kazuba of W&M in the women’s pole vault, Cam Shriver of W&M in the men’s high jump, Betsy Graney of W&M in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase, Ian Fitzgerald of W&M in the men’s 1,500m, Daniel Kinney of Howard in the men’s 110m hurdles, Steve Swern of Rutgers in the men’s 400m dash and men’s 400m hurdles, Jernail Hayes of Seton Hall in the women’s 400m hurdles, and Tanique Carter of James Madison in the women’s 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.