WILLIAMSBURG — William & Mary Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Alex Heacock ’09 announced a strong 17-meet indoor and outdoor schedule for the 2023-24 season. Along with the championship slate, the schedule is highlighted by a pair of home events in the Dan Stimson Memorial Meet and the 58th Annual Colonial Relays during the spring.
The Tribe starts the indoor campaign on Saturday, Dec. 2, traveling to Annapolis for the Navy Opener. Following exam and holiday break, W&M resumes competition Jan. 18-20 at Liberty’s Brant Tolsma Invitational. It marks the second-straight year the Tribe has competed in the event, which begins six-straight weeks of competition for the Green and Gold.
The following weekend, the Tribe returns to the Patriot Games hosted by George Mason, Jan. 26-27. For the second year in a row, W&M takes part in the Doc Hale Elite Meet, Feb. 2-3, at Virginia Tech.
On Feb. 9-10, the Tribe travels to Liberty for the second time during the indoor season, competing in the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational in Lynchburg, Va., for the third year in a row. The Tribe’s final tune up before the CAA Championships will be the Navy Select in Annapolis, Md., on Friday, Feb. 16.
The second CAA Indoor Track & Field Championships are set for Thursday, Feb. 22, and Friday, Feb. 23, at the NYC Armory. At the inaugural championships last season, Keeley Suzenski (shot put) and Arianna DeBoer (3000m) won league individual titles.
The 2024 NCAA Indoor Championships are set for March 8-9 at The Track at New Balance in Boston, Mass.
The outdoor season begins at home on Saturday, March 16, with W&M hosting the fifth-annual Dan Stimson Memorial Meet. The event is named in honor of the longtime W&M Director of Track & Field Dan Stimson, who passed away in the fall of 2017 after more than 30 years with the Tribe including 25 years as W&M’s first Director of the combined men’s and women’s programs.
The Tribe makes the short trip west on I-64 to compete in the Fred Hardy Invitational at the University of Richmond on Friday, March 22. The Green and Gold will compete in two events the following weekend with athletes taking part in the Raleigh Relays hosted by N.C. State, March 28-30, and the CNU Invitational on Saturday, March 30.
W&M returns home to host the 58th Annual Colonial Relays, April 4-6. The nation’s largest scored regular season meet, the Colonial Relays were won by the Tribe on the women’s side last year for the first time since 2009, while the men finished sixth. Action at the Stimson Throwing Events area begins on Thursday afternoon and continue all weekend, while running, jumping, and relay events take place all day Friday and Saturday inside of Zable Stadium.
Two of the following three weekends, the Tribe will compete in events in Charlottesville, Va., as the Cavaliers host the Virginia Grant Prix on April 12-13 and the Virginia High Performance on Sunday, April 28. In between, W&M heads to another ACC program to compete in the Wake Forest Invitational on Friday, April 19.
The Tribe’s final meet before the championship season will be the Liberty Twilight Qualifier on Wednesday, May 1.
Championship racing begins with the CAA Championships on May 10-11 at Elon. Last season, the women finished third at the conference meet, while the men were fourth. Jason Nwosu returns after being named the Most Outstanding Field Performer and winning the shot put in 2023. DeBoer captured an outdoor CAA title last season as well and returns as the 10,000m champion.
The first and second rounds of the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships will be held on May 22-25, with the East Preliminaries at the University of Kentucky. The top 48 athletes and 24 relays in each event from the East Region (east of the Mississippi River, essentially) will compete in either one or two rounds of competition to identify 12 competitors in each event who will advance to the NCAA Championship Finals in Eugene, on June 5-8. Last year, W&M sent three individuals and a relay to the Preliminary rounds. Chris Arias (javelin), Liv Cantby (javelin), Catherine Garrison (3,000m steeplechase), Lizzy Gregory (4×400 relay) and Emily Ervin (4×400 relay) return after competing at the NCAA Preliminaries last season.
