W&M Men's Track and Field Opens the 2009-10 Campaign With Five Qualifications at CNU Holiday Open

Jon Grey Runs NCAA-Provisional Time in the 5,000m

12/06/09 12:38AM

NEWPORT NEWS, VA - The William and Mary men's track and field team opened the 2009-10 indoor season Saturday at the CNU Holiday Open, and cruised to one NCAA and five IC4A qualifying marks. All told, 11 lifetime-best performances were recorded at the meet, five overall and six indoor-bests.

Complete Results

All-American Jon Grey (Lancaster, Pa.) showed no signs of let-up from his terrific cross country campaign, running an indoor-best time of 14:05.42 to win the 5,000m race. The mark is an NCAA provisional-qualifier, and improved Grey's indoor-best record by more than 10 seconds from his runner-up time at last year's IC4A Championships.

Fellow All-American Colin Leak (Chadds Ford, Pa.) set his own indoor-best mark in second place, crossing the line in 14:26.93 to qualify for the IC4A Championships. Zach Gates (Fishers, Ind.) and Tom Burke (Edina, Minn.) also surpassed the IC4A standard with lifetime-best efforts in third and fourth place, running 14:29.35 and 14:37.70, respectively. John Pence (Columbus, Ind.) had a big personal-best in the event, improving his best-ever indoor mark by over 24 seconds to take seventh in 15:07.71.

The Tribe's final qualifying mark came in the mile, where Chris Tyson (Arlington, Va.) qualified for the IC4A meet with a four-second personal-best to win in 4:13.82. Also in the mile, Sean Mahoney (Wayne, Pa.) finished third in 4:19.83.

Four W&M athletes had five all-time top-10 performances in their events Saturday, led by junior Zach Jordan's (Dublin, Ohio) bronze-medal effort in the weight throw. Jordan reset his personal-best by over four feet in taking third, throwing for 52-4.5 (15.96 meters). His mark places him sixth all-time at the College, and is the best throw since 2003. Senior Alex Ball (Winchester, Va.) got his final year underway in similar fashion, also throwing more than four feet past his previous best to take fourth in the competition. Ball's throw of 52-1.25 (15.88m) makes him the 10th-best thrower in school history.

The other three top-10 performances all came in the 55m hurdles. In the preliminary heats, sophomore Roman Dent (Brentwood, Tenn.) improved his personal-best to 8.11 seconds, breaking a tie with Steven Nichols '07 for 10th on the Tribe's all-time list. That position last only a few minutes, however, as junior Chris McIntosh (Owings Mill, Md.) ran 8.02 seconds in his heat to claim 10th for himself. McIntosh's effort qualified him for the finals, where he improved his time to 7.93 seconds and finished ninth overall.

Other notable performances came in the field events. Freshman Ben Katz (Manakin-Sabot, Va.) cleared the bar at 6-6 (1.98m) in his collegiate high jump debut, finishing in a tie for third place. Senior Doug Zimmer (McLean, Va.) also earned a bronze medal in the pole vault, clearing the bar at 14-9 (4.50m). Junior Keith Constance (Independence, Mo.) was fourth in the vault, improving his indoor-best mark by six inches to 13-9.25 (4.20m). Also finishing fourth was senior Dan Klatzkin (Gaithersburg, Md.) in the shot put, with a put of 46-3.25 (14.10m).

William and Mary is off for the next month and a half for exams and the winter holidays, but will return to action on January 22-23, at the Hampton Invitational in Hampton, Virginia.