The William and Mary track and field programs welcome over 80 college teams and 39 All-Americans to Zable Stadium this weekend for the 46th Annual Colonial Relays, beginning Thursday afternoon with the women's hammer throw and continuing through Saturday's 4x400m relays.  Live Results from all the weekend's action can be found at TribeAthletics.com.

Meet Information (schedules, heat sheets, event progressions, etc.)

They Come From All Over
The Colonial Relays have always attracted a large and diverse field of athletes, and this year is no exception.  There are 38 men's colleges and 43 women's colleges that have entered athletes this weekend, as well as a scattering of post-graduate, unattached, and professional athletes.  The teams represent all three NCAA Divisions, and 18 different conferences.  There are five teams entered from the ACC, Atlantic 10, and Big East, along with four from the CAA and individual representatives from the Big Ten (Michigan), SEC (Vanderbilt), Horizon (Detriot), and Ivy League (Harvard).

The Bucknell men have 62 athletes entered to lead the men's side, but that pales in comparison to Navy's women' squad, with 124 entries.  The Midshipmen and Detroit lead all women's teams with eight relays, while the Rutgers men have nine quartets.  On an individual basis, Rutgers' Steve Warner leads the way with eight entries (100m, 200m, 400m, 4x100m, 4x200m, 4x400m, Sprint Medley Relay, Distance Medley Relay), while Shaundra Cooke of Virginia State leads the women's field with seven entries (100m Hurdles, Long Jump, Triple Jump, Shot Put, Javelin, 4x200m, 4x400m).  In total, there are 325 relay teams entered in the 14 relay races, and 2,335 entries into the individual events.

All-American Degrees
There are 39 All-Americans entered into the meet, accounting for 85 total awards.  Three have a gold medal on their mantels, including Georgetown teammates Rachel Schneider and Renee Tomlin (part of the 2010 champion indoor DMR), and Robby Andrews who won the 2010 indoor 800m for Virginia but is competing unattached this weekend.  Villanova leads the way with seven athletes accounting for 18 All-America certificates, while West Virginia's Keri Bland is the individual leader with nine awards herself.

Returning Champions
Nine athletes return to defend their individual crowns from last year's Relays, including five women and four men.  The women's defenders include the Villanova trio of Ariann Neutts (1,500m), Alison Smith (3K Steeplechase), and Ashlyn Llerandi (Pole Vault), as well as Jessie Gaines of Long Island (Triple Jump) and Monmouth's Symmone Fisher (Hammer).  On the men's side, William and Mary junior Brandon Heroux is the two-time defending champion in the javelin, and is joined by Virginia Tech's William Mulherin (1,500m), Wes Sun of George Mason (Pole Vault), and James Plummer of Rutgers (Discus).

New and Returning Events
Four events have been added to this year's schedule of events, three after an absence of a decade and one brand-new feature.  Making its Colonial Relays debut is the men's 3,000m run, which will go off at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday morning with 31 competitors.  The women's 3,000m run is at 11 a.m. on Saturday, and is running for the first time since W&M's Kathy Newberry '00 won the race in her senior year.  Returning for the first time since 1999 are the 1,600m sprint medley relays, which lead off with two legs of 200m each before a 400m leg and 800m anchor.  In the last running, the Seton Hall women took gold in 3:55.27, and the W&M men set the meet record at 3:18.09.