The William and Mary men's track and field team used a dominating performance in the throwing events Saturday to open the spring campaign, ruling over the Stimson Throwing Events Area with four wins in four tries. The Tribe collected five IC4A qualifiers on the day and won six events total at the Tribe Invitational.
Complete ResultsA good place to start in the throws is with junior
Taylor Frenia (Virginia Beach, Va.), who swept the shot put and the discus with a pair of IC4A qualifiers and also took second in the hammer throw. The defending CAA Champion, Frenia put the shot 16.40m (53-9.75), and then came back to throw a massive personal-best of 49.91m (163-9) in the discus. An improvement of nearly 11 feet over his previous best, Frenia's throw was the third-best ever at W&M, and the best since 1984. His effort in the shot put was the 16th-best single performance in school history, and he also threw the hammer 50.50m (165-8) to take second overall.
Redshirt-junior
Brian Waterfield (Chesapeake, Va.) also picked up a pair of IC4A qualifiers, winning the hammer and taking second in the shot. Waterfield began the day with a mammoth throw of 57.17m (187-7) in the hammer, an in-uniform best that ranks him fourth all-time among Tribe athletes. He also qualified in the shot, where he ranked seventh indoors at the IC4A Championships, and put the shot 16.22m (53-2.75). Freshman
Derek Trott (Old Bridge, N.J.) completed the IC4A qualifiers, winning the javelin with not just his first collegiate appearance, but his first collegiate
throw. Trott opened his carer with a toss of 62.64m (205-6), an improvement of more than 17 feet over his prep best, and no one else on the day could come close.
Rounding out the throwing events was freshman
Preston Richardson (Franktown, Va.), who appeared in all three weight events. His best finish came in the discus, where the rookie toom third with a throw of 46.18m (151-6) to become the 12th-ranked athlete in school history. Richardson was also fifth in the shot with a put of 14.37m (47-1.75) in his first effort with the heavy international-standard implement. Over at Zable Stadium, the field efforts continued in the jumping events. Freshman
Jared Sinsheimer (Federal Way, Wash.) took fourth in both the high jump and the long jump, clearing the bar at 1.89m (6-2.25) before hitting the sand at 6.38m (20-11.25). Redshirt-sophomore
Dominic Burkett (Chesapeake, Va.), a CAA scorer last year, began his outdoor campaign with a fifth-place height of 1.83m (6-0) in the high jump.
On the oval itself, the Tribe picking up a pair of wins in the day's last two events. First, in the 3,000m run, redshirt-junior
Nathaniel Hermsmeier (Charlottesville, Va.) led eight Tribe men in the top-nine finishers and broke the tape in 8:31.98. Freshman
Dawson Connell (Yorktown, Va.) made an impressive run to the bronze medal, crossing the line in 8:36.06 for an improvement of more than 20 seconds over his best from indoors, and sophomore
Faris Sakallah (Chantilly, Va.) was fourth overall in 8:37.84. Freshman
Mac Haight (Vienna, Va.) made his first appearance for W&M since earning CAA Rookie of the Year honors in cross country, and took fifth in 8:38.70.
Next up was the 4x400m relay, which the Tribe won after leading most all of the final two laps and holding off a late charge on the homestretch. Junior
Jomar Aryee (Hillside, N.J.) led off the quartet before giving way to
Michael Wilkens (Woodbury, N.Y.) and
Kent Grisamer (Mansfield, Conn.) in turn, before
Troy Sevachko (Centreville, Va.) brought the Tribe home in 3:23.19. It was the best 4x400m performance outdoors for W&M since 2007, and the best season-opener since 1998. Aryee also ran very well in the 400m hurdles, turning in a lifetime-best 55.77 for third place overall. That improved the junior up to 11th in school history. Meanwhile, Sevachko and Grisamer ran the flat 400m in 50.62 seconds and 50.93 seconds, ranking fourth and fifth, respectively.
William and Mary is back in action next weekend, Friday and Saturday March 27-28, at the Fred Hardy Invitational in Richmond.
