The William & Mary men's track and field team finished up the Colonial Athletic Association Championships on Saturday evening with a total of eight conference championships, and finished second overall with 247 points.  Northeastern won its third-straight championship with 273 points and also eight event titles, while UNCW won five events and finished third with 115 points.

In a vote of the league head coaches, W&M redshirt-senior Taylor Frenia (Virginia Beach, Va.) was named the Field Athlete of the Meet, following a historic weekend.  He swept the shot put, discus, and the hammer to become the first athlete since the Tribe's Michael Howell '93 in 1992 to win the three heavy throws, and Frenia also tied the all-time CAA record with seven individual titles in his career.  After winning the hammer on Friday, Frenia's Saturday began with an easy win in the shot put at 18.21m (59-9), the second-best put all-time at W&M behind his own school record.  Then, he followed up by bombing a 58.70m (192-7) throw in the discus, breaking his own school record by more than 10 feet and also breaking his own conference and meet records.  That moves him up to 12th in the East Region this year.

Also in the throws, junior Preston Richardson (Franktown, Va.) finished second in the shot put with a lifetime-best put of 17.76m (58-3.25), a PR by nearly three full feet.  That was the fifth-best put in school history, and moves Richardson up to second all-time as the only athlete besides Frenia in the 58-foot club.  In the discus, he finished third overall with an IC4A-qualifying throw of 48.94m (160-7).  Sophomore Vlad Castillo, Jr. (Belle Mead, N.J.) was fifth in the shot put with a lifetime-best put of 15.18m (49-9.75), and sixth in the discus at 42.97m (141-0).  In the triple jump, junior Jared Sinsheimer (Federal Way, Wash.) took fifth overall with a leap of 13.22m (43-4.5).

If they gave championships for work load, grad student Alex Hedrick (Falls Church, Va.) would have won by a mile, as he wrapped up what was in effect a 14-event weekend.  His big effort was the decathlon, where he scored a lifetime-best 6,388 points to finish second overall.  That was the 14th-highest score ever at W&M, and ranks Hedrick fifth all-time among athletes.  Hedrick's day included a win in the discus at 32.40m (106-3), improving his lifetime-best by more than six feet, and then followed with a win in the pole vault at 4.25m (13-11.25).  Hedrick took second in the javelin at 41.81m (137-2), and finished his weekend and likely his career by winning the 1,500m at 4:50.71, a lifetime-best by seven seconds.

On the track, action began with the 3,000m steeplechase, where senior Cavender Salvadori (Wilmington, Del.) led a sweep of the top three spaces in front of his friends and family.  He ran 9:30.97 to win his first conference title, while Riley Covert (Charlottesville, Va.) was second in 9:33.46 and Ryan Onders (Shaker Heights, Ohio) third in 9:38.56.  Andrew Cacciatore (Indiatlantic, Fla.) also scored, finishing sixth despite fighting illness all weekend long.  The Tribe relay team of Cole Clark (Weston, Conn.), Raul Chavez-Gutierrez (Marshall, Va.), Kurtis Steck (Williamsburg, Va.), and Matt Pittard (Lynchburg, Va.) finished third in the 4x100m relay at 48.11 seconds.

In the 1,500m, senior David Barney (Lynchburg, Va.) won his first conference title with a lifetime-best 3:46.09, improving to 14th all-time among Tribe athletes.  Sophomore Ryan McGorty (Fairfax, Va.) was third in 3:50.36, and Dawson Connell (Yorktown, Va.) and Cooper Leslie (Camp Hill, Pa.) took fifth and sixth in 3:52.85 and 3:53.31, respectively.  Redshirt-freshman Evan Woods (Bethesda, Md.) also came in under the IC4A qualifying standard, running 3:54.46 for eighth overall.

The hurdles saw junior Dylan Anderson (Madison, N.J.) take fifth in the 110m hurdles at 15.14 seconds, then come back and take second overall in the 400m hurdles with an IC4A-qualifying 53.10 seconds.  Sophomore Connor Atkinson (Ashburn, Va.) was third in the 400m hurdles, and ran a lifetime-best 53.76 seconds to qualify for IC4As, and improve to eighth all-time among Tribe athletes.  The open 400m dash saw senior Troy Sevachko (Centreville, Va.) run a lifetime-best 48.06 seconds to finish second overall.  That was the second-fastest race ever at W&M, behind only the school record, and ranks Sevachko second all-time among athletes.  Freshman Skander Ballard (Reston, Va.) took fourth overall in 48.39 seconds, shattering his own rookie record (previously 49.06) with the fifth-fastest race ever at W&M.  Ballard also moved up in the athlete rankings, and now stands fifth in school history.  Sevachko then came back in the 200m dash, placing fifth in 22.39 seconds.

The 800m run saw Leslie take fourth overall in 1:54.47, just ahead of sophomore Chris Short (Toano, Va.) who was fifth in 1:55.55, and freshman Tyler Cox-Philyaw (Winchester, Va.), sixth in 1:56.70.  Senior Trevor Sleight (Asheville, N.C.) won his first CAA Championship in the 5,000m run, running 14:45.42 and leading W&M to sweep all six scoring places in the event.  His classmate AJ Tucker (Durham, N.C.) was second in 14:50.56, and Woods took third at 14:51.19 in his first 5,000m.  Freshman JP Trojan (Chardon, Ohio) was fourth in 14:52.13, with Barney (14:52.36) and Covert (15:00.38) finishing out the scoring in fifth and sixth.

The final event of the weekend was the 4x400m relay, where W&M took the lead on the first lap and never looked back en route to a 3:17.71 victory.  Atkinson led off, before handing to Ballard, Anderson, and Sevachko in turn.  That was the Tribe's first-ever win in the CAA 4x400m relay, and just the second since 1975 after also winning the ECAC South title in 1985.

William & Mary now prepares for the IC4A Championships next weekend, May 12-14, at Princeton, N.J.  The Tribe has a record 33 individual qualifiers, as well as the 4x400m relay able to compete at the meet.

2017 Colonial Athletic Association Men's Track and Field Championships
Team Standings
1. Northeastern 273
2. William & Mary 247
3. UNCW 115