The William & Mary men's track & field team began the year in fine fashion on Saturday, earning five IC4A qualifiers at the Navy Invitational.  The Tribe, who only had 20 entries in the meet, tied for fifth in the six-team field with 61 points.  Of W&M's 20 performances, 16 were either lifetime or indoor-best performances.

- Starting the day off was the weight throw, where junior All-American KJ Cook (Buena Vista, Va.) won the event with a lifetime-best throw of 18.56m (60-10.75) to easily qualify for the IC4A Championships and vault up the Tribe's all-time leaderboard to third in school history.  His classmate Jason Wright (Huntington Station, N.Y.) also had a lifetime-best, taking seventh with his IC4A-qualifying throw of 17.40m (57-1).  Wright now ranks 10th all-time at W&M.

- Cook was back in action later in the afternoon, and qualified for the IC4A Championships with a second-place finish in the shot put as well.  he put the shot 16.37m (53-8.5) to earn his qualifying mark.  Junior Connor Scott (Mechanicsville, Va.) put the shot an indoor-best 16.10m (52-10) to take third overall and improve to 12th in school history, and also qualified for the IC4A meet.  Sophomore Troy Yearwood (Chesapeake Va.) tied his lifetime-best, and placed fifth with a put of 15.60m (51-2.25).

- W&M's fifth qualifying mark came courtesy of another winning performance on the track.  Redshirt-junior Theo Chambers (McLean, Va.) won the 500m dash in 1:04.64, the eighth-fastest single race in school history, and now ranks seventh all-time among Tribe athletes.  True freshman Jack Bunting (Summit, N.J.) was ninth in the event, running 1:06.96 in his collegiate debut.

- Another true freshman, Daniel Layton (Waynesburg, Pa.) also got his college career off to a fast start in the 60m hurdles.  He finished 10th in the prelims at 8.51, and already ranks sixth at W&M after just one race.  Layton's time is also the fastest metric performance ever for a Tribe freshman.

- Redshirt-junior Matt Chabala (San Ramon, Calif.) set a pair of lifetime-bests in the sprints Saturday.  First in the 60m, he ran 7.23 seconds to ranked tied for seventh all-time at W&M, and then came back later with a 22.96 showing in the 200m dash to stand ninth in school history among Tribe athletes.

- Also in the 60m dash was sophomore Ryan Thomas (Leesburg, Va.), who ran a lifetime-best 7.37 seconds.  That ranks Thomas tied for 14th all-time at W&M.  It was his second event of the day, after he earlier finished eighth overall in the high jump at a height of 1.90m (6-2.75).

- In the 3,000m run, redshirt-sophomore Johnny Rogers (Vienna, Va.) picked up the bronze medal, running 8:35.89 in his first attempt at the distance.  Junior Matt Frame (Alexandria, Va.), the CAA runner-up in the steeplechase last year, lopped more than 10 seconds off his best at 3,000m, finishing sixth overall in 8:56.83.

- Redshirt-junior George Cross (Leesburg, Va.) opened his year with a fifth-place finish in the triple jump, jumping 13.55m (44-5.5).

- Rounding out the notable performances was the mile, where senior Chris Short (Toano, Va.) ran 4:22.71 for sixth overall.  Raul Chavez-Gutierrez (Marshall, Va.) was right behind him in seventh at 4:23.86, more than 11.5 seconds faster than his previous best, and redshirt-sophomore Colin Grip (Acton, Mass.) made it three in a row for the Tribe with an eighth-place time of 4:26.65.

William & Mary now has the next month and a half off for exams, holidays, and training.  The Tribe's next scheduled meet will be on Saturday, Jan. 25, at the George Mason Patriot Games in Fairfax, Va.

2019 Navy Invitational
Team Standings
1. Navy 293
2. Georgetown 85
3. Texas State 79
4. Morgan State 73
T5. William & Mary 61
T5. Penn 61