The William & Mary men's track & field team will begin the NCAA Championship finals this week in Austin, Texas, with the national semifinals of the 1,500m run and 800m run on Wednesday, June 5.  The national finals of the discus will come on Friday, June 7, along with the national finals in both the 1,500m and the 800m as well, if the Tribe's athletes in those events advance.  The entire meet is being broadcast live on the ESPN family of networks and the WatchESPN app, with Wednesday's events airing on ESPN2.  On Friday, the discus can be streamed in its entirety on ESPN3.com, while the finals of the running events (and highlights of the discus) will air on ESPN.  Live results of the events can also be found on TribeAthletics.com and NCAA.com.

W&M at NCAAs in Austin
This is the seventh time that the University of Texas has hosted the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, and the fifth time that the Tribe will be represented at the event in Austin.  After missing the 1957 meet, W&M took three men to the 1974 edition, with senior Ron Martin '74 finishing third in the 3-Mile run for All-American honors alongside Reggie Clark '75 in the 800m and Chris Tulou '76 in the 3-Mile.  The Tribe again missed out in 1980, before Ken Halla '86 qualified in the 10,000m in 1985 and finished 10th to be named All-American as well.  Three men qualified in 1992, including All-American Paul Vandegrift '92 who finished sixth in the 1,500m, as well as Steve Swift '94 and Jeff Hough '92 both in the 10,000m, where Hough finished 10th overall for All-American honors.  The last time the NCAA Championships were held in Austin was 2004, when Jeff Hedley '06 bowed in the semifinals of the 5,000m run.

All-Americans Up For Grabs
By virtue of advancing to the NCAA finals site, all three of W&M's men have already secured their first All-American honors.  If any were to finish in the top-eight, in addition to scoring team points for the Tribe, they would also be named first-team All-America.  Finishing between 9th and 16th in their events will confer second-team All-America accolades, and finishing 17-24 will result in being named honorable mention All-America.

The Tribe men's team has never had three athletes earn All-American honors all in individual events at the same NCAA Track & Field Championships before.  Across every sport in school history, there have been 31 other seasons where three athletes earned individual All-American honors in the same season, most recently in football in 2013.  Football has the most occasions, 12, with five of those coming before 1952 and the other seven all since 1988.  On the women's side, the lacrosse team has had nine such seasons, including four straight from 1994-97.  Women's soccer, women's tennis, women's gymnastics, and women's swimming all have had two seasons with three or more All-Americans in a year (not including relays in swimming), and the baseball team (2008) and the men's cross country team (2009) have achieved that feat once each.

Team Scoring
The top eight finishers in each event score points for race for the NCAA team championship, in the fashion of 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.  W&M's men's track & field team last scored at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2012, when Brandon Heroux '12 finished eighth in the javelin throw.  The program record is eight points, achieved four times (1969, 1991, 1997, and 2000), while the best-ever team finish for the Tribe was a tie for 19th overall, achieved first in 1935 (out of 41 teams) by Monk Little '35 and matched in 1969 (out of 57 teams), with Juris Luzins '69 scoring six points for his bronze-medal finish in the 880y run and Hal Michael '71 adding two points for taking fifth in the mile.

Terrific Trio
W&M's three NCAA finals qualifiers in 2019 is tied for the fourth-most in program history for men's track & field.  The program record of seven qualifiers was set in 1975, while the 1968 team had six qualifiers and 1970 provided four.  In addition to this season, W&M also had three qualifiers in 1969, 1992, and 2009 as well.

Scouting the Tribe
Competing in the 1,500m run will be senior Ryan McGorty (Fairfax, Va.).  McGorty advanced from the East first round as the fastest time qualifier in the field at 3:47.61, and in the quarterfinals, again earned the fastest time qualifier in 3:45.16 to advance to his first national semifinals.  He is the first athlete from W&M to make the semifinals of the 1,500m since 1995, when 1996 Olympian Brian Hyde '96 made the finals and finished seventh overall.  Earlier this season, McGorty won the CAA Championship at 1,500m for the first time and finished second at the Colonial Relays as well.  He ran his fastest time of the year, 3:44.94, at the Mason Spring Invitational, and also set a lifetime-best at 5,000m this spring, running 14:10.78 at the Raleigh Relays.  McGorty ranks alongside Hall-of-Famer Paul Vandegrift '92 as the only W&M athletes to make the NCAA Championships in the 1,500m for three or more years.

W&M Outdoor 1,500m/Mile All-Americans
1970 - Hal Michael '71, 3rd
1988 - Hiram Cuevas '89, 10th
1989 - Paul Vandegrift '92, 14th
1990 - Paul Vandegrift '92, 5th
1991 - Paul Vandegrift '92, 2nd
1992 - Paul Vandegrift '92, 6th
1995 - Brian Hyde '96, 7th

Competing in the 800m run will be sophomore Miles Owens (Yorktown, Va.).  Owens began his NCAA journey in the East first round, advancing as the fastest time qualifier in 1:50.24.  In the quarterfinals, he earned an automatic qualifying spot after placing third in his heat in 1:49.84, and advanced to the national semifinals for the first time.  Earlier this season, Owens won the CAA title at 800m and also anchored the 4x400m relay to the conference championship as well, just the second 4x400m relay win ever at the CAA Championships for W&M.  At the Colonial Relays, he won the 800m for the second year in a row, becoming the first man since 1991 to earn back-to-back titles in that event, and the following week, set his lifetime-best in the 800m at 1:49.48 at the Mason Spring Invitational.  He is the first man for W&M since Anders Christiansen '99, in 1999, to advance to the NCAA semifinals, and is one of just six men with multiple races under 1:50 in one season.

W&M Outdoor 800m/880y All-Americans
1969 - Juris Luzins '69, 3rd
1997 - Anders Christiansen '99, 2nd
1999 - Anders Christiansen '99, 11th

Competing in the discus throw will be sophomore KJ Cook (Buena Vista, Va.).  Cook threw a pair of lifetime-bests in his three attempts to finish the competition 12th overall at 56.73m (186-1) and advance to the national finals.  He ranks second all-time in school history in the discus both among single performances and among athletes.  Cook is the first W&M thrower to ever advance to the NCAA finals in the discus, and in fact, is the first to advance to the finals outdoors in any event other than the javelin.  This season, Cook was named the Most Outstanding Field Athlete of the CAA Championships after winning both the discus and the hammer throw, setting lifetime-bests in both events, and he also won the college division hammer throw at the Penn relays in late April.  He was the runner-up in the discus at both the Colonial Relays and the IC4A Championships, and also earned All-East honors at the IC4A Championships in the shot put (sixth) and the hammer throw (seventh) as well.  Cook was the first man in school history and Colonial Athletic Association history to qualify for the NCAA Championships in three different events two weeks ago, when he competed in both the hammer throw and the shot put as well as the discus.

W&M Outdoor Throws NCAA Finals Qualifiers
1970 - Bob Daniel '72, Javelin, 27th
2009 - Brandon Heroux '12, Javelin, 28th
2012 - Brandon Heroux '12, Javelin, 8th (First-Team All-America)
2015 - Bob Smutsky '16, Javelin, 15th (Second-Team All-America)
2017 - Tucker Rizzi '17, Javelin, 24th (Honorable Mention All-America)


Wednesday, June 5
4:16 PM Central (5:16 PM Eastern) - 1,500m Semifinals - Ryan McGorty
School Record - 3:35.84; 2018 Finals Qualifier - 3:48.01; 2018 16th - 3:49.74; 2019 Leader - 3:37.20; 2019 USAT&F Championships - 3:39.00; 2019 World Championships - 3:36.00; 2020 Olympics - 3:35.00
- The top five finishers in each of two semifinal heats, as well as the two fastest time qualifiers from the entire field, will advance to the NCAA finals.  McGorty is in the second heat.

5:44 PM Central (6:44 PM Eastern) - 800m Semifinals - Miles Owens
School Record - 1:46.56 (1:45.8c 880y); 2018 Finals Qualifier - 1:47.38; 2018 16th - 1:50.33; 2019 Leader - 1:44.76; 2019 USAT&F Championships - 1:47.50; 2019 World Championships - 1:45.80; 2020 Olympics - 1:45.20
- The top two finishers in each of three semifinal heats, as well as the two fastest time qualifiers from the entire field, will advance to the NCAA finals.  Owens is in the first heat.


Friday, June 7
7:05 PM Central (8:05 PM Eastern) - Discus Championships - KJ Cook
School Record - 58.70m (192-7); 2018 Win - 60.41m (198-2); 2018 Eighth - 56.72m (186-1); 2018 16th - 53.95m (177-0); 2019 Leader - 65.56m (215-1); 2019 USAT&F Championships - 60.75m (199-3); 2019 World Championships - 65.00m (213-3); 2020 Olympics - 66.00m (216-6)
- Each athlete in two flights gets three attempts, then the top-nine athletes from the entire field get three more attempts.  Cook will throw 10th in the first flight.

7:41 PM Central (8:41 PM Eastern) - 1,500m Championships - Ryan McGorty
School Record - 3:35.84; 2018 Win - 3:44.77; 2018 Eighth - 3:45.75; 2019 Leader - 3:37.20; 2019 USAT&F Championships - 3:39.00; 2019 World Championships - 3:36.00; 2020 Olympics - 3:35.00

8:44 PM Central (9:44 PM Eastern) - 800m Championships - Miles Owens
School Record - 1:46.56 (1:45.8c 880y); 2018 Win - 1:44.76; 2018 Eighth - 1:47.14; 2019 Leader - 1:44.76; 2019 USAT&F Championships - 1:47.50; 2019 World Championships - 1:45.80; 2020 Olympics - 1:45.20