The William & Mary men's track & field team took the Penn State track for all it was worth on Saturday, breaking a pair of school records and a freshman record at the Sykes & Sabock Challenge. The Tribe also had 11 IC4A qualifying marks, and set 14 new marks in the W&M record books.
- The first school record came in the 600m dash, where redshirt-senior
Chris Short (Toano, Va.) won the race in a personal-best 1:19.41. That broke the mark set here just last week by two full seconds.
- Next, in the 200m dash, redshirt-junior
Theo Chambers (McLean, Va.) earned his first individual record after taking sixth in 21.92 seconds. That broke the previous indoor mark of 22.00 seconds set by
Jay Cunningham '92 all the way back in January of 1990. Chambers also qualified for the IC4A Championships in the event.
- Earlier in the afternoon, Chambers also picked up an IC4A qualifier with an indoor-best time of 48.76 seconds in the 400m dash. That was the second-fastest single race ever in W&M history indoors, and placed Chambers fourth in the event. Freshman
Jack Bunting (Summit, N.J.) was 17th in 50.55 seconds, less than a tenth off the freshman record set back in 1984. Bunting now ranks 14th all-time among Tribe athletes.
- The freshman record came in the finals of the 60m hurdles.
Daniel Layton (Waynesburg, Pa.) finished fifth overall in 8.44 seconds to break the rookie mark he had set back in December, and improved to fifth all-time at W&M.
- In the weight throw, junior All-American
KJ Cook (Buena Vista, Va.) and sophomore
Troy Yearwood (Chesapeake, Va.) put on a terrific show, both recording massive personal-best marks and qualifying for the IC4A Championships. Cook fouled off his first two attempts, and then facing his third and potentially final throw, uncorked a monster throw of 19.57m (64-2.5) which would stand up for fourth place overall. That improved his previous best by 72 centimeters, and was the ninth-longest throw in school history. Cook now ranks second all-time at W&M, behind only 2016 NCAA qualifier and All-American
Brian Waterfield '15 M.Acc '16. Yearwood, for his part, started off with a huge improvement in each of his first two throws, matching 18.91m marks in both rounds, then also came through with his best effort in the third round, throwing the weight 19.49m (63-11.5). That was the 10th-longest throw ever for W&M, and improved Yearwood almost a full 1.5 meters to rank third all-time among Tribe athletes.
- The pair of throwers also qualified for IC4As in the shot put. Cook finished third overall with a season-best put of 17.04m (55-11), finishing just ahead of his classmate
Connor Scott (Mechanicsville, Va.) who was fourth with a lifetime-best put of 16.94m (55-7). Yearwood had another lifetime-best of his own, placing fifth at 16.56m (54-4) for an improvement of nearly a meter. Scott now ranks sixth all-time at W&M, while Yearwood moves up to ninth in school history.
- W&M also had a pair of IC4A qualifiers in the mile.
Evan Goodell (St. Louis, Mich.) improved his best by five seconds to take fifth overall in 4:12.09, just ahead of his classmate
Johnny Rogers (Vienna, Va.) who was ninth in 4:13.22. For Rogers, that was an improvement in his lifetime-best of five-and-a-half seconds.
- Senior
Cooper Leslie (Camp Hill, Pa.) earned an IC4A qualifier of his own in the 3,000m run, crossing the finish in a lifetime-best 8:27.65 for fourth overall.
- The final IC4A qualifier came in the pole vault, where redshirt-sophomore
Michael Fairbanks (Fairfax Station, Va.) took fifth overall with a clearance at 4.91m (16-1.25).
- In the high jump, sophomore
Ryan Thomas (Leesburg, Va.) was eighth overall, clearing the bar at 1.86m (6-1.25).
- The final notable performance of the day came in the 4x400m relay, where the team of Bunting, Short, Layton, and Rogers combined to finish fifth in a season-best time of 3:22.72.
William & Mary is back in action next weekend, Friday and Saturday Feb. 14-15, at the VMI Indoor Classic in Lexington, Va.
