The William & Mary track & field team had two athletes competing in multi-events on Friday at Duke's Tobacco Road Challenge, each setting multiple lifetime-bests before a line of strong and persistent thunderstorms seriously altered the weekend schedule.  The men's decathlon was abandoned midway through the fourth event, and will not be continued on Saturday, while the women's heptathlon is four attempts shy of finishing its third event, and will pick back up on Saturday and complete those attempts and the final four events.

In the decathlon, redshirt-freshman Daniel Layton (Waynesburg, Pa.) set lifetime-bests in each of the first two events, and was just 26 points off of his projected score from his personal-bests in each event coming into the meet.  Layton was seventh overall in the decathlon standings when the event was halted, having running 11.48 seconds in the 100m dash and leapt 6.26m (20-6.5) in the long jump.  Layton also put the shot 11.62m (38-1.5), and was one of just six men (out of 11 total) to have completed a high jump before the storms came, clearing the bar at 1.65m (5-5).  His total score after four events was 2,488 points.

In the heptathlon, redshirt-sophomore Claire Bailey (Fairfax, Va.) is 14th overall, and on near-personal-best pace, just 14 points off of what she would have if she had simply matched her lifetime-best in every event coming into the meet.  Bailey set a lifetime-best in the 100m hurdles at 16.62 seconds, nearly a full quarter-second better than she had ever run before, and also set a lifetime-best in the high jump at 1.58m (5-2.25).  She has already put the shot 11.35m (37-3), currently fifth in the standings, and is one of four women who still have to mark their third and final attempts in the event on Saturday morning, and so could move upwards in both the standings and in her point total.

Saturday, the heptathlon shot put will resume at 10 a.m. with the final four attempts, before moving on to the 200m followed by the normal second-day events, the long jump, javelin throw, and 800m run.