The William & Mary men's track & field team took the early lead on Friday at the Colonial Athletic Association Championships, winning two of the four events on a very windy day. The Tribe scored 55 points across the four events, while Northeastern lurks in second with 36 points and UNCW is third with 25 points. Hofstra made its CAA Championships debut, and is fourth overall with eight points.
- Leading things off was the javelin, where redshirt-freshman
Jared O'Riley (Woodstock, Ontario, Canada) defended his pre-meet seeding to win gold. O'Riley threw a lifetime-best 66.71m (218-10) for the victory and 10 points, and also broke the stadium record set two weeks ago by his teammate
Chris Arias (Red Bank, N.J.). Arias, a true freshman, took second overall with a throw of 58.49m (191-11) for eight more points. With his performance, O'Riley moves up to sixth all-time at W&M in the javelin, and into the top-30 in the region this spring.
- In the long jump, freshman
Ethan Buenviaje (Chesapeake, Va.) took fourth overall for five more points, leaping a personal-best 6.74m (22-1.5).
- In the first of two qualifying events on the day, grad student
Theo Chambers (McLean, Va.) came in as the top seed in the 400m and defended his billing with the fastest prelims time of 49.31 seconds. He'll be joined in the finals by redshirt-freshman
Jack Bunting (Summit, N.J.), fifth in 50.87 seconds, and by grad student
Chris Rosales (Harlingen, Texas), sixth in 51.53.
- Chambers also earned the top seed in the 200m prelims, after using a strong helping wind of +6.1 m/s to set a lifetime-best of 21.28 and win his heat. That's the third-fastest race in school history, and ranks Chambers third all-time among athletes at W&M. He'll be joined in the finals by freshman
Jackson Cooley (Reston, Va.), who finished eighth in 22.08 seconds.
- In the hammer throw, the Tribe was seeded 1-2-3, and did not disappoint to sweep the podium. All-American
KJ Cook (Buena Vista, Va.) led the way as he repeated as CAA Champion, throwing 63.16m (207-3), the 13th-longest throw in school history. Redshirt-junior
Jason Wright (Huntington Station, N.Y.) set a lifetime-best with his second-place throw of 58.62m (192-4), and his classmate
Connor Scott (Mechanicsville, Va.) was third with a season-best mark of 45.87m (150-6). Wright improved his position as the seventh-best thrower in school history with his effort.
- Wrapping up the night was the 10,000m run, and an all-conference performance for redshirt-junior
Spencer Tsai (Eugene, Ore.). Tsai ran 30:47.16 for third overall, while freshmen
Sam Pritchard (Springfield, Va.) and
Tyler Lipps (Virginia Beach, Va.) were fifth and sixth, respectively, to add three points to the team total. Pritchard crossed the finish line in 31:30.80, with Lipps hard on his heels in 31:35.59.
The CAA Championships resume on Saturday morning at 11 a.m.
2021 Colonial Athletic Association Men's Track & Field Championships
Team Standings (Four Events Scored)
1. William & Mary 55
2. Northeastern 36
3. UNCW 25
4. Hofstra 8
