The William & Mary women's track & field team had a strong opening day to the Colonial Athletic Association Championships on Friday, advancing 13 women to tomorrow's finals in seven events and having three performances surpass existing school records in their events.  The Tribe scored 17 points in the day's four finals events, and stands fifth overall in the team standings.  Towson and Elon are tied for the lead with 35 points each, with Delaware in third with 30 points and Northeastern fourth with 27.  Behind W&M, James Madison is in sixth with seven points, UNCW has four points for seventh, and College of Charleston is eighth with one point.  In their first CAA Championships, Hofstra is in ninth, still looking for their first point.

- The first event of the day was the javelin, where the Tribe got four more points than projected thanks to a big personal best from redshirt-freshman Zoe Metzger (Wayne, Pa.).  Metzger threw the spear 41.02m (134-7), more than 12 feet past her previous best, and moved all the way up to fifth place in the final standings, right behind classmate Kristen Herr (Willow Street, Pa.), who was fourth with a throw of 42.85m (140-7).  Metzger now ranks eighth all-time at W&M in the event.

- In the heptathlon, redshirt-sophomore Claire Bailey (Fairfax, Va.) got off to a red-hot start.  She ran 16.21 in the 100m hurdles, the first of seven events this weekend, an improvement of more than 0.4 over her previous lifetime-best set three weeks ago at Duke.  That was a 49-point improvement over her effort from Duke.  The high jump saw Bailey tie for fifth overall at 1.57m (5-1.75), just a centimeter behind her lifetime-best.  She also took fifth in the shot put at 9.51m (31-2.5), and finished up the day running 27.56 in the 200m dash.  At the end of the first day, Bailey stands ninth overall with 2,553 points, on pace to score 4,237 points overall.

- The prelims of the 1,500m saw three for the Tribe advance to tomorrow's finals.  In the opening heat, redshirt-junior Lauren Finikiotis (Gibsonia, Pa.) took second overall in 4:43.32 and freshman Kyra Holland (Warrenton, Va.) was right behind her in 4:43.50 for third place and another automatic qualifier.  The second prelim saw redshirt-junior Taylor D. Jones (Virginia Beach, Va.) advance after winning the heat in 4:58.17.  Freshman Lily Schlossberg (Virginia Beach, Va.) nearly made it four from W&M in the finals, but finished just half a step outside the automatic qualifying spots in the second heat.

- In the 100m hurdles, redshirt-junior Jadyn Currie (Virginia Beach, Va.) advanced to the finals for the second straight championships, finishing ninth in 14.97 seconds.

- All four of W&Ms entries in the 400m prelims advanced to the CAA finals, accounting for almost half of all qualifiers.  Freshman Grace Bir (Falls Church, Va.) had the fastest time of prelims and won her heat in 57.01 seconds, while her classmate Mary Gregory (Reston, Va.) also won her heat in 57.70 seconds.  Grad student Gabby Runge (Midlothian, Va.) and redshirt-freshman Carly Swierbut (Newtown, Conn.) both advanced on time, running 57.94 and 58.07, respectively.

- The 100m dash prelims, like everything on Friday, was incredibly wind-blown.  Redshirt-junior Felecia Hayes (Chesapeake, Va.) became the first woman ever under 12 seconds for the Tribe, qualifying for the finals in ninth place in 11.96 seconds (+5.1) wind.  Redshirt-freshman Amaya Johnson (Sterling, Va.) was one place out of qualifying in 10th overall, running a personal-best 12.04 (+3.5 wind) to shave .02 off the time she ran to win the Colonial Relays at the start of the month.

- The 800m run saw Jones qualify for her second final of the day in the 800m, running 2:14.52 for second in her heat and third overall.  Freshman Molly Coyle (Brookfield, Conn.) was just outside of qualifying, taking 11th in 2:19.65.

- The 400m hurdles saw grad student Josie Landis (Pittsburgh, Pa.) advance to the finals as expected, finishing third overall in 1:04.92 in the prelims.  Freshman Makenzie Joiner (Mechanicsville, Va.) was fifth overall in 1:05.53, improving her pre-meet seeding by three places.

- Hayes came back in the 200m prelims and snagged her second finals spot of the day, winning her heat in 24.75 seconds, the second-fastest time of the day.  That was also the 13th-fastest time in school history, just slightly behind her own personal-best of 24.72 set earlier this season.

- Freshman Chelsea Mitchell (Canton, Conn.) had a massive series in the long jump, moving up from her pre-meet seeding of fourth to finish second overall and nab her first all-conference honor.  After the first three attempts, Mitchell was in fourth overall at 5.73m (18-9.75), which was a season-best and new W&M rookie record at the time.  In the fourth round she improved to 5.75m (18-10.5), still fourth, and then moved into third with her fifth jump of 5.80m (19-0.5).  Her sixth round was magical, as she leaped out 5.98m (19-7.5), just shy of her lifetime-best, and moved into the silver medal position.  In addition to resetting her own freshman record, it also broke the school record of 5.84m (19-2) set by Brianna Miller '19 at the 2019 CAA Championships.

The CAA Championships resume on Saturday morning, with the heptathlon long jump beginning at 11 a.m.

2021 Colonial Athletic Association Women's Track & Field Championships
Team Standings (Four Events Scored)
T1. Towson 35
T1. Elon 35
3. Delaware 30
4. Northeastern 27
5. William & Mary 17
6. James Madison 7
7. UNCW 4
8. College of Charleston 1
9. Hofstra 0