The William & Mary men's track & field team wrapped up action at the Colonial Athletic Association Championships on Saturday night, winning six more championships (for a weekend total of eight) and finishing second overall in the team standings with 191 points. Northeastern won their sixth CAA Championship in a row with 291 points, while UNCW was third with 111 points and Hofstra took fourth with 19 in their first-ever conference meet.
W&M redshirt-junior
KJ Cook (Buena Vista, Va.) was named the Most Outstanding Field Athlete of the Championships for the second year in a row, after he also earned that award in 2019. Cook won both the hammer and the shot put this weekend, and also took second in the discus to help W&M take the top two spots in all four throwing events. This is the conference record fifth-year in a row that W&M has provided the MVP in the field events, and Cook is the first since 2014-15 to earn it at back-to-back championships. Cook's win in the shot put gave him the career triple crown of the heavy throws, after he also won the discus and the hammer in 2019, and made him one of just three men in league history to win the shot, discus, and hammer in their careers.
- First up on Saturday was the 3,000m steeplechase, where senior
Matt Frame (Alexandria, Va.) took third overall in 9:48.88, earning his second All-CAA accolade. Redshirt-junior
Zach Skolnekovich (Sewickley, Pa.) was fourth overall in 9:59.25, adding four more team points.
- Redshirt-junior
Michael Fairbanks (Fairfax Station, Va.) took his third-straight CAA gold in the pole vault with ease, winning by nearly three feet with his clearance at 4.89m (16-0.5). He joins former Tribe great Derek O'Connell '16 as the only three-time winners of the men's pole vault in conference history.
- In the shot put, redshirt-junior Cook won his second gold medal of the weekend. He put the shot a season-best distance of 16.77m (55-0.25) for the win, and to break the stadium record of 16.36m (53-8.25) set by former Tribe great
Taylor Frenia '17 back in 2014. Redshirt-junior
Connor Scott (Mechanicsville, Va.) was second at 16.70m (54-9.5), and their classmate
Jason Wright (Huntington Station, N.Y.) was fifth overall at 13.36m (43-10) in his first attempt at the shot put in college. Redshirt-freshman
Daniel Layton (Waynesburg, Pa.) added a point in sixth with a put of 12.04m (39-6).
- In the 4x100m relay, the first school record of the weekend broke two of the oldest marks in the Tribe books. The 4x100m relay team of grad students
Matt Chabala (San Ramon, Calif.),
Chris Rosales (Harlingen, Texas), and
Theo Chambers (McLean, Va.) along with freshman
Jackson Cooley (Reston, Va.) combined to run 40.84 seconds and finished second overall. That broke W&M's metric record of 41.17, set the 1985 ECAC South Championships, and also surpassed the conversion of the fastest 440y relay on the board, 40.8c, set at the 1968 Southern Conference Championships.
- Redshirt-junior
Johnny Rogers (Vienna, Va.) ran a lifetime-best 3:51.88 in the 1,500m, finishing fourth overall just ahead of freshman A
lex Sawyer (Virginia Beach, Va.), fifth in 3:53.06, and redshirt-freshman
Joshua Shackelford (Hayes, Va.), who crossed the line in 3:55.67 for sixth overall.
- In the 110m hurdles, the Layton ran a personal-best 14.91 in a slight headwind, taking fifth overall. He also improved to sixth all-time among Tribe athletes in the event.
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Theo Chambers was back in action in the 400m, where he took the lead around the second turn and held off all challengers down the homestretch to win his first CAA title in 47.44 seconds. That was the first time W&M has ever won a sprint title in the CAA Championships, and the first 400m win since
Bill Findler '70 won the 1969 Southern Conference Championships. Chambers' time also broke the school record in the 400m of 47.45, set by
Steve Boone '83 back in 1983. Fellow grad
Chris Rosales was fifth in 48.83, good for 10th all-time at W&M, and redshirt-freshman
Jack Bunting (Summit, N.J.) was sixth in 49.08, ranking 14th in school history.
- The freshman Cooley finished fifth overall in the 100m dash, crossing the finish in 11.07 seconds.
- In the 800m, freshman
Josh Lewin (West Chester, Pa.) emerged from a pack coming off the final turn and pulled away to the finish to win his first conference title in 1:52.95. Redshirt-junior
Colin Grip (Acton, Mass.) was fifth in 1:54.76, just a fraction ahead of
Alex Loukili (Reston, Va.) who took sixth in 1:54.77.
- Layton was back in action in the 400m hurdles, taking fourth overall in 55.83 seconds. A personal-best, that time also improved Layton to 14th in school history.
- In the triple jump, freshman
Ethan Buenviaje (Chesapeake, Va.) took fourth overall with a jump of 11.90m (39-0.5).
- Chambers was back in action in the 200m, and made even more history as he pulled away for the win in 21.16 seconds. He's the first Tribe runner to win the 200m conference title since
Emil Davis '85 won the 1985 ECAC South Championships, and did so with the third-fastest single race ever for W&M.
- The 5,000m run saw redshirt-junior
Spencer Tsai (Eugene, Ore.) earn his second bronze of the meet, running 14:54.53 for third place. Tsai was also third on Friday night in the 10,000m.
- In the discus, Scott won his first CAA title, throwing for 49.57m (162-7). Cook was second overall in 48.30m (158-5), completing a remarkable W&M sweep of the top two spots in each of the four throwing events.
- Wrapping up the meet was the 4x400m relay, where the Tribe finished second overall in 3:15.53. Rosales led things off before handing to Chambers and Bunting, and the freshman Lewin closed very strongly to almost earn the come-from-behind victory.
Next up for W&M is the NCAA Eastern Preliminaries, May 26-29 at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla. The top 48 individuals in each event will earn a spot at the prelims, which function as the first two rounds of the NCAA Championships.
2021 Colonial Athletic Association Men's Track & Field Championships
Final Standings
1. Northeastern 291
2. William & Mary 191
3. UNCW 111
4. Hofstra 19
