The William & Mary men's track & field team had four athletes earn selection the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Thursday, after ranking among the regional and national leaders in their events.  The four will compete on Wednesday, May 26, in the semifinal round at the Eastern Preliminaries hosted by the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla.

Leading the way with the best seed mark of the four (and the best of any athlete from the Colonial Athletic Association) is redshirt-junior Michael Fairbanks (Fairfax Station, Va.), who is ranked fifth in the pole vault.  Fairbanks broke the school record in the event with his leap of 5.43m (17-9.75) at Navy on March 27, a mark that also ranks 18th nationally.  He is undefeated against collegiate competition in seven meets in 2021 (two indoor and five outdoor), with six outright wins and one runner-up showing.  Since the beginning of the 2019 outdoor season, Fairbanks has 14 wins.  Three weeks ago, he became just the second man in conference history to win three-straight CAA titles in the pole vault, and later this weekend, will graduate with his degree in finance.  Fairbanks will be making his second appearance at the NCAA Eastern Preliminaries, after finishing 31st overall in 2019.

Qualifying for the NCAA semifinals for the third year in a row is redshirt-junior All-American KJ Cook (Buena Vista, Va.), ranked 21st in the hammer throw.  Cook set his lifetime-best in the event last weekend at Mount Olive's First Chance qualifier, throwing for 65.74m (215-8), the fifth-longest throw ever at W&M.  He has seven wins this spring, including six in the hammer throw, and has only lost to two collegiate competitors and three total opponents all year in the hammer.  Cook's winning tallies included the Colonial Relays and the CAA Championships, the latter for the second championships in a row.  He also competed in the NCAA hammer throw in 2019, and advanced to the national finals that year in the discus en route to honorable mention All-America honors.  Cook will also graduate this weekend from W&M with his degree in finance.

William & Mary will also have a pair of NCAA competitors in the javelin, as both redshirt-freshman Jared O'Riley (Woodstock, Ontario, Canada) and true freshman Chris Arias (Red Bank, N.J.) earned entry into the field.  O'Riley is seeded 35th overall, after setting a lifetime-best throw of 66.71m (218-10) to win the CAA Championships earlier this month.  That was one of six wins this spring, his first in the Green and Gold.  In fact, O'Riley has only been out-thrown by two collegiate athletes in head-to-head this spring, and one of those was his teammate Arias.  O'Riley's wins also include the Colonial Relays, and two meets last weekend on the final qualifying weekend.  All eight of his meets have surpassed 200 feet, with five of the eight over 212 feet.

Arias, meanwhile, is seeded 48th overall after earning a late add to the field.  He set his lifetime-best last weekend at Mount Olive, throwing 63.84m (209-5), one of three meets over 205-feet for Arias in the last month.  He won the season-opener at High Point this spring (setting a then-lifetime best at 62.98m (206-7) in that meet), and also won the JMU Invitational in mid-April.  Arias also finished second at each of his last three meets, including the CAA Championships, and recorded a bronze-medal finish at the GMU Spring Invitational as well.

This is the 18th year in a row that W&M has qualified athletes for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.  The Tribe's four qualified athletes represents half of the total qualifiers from the CAA men's track & field ranks.  The top-12 finishers in each event at the Eastern Preliminaries will advance to the NCAA Finals, June 9, in Eugene, Ore.