The William & Mary men's track & field team heads to Jacksonville, Fla., this week to open competition at the NCAA Eastern Preliminary Round.  The Tribe is sending four athletes in three events to the opening stage of the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, all three of which will be held on Wednesday, May 26, at the University of North Florida.  Live Results and live video links are available through TribeAthletics.com.

Live Results
Live Video

The Eastern Preliminaries
The top-48 competitors in each event (top-24 teams in the two relay events) in each the East Region and the West Region advanced to the opening round competitions this week.  Through either two (events up to and including the 1,500m) or one (all other) rounds of competition, the 48 qualifiers will be narrowed to 12 athletes who will advance to the NCAA Championship Finals, June 9-12 in Eugene, Ore., at the University of Oregon.  In the pole vault, competitors will jump on two pits which advance in height at the same rate until no more than 12 competitors are still jumping.  In the throws, each athlete will get three attempts to try and rank among the top-12 across all three flights of throwers.

Scouting the Tribe
Opening up the day at 1:30 p.m. will be competition in both the javelin and the hammer throw.  In the javelin, both freshman Chris Arias (Red Bank, N.J.) and redshirt-freshman Jared O'Riley (Woodstock, Ontario, Canada) are slated to compete in the first of three flights.  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 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 two weeks ago 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.

In the hammer throw, redshirt-junior All-American KJ Cook (Buena Vista, Va.) will throw in the second of three flights.  Cook set his lifetime-best in the event at Mount Olive's First Chance qualifier, throwing for 65.74m (215-8), the fifth-longest throw ever at W&M, and ranks 21st overall in the field.  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.  Two years ago, he was ranked 28th in the discus and advanced to the national finals in that event.  Cook went on to place 24th nationally to earn honorable mention All-America honors.

The final event of the day for W&M will be the pole vault, where redshirt-junior Michael Fairbanks (Fairfax Station, Va.) is ranked fifth overall.  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.  At the start of the month, he became just the second man in conference history to win three-straight CAA titles in the pole vault.  Fairbanks will be making his second appearance at the NCAA Eastern Preliminaries, after finishing 31st overall in 2019 (an improvement of five places over his pre-meet seeding).

1:30 PM - Javelin Throw
School Record - 73.55m (241-4)
Freshman Record - 69.33m (227-5)
NCAA Record - 89.10m (292-4)
NCAA Championships Record - 86.62m (284-2)
NCAA Eastern Semifinals Record - 80.06m (262-8)

NCAA Finals Qualifiers
2019 - 66.07m
2018 - 62.89m
2017 - 64.66m
2016 - 67.50m
2015 - 67.27m
2014 - 66.39m
2013 - 68.66m
2012 - 66.64m
2011 - 68.14m
2021 Predicted - 66.24m (217-4)

1:30 PM - Hammer Throw
School Record - 67.36m (221-0)
NCAA Record - 81.94m (268-10)
NCAA Championships Record - 80.86m (295-2)
NCAA Eastern Semifinals Record - 73.91m (242-6)

NCAA Finals Qualifiers
2019 - 66.38m
2018 - 66.64m
2017 - 66.66m
2016 - 65.41m
2015 - 64.37m
2014 - 64.21m
2013 - 61.27m
2012 - 62.86m
2011 - 61.47m
2021 Predicted - 67.10m (220-2)

3:00 PM - Pole Vault
School Record - 5.43m (17-9.75)
NCAA Record - 6.00m (19-8.25)
NCAA Championships Record - 5.95m (19-6.25)
NCAA Eastern Semifinals Record - 5.35m (17-6.5)

NCAA Finals Qualifiers
2019 - 5.21m
2018 - 5.25m
2017 - 5.25m
2016 - 5.25m
2015 - 5.25m
2014 - 5.32m
2013 - 5.25m
2012 - 5.27m
2011 - 5.15m
2021 Predicted - 5.22m (17-1.5)