By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
For the first time in its existence, the Colonial Athletic Association is holding an indoor track and field championship. All of the entrants — 12 on the women's side, seven on the men's — are hoping to make history.
William & Mary is one of them. Last spring, the W&M women finished ninth out of 39 teams in the ECAC Indoor Championships in Boston. The men came in 14th out of 44 in the IC4A Championships.
The Colonial's first indoor championship meet will begin Wednesday and conclude Thursday at the Virginia Beach Sports Center. Live results will be available throughout both days of the event.
"The opportunity to have an indoor CAA championship is phenomenal for our student-athletes," Tribe coach Alex Heacock said. "It's something we had hoped to have for a long time.
"Certainly adding four teams that sponsor men's and women's indoor and outdoor track and field served as the impetus for that. And we're excited about the opportunity and the great competition that's going to happen this week."
Of course, there are plenty of unknowns.
"The ECAC was a great meet, and we had some great success there," Heacock said. "But that's a meet with dozens of teams competing.
"It's a whole different ballgame when you look at competing against 12 teams on the women's side and seven on the men's side. That changes the calculus and the competitiveness."
W&M's opponents in the women's championship will be veteran CAA members Charleston, Delaware, Elon, Hofstra, Northeastern, Towson and UNC Wilmington along with newcomers Hampton, Monmouth, North Carolina A&T and Stony Brook.
Joining the Tribe in the men's field will be Hofstra, Hampton, Northeastern, A&T, Monmouth, and Stony Brook.
"It'll be an interesting meet," Heacock said, "and a very competitive one."
Among the women's point contenders is senior Keeley Suzenski, a two-time winner in the shot put at the ECAC Indoor Championships. She is ranked second in the CAA this season with a best throw of 15.20 meters (49 feet, 10 inches).
W&M has a strong group of sophomore sprinters in Melissa Cunningham (eighth in the 60 meters), Emily Ervin (seventh in the 200, eighth in the 400) and Anna Kessler (11th in the 60) as well as senior Amaya Johnson (10th in the 200) and junior Lizzy Gregory (ninth in the 400).
On the distance side, sophomore Arianna DeBoer is ranked fifth in the 3,000 meters, with freshman Sofia Istnick (3,000 meters), Catherine Garrison (5,000m), and Kelly Ann Sutterfield (mile) all ranked in the top 10 of their events.
In the pole vault, junior Olesya Sitkowski is the top seed (12 feet, 10 inches).
For the men, W&M's distance crew is led by seniors T.J. Corliss and Evan Goodell, junior Sam Pritchard, and freshman Jonathan Kumer. The distance medley relay team (Corliss, freshman Austin Rice, Pritchard, and sophomore Luke Ellwood) has the CAA's second-best time this season at 9:56.48.
A scoring threat for the Tribe is senior Daniel Layton, who is ranked No. 1 in the heptathlon and holds the school-record 4,967 points at the Brant Tolsma Invitational in Lynchburg last month.
"Our overall message to the team is the performance list is only as good as the paper it's printed on," Heacock said. "At the end of the day, it's not what your seed or time is. That gets you your lane or heat. But you've got to do it on the day.
"It's looking at yourself in the mirror and telling yourself, 'Hey, I've got to get it done regardless of what I've done coming in.' But it's also looking down the track and seeing other people need to do it to beat you."
