LYNCHBURG, Va. – William & Mary men's and women's indoor track & field teams opened their spring schedule at the fourth-annual Brant Tolsma Invitational at Liberty on January 18-20.
 
With a meet highlight on the first day of competition, Brian Walsh recorded the fourth-best men's heptathlon performance in program history with 4802 points, breaking the freshman record.
 
The Tribe women recorded a pair of event wins over the three-day meet as Sofia Istnick broke a three-year-old meet record with her 5000M victory and Arianna DeBoer recorded a personal-best time for a 1000M win.
 
The Tribe men made a strong showing in their first appearance of 2024, earning a trio of top-three individual event finishes and a third-place time by the 4x400M Relay team of Rice, Jonathan Kumer, David Seekford and Lucas Thompson.
 
Jackson Cooley posted a top-four qualifying time in the men's 60M, running a 6.93. In the finals, Cooley finished just one-hundredth of a second behind his prelim run with a fourth-place 6.94 time.
 
Sophomore Austin Rice made a second-place finish in the 400M with a blazing 48.85 run. His second-best career time marks the fifth-fastest performance in program history.
 
The Tribe women posted a pair of top-10 finishes in the 800M. Makenzie Joiner posted a 2:18.06 time to place sixth in the event, and freshman Becca Harkness earned a 10^th-place finish with her time of 2:19.16.
 
On the men's side, Thompson and Henry Anderson finished seventh and eighth in the 800M, respectively. Thompson recorded a 1:57.52 and Anderson finished in 1:57.55.
 
DeBoer made a first-place finish with her 2:56.77 time in the 1000M, which marked a lifetime-best run in the event. Molly Coyle finished in the top ten, running at a 3:10.46 mark.
 
In the men's mile, Luke Ellwood finished just .04 behind the first-place runner, posting a 4:18.06 time for a second-place finish.
 
In the 3000M, Kyra Holland ran a 10:10.96 to place third in the event. Her time was less than three seconds behind the first-place runner and over 15 seconds ahead of the next-best time.
 
Senior Sam Pritchard clocked in at 8:27.17 in the men's 3000M with a personal-best time for a fifth-place finish in the event.
 
With an impressive 1-2-3 showing in the 5000M, Istnick led a trio of Tribe runners in the top three with her time of 16:41.61. Istnick's time lands her as the 15^th-best all-time performer in program history. She also replaced a Brant Tolsma Invitational meet record set in the inaugural event, nearly three years ago. DeBoer followed just behind with a 16:52.43 finish for second place and Heidi Fortin's 17:30.29 time was good for third place.
 
Freshman Elizabeth Strobach tied for second place in the women's pole vault, with a 3.71m performance. She tied Nicole Dory for eighth on the Tribe's all-time performers list.
 
Megan Heidebrecht landed in the top-three in the triple jump, posting a 12.03m, just .05m below her personal best.
 
Also in the top three in her field event, Keeley Suzenski recorded a 14.06m throw in the shot put. Suzenski also tied her personal-best 16.84m weight throw for eighth place.
 
Jason Nwosu placed seventh in the weight throw, with a personal-best 16.99m performance. 
 
Walsh led three William & Mary athletes in the men's Heptathlon, recording 4,802 points for a top-four performance in program history. The score was also the highest by a freshman in program history, replacing Daniel Layton's freshman record (4,733) set in 2020.
 
Up Next
The Tribe returns to action at George Mason for the Patriot Games in Fairfax, Va. on January 26-27.