ELON, N.C.— The William & Mary track and field programs kicked off their postseason on Friday, with the first day of the CAA Outdoor Championships in Elon, N.C. The Tribe racked up a total of five medals on the day with an event win.
12 W&M athletes also advanced out of Friday's trials into the finals tomorrow. The Tribe men sit in third place, while the women are also in third heading into the final day of competition.
Hayes Trapp got the Tribe off on the right foot early Friday morning grabbing a bronze medal finish in the 10,000m. The freshman, making his CAA Championships debut, crossed the line in 30:52.93 for a spot on the podium.
Chris Arias grabbed W&M's first event win and gold medal in on Friday morning in javelin. The third best performer in the event in W&M history, Arias' toss of 67.69m was good for the victory, holding on by less than a meter. It's his second CAA title in the event in the last three years.
Teammate
Raiden Lafortune joined Arias on the podium, grabbing third place with a mark of 63.33m. The effort was good for the freshman's personal best and he now sits ninth on the W&M performers list for the event.
Liv Cantby, the CAA's Field Athlete of the Week two weeks ago, grabbed a silver medal in Friday's javelin on the women's side. Cantby posted a mark of 44.40m on her second toss to earn runner-up honors.
J.P. Mintz made his way to the podium as well in the last event of the night, the pole vault. The junior cleared 4.55m on his way to a silver medal and a runner-up finish to help the W&M cause.
Melissa Cunningham had another historic day in the 100m for the Tribe. The junior broke her own school record which was set less than a month ago, finishing the prelim with a time of 11.75 to earn a spot in the finals. Cunningham's previous record was 11.87 seconds.
Megan Heidebrecht finished fourth for the Green and Gold in the long jump. Her mark of 5.90m is the fourth best in program history and she now owns six of the top seven performances in W&M history in the event.
The Tribe had plenty of success in the men's 1,500m prelims on Friday, qualifying a quartet of runners to the 12-person final. Samuel Pritchard led the way with a third-place finish in the first heat with a time of 3:55.97 with
Jacob Jones just behind at 3:55.99.
Luke Henkel and
Quinn Green also qualified for W&M.
Emily Ervin's time of 55.07 seconds in 400m prelims not only gave her a spot in tomorrow's finals but was the fifth best performance in the event in Tribe history. The effort on Friday is the second-best time in the event in the junior's career.
Jacob Robinson mirrored Ervin's performance in the men's edition of the 400m. Robinson earned a spot in the finals on Saturday by putting up the fourth best time in program history and second best of his career during the prelim run, crossing the line in 47.74. He now owns the two best times by a W&M freshman in the 400m ever.
Other Tribe athletes who qualified for the finals tomorrow were;
Jennifer Tsai (1,500m, 4:44.27),
Molly Coyle (800m, 2:14.14),
Stephen Larson (800m, 1:52.96),
Evelyn Brantley (400m hurdles, 1:03.89),
Clare Howard (400m hurdles, 1:04.15)
