Tarantino Runs 2:30 at London
Will Tarantino '05 (see the post a few days ago on him), while not happy with his results, still ran a 2:30.25 for 57th place at the London Marathon.

4X800 Races & Heroux on Last Day of Penn
On top is the men's race and the women are below that. The men were 5th in 7:33 in the college division and the women were 4th in the championship heat (watch it as Tenn sets a world record) while Brandon Heroux was 4th and qualified for the NCAA regional and IC4A meets. You can see ALL the races by going here and toggling all the way to the bottom where it says "track races."

Anastasia-Murphy Wins the Tough Guy Award!
Above is frosh Liam Anastasia-Murphy who here fell in the steeplechase at Penn and despite swallowing some water, still got up and qualified for the US junior champs. Above is an interview with him.

Woman's Penn Steeplechase
Here is the race where Graney was 4th. This is a video taken at the water jump each lap.

Great Start At Penn
Distance night at Penn proved to be a great success for the Tribe. Lynne Morelli ran the #2 all time for W&M in the 10K and provisionally qualified for the NCAA while Meghan Burns and Kayley Byrne both noted ECAC times in the 5K as did Heather Beichner and Betsy Graney in the steeplechase. Graney and Nicole Kazuba, in the pole vault also qualified for the NCAA regional meet. Natalie Baird broke her school record in the discus and qualified for the ECAC meet. More

For the me, Liam Anastasia-Murphy qualifies for the US Junior Champs in the steeple chase while Bryca Wilk qualified in the same event for the IC4A meet. Also qualifying for the meet in the 5K were Brian Sklodowski, Lewis Woodward and Colin Leak. More

CAA Videos
It is hard to believe, but this blog site is already two years old and this is the 326th entry. Just 28 years to go and I will have caught up to Randy Hawthorne! Emil Davis took a lot of videos from the CAA meet. Above is Cam Shriver high jumping. Here are all of his other videos which include Katie Guevel hep events: 100mH, HJ, Shot, 200m, LJ, missed the jav/800m, Lynnie Bresnehan TJ (18th) and 400mH trials men and women (McIntosh/Heidman; Harvey)

Donating to W&M Track/XC
In the past few years, three individuals have stepped forward with tremendous donations. They are the Showker Family and the Community Foundation of Harrisonburg who funded the throwing circle, Pat Cousins who paid for the start line and Juan Conde who named the finish line after my coach, Roy Chernock and one of my teammates, Marlon Mattis (whose son is featured a few posts ago). If you go here, you will see a brochure on the many other naming opportunities. Obviously these are big ticket items. For $500, you can also buy a brick outside the stadium or you can make a contribution of any amount by going here (make sure you designate it for track or xc) or by sending a contribution to "Spiked Shoe Society," PO Box 399, Williamsburg, VA 23187.

Inspirational Story
In many ways this story on Will Tarantino '05 is very sad. He does have a malignant brain tumor and gave up pursuing a PhD because of it. On the other hand, he is not giving up on life will be running in the London Marathon this weekend. At W&M he was a 3:50 1500 meter runner and last year ran a 2:29 at the Boston Marathon (just off his PR of 2:26). Click here for his story. You can also go here to see his webpage where it tells his complete story and also is a fundraising source for brain cancer research. I'll follow up as soon as I know how Will does this weekend.

Women's CAA Article by Rick Platt
In dominating fashion, the William and Mary women’s outdoor track team won its ninth Colonial Athletic Association team title in the past 11 years. It wasn’t close for the Friday-Saturday championship event, the 20th annual, as W&M scored 181 points to win by 59 points. The real battle came for conference runner-up honors, as UNC-Wilmington (122) edged Georgia State (120) and Northeastern (119 ½) for second. Far behind were George Mason (76 ½), Delaware (62), James Madison (57 ½), Towson (44 ½) and Virginia Commonwealth (36). More

Men's CAA Article By Rick Platt
For the third consecutive year, UNC-Wilmington came from behind to beat the William and Mary men’s outdoor track team for the Colonial Athletic Association team title. W&M had a huge lead after the first day, 84-44, thanks to their domination in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, but UNC-W parlayed strength in the sprints, hurdles, relays and decathlon to win the CAA trophy, 184-158, over W&M. Trailing in the team scoring were VCU (145), George Mason (106), Delaware (104), Northeastern (87) and Georgia State (26). The 2008 score was much closer, at 194 ½ to 190 for UNC-W. W&M has placed first or second 15 of the 20 years of the CAA championship meet. More

Lots of CAA Pictures
Thanks Coach Davis for the pictures. Above are ones from the distance races. Here are ones celebrating the 1st and 2nd place team performances, the heptathlon, the jumps, mid-distance, sprints and the throws.

Women 1st, Men 2nd at CAA Meet
The women's team won the CAA meet for the 9th time in eleven years. Emily Anderson and Kayley Byrne 1-3 in the 5K and qualified for the NCAA regional and ECAC meets. Also qualifying for the NCAA meet were Sallie Ford and Sara Lasker who were 2-3 in the 10K. Nicole Kazuba won her 3rd straight pole vault while Emily Jeremiah was 2nd with both meeting the NCAA regional and ECAC standards. Ashley Williams was 2nd and in the hammer while Natalie Baird's toss in the event broke the frosh record. Ashley Madonick broke Uche Uwah's (one of my teammates in the '80s) 400 meter record for her 2nd place and ECAC qualifier. In the 800, Ariel Burbey was 2nd and became 9th all-time W&M with her ECAC qualifier. Anderson won the 1500 qualifying for both the NCAA regional and ECAC as Emily Schroeder's 3rd place notched a ECAC qualifier and is 6th in W&M history. Meghan Burns in 4th, also qualified for the ECAC meet. Improving her #2 all-time W&M performance was Dana Harvey in the 400 hurdles while Betsy Graney won the steeple in an NCAA regional and ECAC performance time. Matching those qualifiers was Ashley Williams who won the shot put. Baird and Carly Morse were 2nd and 6th in the discus, both qualifying for the ECAC meet. Finally Katie Guevel won the heptathlon in a NCAA provisional performance. More

For the men, Jon Grey was the work horse winning both the 5 and 10K (on the same day). Following him in the 5K were Ian Fitzgerald, Colin Leak and Zach Gates in 2nd, 6th and 7th, all of whom qualified for the IC4A meet. Also scoring an entry to the meet were David Adley, Skeeter Morris amd Max Werner who were 2, 5 and 6th in the 10K and Kiernan Lofland who was 2nd in the pole vault. Brandon Heroux broke both the school and CAA record in the javelin and meet both the IC4A and NCAA regional marks. In the 1500, four of the top five slots went to W&M, led by Chris Tyson while Bryce Wilk led W&M's five placers in the top eight in the steeplechase. Qualifying for the IC4A meet was Cam Shriver who won the high jump. More

Mattis Breaks NJ Record
Okay, this may open the flood gates, but so be it; send them to me if you have great performances from your offspring! Marlon Mattis '85 was one of my teammates (he used to spot me when we lifted by using one finger) who is now #3 on the all-time hammer throw. It seems that the hammer doesn't fall far from the tree as Sam Mattis set a NJ frosh record in the discuss with a toss of 169'6. See the video above of the throw and a short interview above.

Colonial Relays by Rick Platt
I'm still waiting for pics from Colonials, but in the meantime, here are a few more details on the Tribe victories last week thanks to Rick Platt and his article in the Virginia Gazette.

The William and Mary men’s and women’s track teams were not the most gracious hosts last Friday and Saturday at the ­­­44th annual Colonial Relays track meet, winning both team titles, showing exceptional strength in everything from the distance events and relays to the field events. More

Lou Onesty Invitational
There were several notable performances at the Lou Onesty Invitational starting withAshley Wiliams who tossed the hammer 156-3 which ranks as the 5th best W&M throw (although she already stands at 2nd and the all-time lists are done by people rather than by performance) and Natalie Baird who moved to 8th on the all time list with a 145-8 in the discus. Baird also broke her school record in the discus with a 152-10 throw and set a new frosh record in the shot put with a 43-9 throw. The discus throw qualified for the ECAC meet as did the performances of Nicole Kazuba and Ashley Madonick with their respective 12-3.5 pole vault and 55.95 400 meter runs. The women's 4x4 team ran a ECAC qualifying 3:50.93 with Madonick, Mallory Hogan, Katie Guevel and Dana Harvey. Harvey also placed third in the 400 hurdles in 1:01.76 while Kelsey Budd won the stepple in 11:45.34. Carly Morse was third in the shot and Ariel Burbey was 5th in the 800 meters. More

Three men earned fourth-place finishes Saturday, led by Chris McIntosh's 54.72 in the 400 hurdles, Glen Wright's 4th in the 3000 in 8:49 and Cam Shriver's 6-4.75 for fourth in the high jump. More

Tribe Wins Colonials!
For us old-timers, it seems odd to say "Tribe wins," as the meet has changed over the years. When I was in school in the 1980s it was the second biggest relay meet in the country spanning three days and included high school, college and post collegiate athletes. Now it is a very competitive meet where the tribe can show case its well rounded (esp on the women's side) team. Fifty-five athletes earned ECAC qualifiers and eight earned a ticket to the NCAA regional for the women and for the men 75 earned a trip to the IC4A meet while seven secured a place at the NCAA regional meet. Rather than rewrite a nice article, to see the women's story go here and here for the men's team. Great job by all. Come back later to see a mess of pictures as well as some interviews from Coach Davis.

Colonials Begin
A number of nice performances on day #1. Lian Anastasia-Murphy was 2nd in the steeple in 9:21.91 and qualified for the USA, jr. meet while Betsy Graney opened with a victory in the event which earned her a shot at the NCAA regional meet with her 10:47.46. In the 1500, Brian Sklodowski was 2nd in 3:48.64 and qualified for the IC4A meet while Katie Guevel ran 14.31 in the 100 hurdles for 5th and an ECAC time. The qualifiers continued with Kiernan Lofland earning an IC4A jump with a 4.80 in the pole vault as well as Lewis Woodard who also qualified with his 14:33.76 (that race was won by Ed Moran in 14:02) as did Richard Morris, Max Werner and Andrew Midland in the 10K. There were many other notable performances. More

World XC Final Part
If you have the url for the women, please put it in a comment. But here is the last part of Moran's race last weekend and it does show Ed finishing (8:44). Colonials is underway. Check out the link below this post.

Colonials This Weekend
Click here for live results on Friday & Saturday.