William and Mary played host this weekend, welcoming more than 80 teams for the 46th annual Colonial Relays. The men’s and women’s teams placed 10th and 30th, respectively, while racking up several qualifications and records.
“All in all, it was a solid meet,” head coach Stephen Walsh said. “We had some good performances on our side. We take away from it what we got out of it, and go from there.”
On Friday, junior Brandon Heroux defended his championship at the javelin toss for the third year in a row, throwing 67.55 meters. It marks the sixth longest throw in school history and earned him an IC4A qualification.
The men’s team — led by sophomore Josh Hardin, who finished with a time of 14 minutes, 18.82 seconds — scored five qualifications in the 5,000-meter run. Junior Alex McGrath and freshman Ted Richardson also took seventh and eighth place, respectively.
The final qualification came in the 400-meter hurdles from senior Chris McIntosh, who took fifth place with a time of 53.62 seconds.
On the women’s side, freshman Kathleen Lautzenheiser continued to impress by eclipsing the freshman record in the 5,000-meter race by more than 16 seconds. Her time of 16:43.58 earned her seventh place and an ECAC qualification.
“It was a good night for the 5K and a good pace,” Walsh said. “The girls that ran in front of her were some strong girls so to get in that pack and hold on and then finish strong was nice. It’s a good solid run, but
won’t be the last one.”
This year’s meet included four new events: 3,000-meter runs and sprint medley relays for both men and women. While the 3,000-meter run is rarely included in outdoor competition, Walsh said the addition was largely to help athletes who want to work their way up to longer distance runs.
“In terms of a training purpose, you go from 1500 to 5K which is a big jump this early in the season,” he said. “It’s good for developmental reasons.”
This coming weekend, the Tribe will send a handful of athletes to Fairfax for the Mason Spring Invitational, but will rest for the most part as the most difficult stretch of the season arrives.
“George Mason next weekend which will be very thin,” Walsh said. “After the next weekend, that’s when you’re really looking to hit it. All the training that we’ve been doing all year now is going to come to its culmination.”
