PATRIOT GAMES INVITATIONAL
WHEN: 4 p.m. Friday (heptathlon and pentathlon only); All day Saturday, starting at 9:30 a.m.
WHERE: George Mason Field House, Fairfax, Va.
HEPTATHLON/PENTATHLON FRIDAY RESULTS: Click Here
SATURDAY SCHEDULE: Click Here
FAIRFAX, Va. – As the snow melts, George Mason track and field head coach Andrew Gerard hopes any rust that may have accumulated along the way also shakes off.
After a two-week layoff and Snowstorm Jonas shutting down campus for more than five days, the Patriots return to the track this weekend with the Patriot Games at the Field House. The two-day meet begins at 4 p.m. Friday with the men's heptathlon and women's pentathlon and continues all day on Saturday, starting at 9:30 a.m.
More than 600 student-athletes from 19 schools ranging from Division I to Division III to community colleges make up the field, including Atlantic 10 Conference rivals VCU and Richmond and former Colonial Athletic Association foes James Madison, Towson and William & Mary. This will be Mason's third indoor track meet of the season and first since competing at the Great Dane Classic in Staten Island, N.Y., two weeks ago. Nearly all of George Mason's 90 student-athletes combined on both the men's and women's track and field teams will compete.
“It is a good return-to-competition meet for us,” Gerard said. “We had a couple of good meets during January where we started with the Father Diamond Invite, kind of got the rust off and competed at a relatively high level at Albany (at the Great Dane Classic). Last weekend, it worked out fortunately (that the team didn't have a meet), obviously with the snowstorm we probably would not have been able to compete any place any way. So, (this weekend) is kind of a return to competition, get the rust off, get back and get going after some of the upheaval with training and everything else over the snow days.”
The teams were able to practice last Friday morning before the snowstorm blanketed the area. Saturday and Sunday was a different story as Gerard said the student-athletes and coaches did a good job at staying flexible and making the proper adjustments due to the snow.
Due to an unusual routine and getting a little out of rhythm last week with the weather, Gerard believes having a lower key meet with a smaller field is exactly what the Patriots need right now.
“Our focus this weekend is on controlling what we do,” Gerard said. “Obviously, you want to compete against the other people that are out there. But our big focus is going to be getting back and controlling what we are ready to do and executing the different plans for all the different athletes that the individual event coaches have set up. So we can basically be moving toward the (Atlantic 10) championship. We have this one and more as a tuneup before the A-10s. So it has an important place.”
Next weekend, the teams will compete at the Crimson Elite Invitational and the Scarlet & White Invitational in Boston, before heading to Rhode Island for the Atlantic 10 Championships on Feb. 20-21.
