William Walton Live Scoring |
Gamecock Invitational Live Scoring
FAIRFAX, Va. – With three weeks before championship season begins, the George Mason men's and women's track and field teams spilt up this weekend in hopes of improving their chances for the postseason.
The Patriots will compete in two meets on Saturday. More than 20 sprinters and jumpers will compete in the Gamecock Invitational at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. Another 30 student-athletes will compete in jumps, throws, sprints and distance at the William Walton Invitational at James Madison in Harrisonburg, Va.
After this weekend, Mason will compete in two more meets next week – the Duke Invitational and the Michael Johnson Invitational at Baylor – and send a handful to the prestigious Penn Relays at the end of the month. Then the championship season begins with the Atlantic 10 Outdoor Championships in Amherst, Mass., followed by the IC4A/ECAC Championships in Princeton, N.J., and the NCAA East Regional Championships May 25-27 in Lexington, Ky.
"I always tell people the beginning of the season will arrive before you know it and this is the time of the season you look at the schedule all of a sudden and it really is here before we know it," George Mason head coach
Andrew Gerard said. "It is coming into a sharper leaf fairly quickly here with it looming right there on the horizon. After that it is all championship meets for the rest of the way out."
Thus, heading into the second half of the season, chances to improve times and marks become fewer and more important. The Gamecock Invitational was a late addition to the schedule and Gerard hopes it will allow chances to lower NCAA Regional qualifying times in such events such as the men's 4x100- and 4x400-meter relay races. The field will feature SEC foes Georgia and South Carolina, ACC opponents North Carolina State and Clemson and the Big Ten's Illinois.
"We were going to try to find a little higher level of competition," Gerard said. "South Carolina offered that with a relatively short meet and a one-day meet. An impromptu opportunity for some people to get another good opportunity this coming weekend."
The other contingency of Patriots will stay in-state and head to James Madison, where the Patriots last competed in an outdoor meet five years ago. The meet will feature a smaller field with JMU, VCU and Marshall.
"It is going to be a pretty low-key meet," Gerard said. "Just a chance for a lot of the folks in those events to work on some of technical aspects. Get six throws, get more jumps on the runway."
