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FAIRFAX, Va. – With the NCAA East Preliminary two weeks away, a large contingency from the George Mason men's and women's track and field teams plan to use this weekend to lower qualifying times or get one final practice run in. And for some it serves as the last meet of the season.

The Patriots will send more than 40 student-athletes to the 141st IC4A and 34th ECAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Princeton University. The meet begins Friday and continues through Sunday at William Weaver Track & Field Stadium in Princeton, N.J.

"This one is really more about the last chance to get something done we didn't get done during the season," Mason head coach Andrew Gerard said. "It is the last chance to improve on Regional marks or getting in that last tuneup before NCAA Regionals. Get into the ring one more time and go over some technique things. It serves a couple of different purposes."

This is the second championship meet of the championship season for the Patriots, who competed in the Atlantic 10 Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships last weekend in Amherst, Mass. The teams combined for 16 gold medals, with the Mason women winning the team championship and the men finishing in second place.

For the women, the A-10 championship was their third outdoor conference title in four years. It was a tight finish as, going into the final four events of the meet, the top six teams were separated by just 3.5 points and the Patriots were in sixth. But Mason finished strong, with Michelle Wallerstedt winning the discus, the 4x800-meter relay team notching an impressive second-place finish, Ciara Donohue taking sixth in the 5,000-meter run and the 4x400-meter relay team capping off the day with a gold medal and A-10 record (3:40.15). The Patriots edged out Duquesne for the team title by six points.

"It was nerve-racking," Gerard said. "Those ladies really closed it out well (in the final four events). We were coming all day. You could go back deeper in the lineup with the 400 and the 800 and some of those events where we were picking up points but we were making up ground on the field... But we closed the door and closed it pretty hard at the end of the meet.

"(Winning three A-10 championships) is certainly a credit to the ladies and we've had a lot of ladies come through our program and contribute to it. I told the ladies this from the beginning, we have a tradition where our ladies typically are at or exceed where we think we can be. And they've done that nicely over the four years. I don't know where that comes from necessarily. I can't put my finger on anything we do specifically to address that. But it has been a theme. It has been consistent. Even when we were second to VCU last year, we exceeded what we thought we could get point-wise. It just has been business as usual for us to exceed what we thought we could get done."

While the Patriots placed athletes in multiple events to maximize points at the A-10 Championships, Gerard said the teams won't "go to the well" at the ECAC/IC4A Championships. Mason will aim to win gold in individual events and relays but the emphasis will be on improving times and marks or finishing the season on a strong note.

The top 48 finishers in the East and West regions advanced to the NCAA Preliminary Round. The Patriots will compete in the NCAA East Preliminary on May 25-27 in Lexington, Ky. Senior Steven Flynn (5,000 meters) is currently in 20th in the East Region and in good position to return to the NCAA Preliminary. (Flynn won't participate at IC4As but will compete in the 1,500-meter run at the Swarthmore Final Qualifier Meet at Swarthmore College (Pa.) on Monday night.) 

Seniors Ayo Raymond (100 meters) and Bernard Freeman (200 meters) will try to improve their times to cement a return trip to the NCAA Preliminary. On the women's side, junior Sommer Sharpe is also eying a return in the 400-meter hurdles. Senior Michelle Wallerstedt, the school and A-10 record holder in the discus, currently ranks 15th in the East region.

Overall, more than a dozen Mason athletes on the men's and women's team are currently either in the top 48 in the region or on the cusp of qualifying heading into the ECAC/IC4A Championships. The NCAA will announce the full list of qualifying athletes next week.

"I think we've, by and large, been pretty successful with the things we've pointed at and the aspirations and the goals we've set," Gerard said. "I think we're in a good spot. These next couple weekends are big ones but I think we're well positioned. I think people are pretty excited going in. We have good energy and good mojo working right now."