Men's Track & Field | 2/16/2018 3:09:00 PM

Schedule | Live Results

FAIRFAX, Va. – An always quick season reaches its pinnacle this weekend for the George Mason men's and women's track and field teams.

The Patriots head to Rhode Island to compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday and Sunday. The conference meet will be held at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, R.I. For a full schedule and live results, click here. 

The Mason men enter as the defending conference champs, having captured their first A-10 indoor championship last year at home at the George Mason Field House. The Patriot women finished second in 2017.

Host Rhode Island had won five of the previous six men's A-10 indoor titles before Mason won last year. On the women's side, VCU has won two of the last three indoor crowns.

"This is going to be the stiffest test that a lot of our young folks have seen so far," head coach Andrew Gerard said. "I can't overstate that this is not like a lot of the other track meets. They may have been a part of championship teams in high school. But in a small environment with just 10, 12 teams and in (Rhode Island's) building it is a very different atmosphere. It is going to be a lot about how we keep our cool and how compete we under fire, under pressure."

For many of the Patriots, this will be their first taste of Rhode Island's boisterous Mackal Fieldhouse. Thirty-five of Mason entrants (20 men, 15 women) are either freshmen or sophomores.

"In some ways it is like walking into Duke's Cameron Crazies," Gerard said. "I talked about this (Wednesday), in the team meeting, it is as close as to a hostile environment as you can get into in track and field. They do a few things that are surprising and shocking, if you have never been exposed to it before. On the men's side, they are right there, they are in your face. They have big crowds, not really fans, but their guys are at every event screaming and yelling and it can be very intense, more intense maybe than the freshmen and sophomores have ever experienced before, even at home."

The Patriots will have several competitors with A-10 Championship experience and return as defending conference champs.

On the men's side, senior John Seals returns after winning three gold medals (high jump, 60-meter hurdles and heptathlon) last year, including setting the A-10 and school record in the heptathlon (5,770 points) as he was named the Most Outstanding Field Performer. The Springfield, Va., native, will compete in the pole vault, high jump, 60-meter hurdles and heptathlon.

Sprinter and reigning A-10 champ Rico Gomez (500 meters) returns. Mason also won gold in the distance medley relay and 4x400-meter relay. Tyler Benson, who competed in 4x400 and won silver in 500, was named the Most Outstanding Rookie Performer.

On the women's side, senior Shelby Garnand won the pole vault last year. The 4x400-meter relay team, which included returners Ashley Lucas, Sarah Moore and Sharon Dorsey, also won gold.

As far as the team results, Gerard expects Mason to be in contention for another men's title but will have to knock off perennial power and senior heavy Rhode Island on its home track. On the women's side, Gerard says the league is more balanced with VCU, URI, Massachusetts, Dayton and Mason all having chances to take home the crown.

"It's going to be a dogfight," head coach Andrew Gerard said. "Day one to the end of day two, nothing's ever safe, nothing's ever quite done until that last relay crosses the line and they tally up the point scores."