Women's Track & Field | 4/3/2019 3:06:00 PM

Colonial Relays Live Scoring | Watch Link For Both Meets

FAIRFAX, Va. – The George Mason men's and women's track and field teams will begin April like they ended March – by splitting up for two meets.

The Patriots will be spread across the country, with the sprinters and relay teams heading to the Sun Angel Classic hosted by Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz., and the distance runners and most of the field event participants staying close to home at the Colonial Relays hosted by William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

The Colonial Relays begin Thursday with the hammer throw and run through Saturday afternoon. The Sun Angel Classic starts Friday and concludes Saturday.

For the relays, the Sun Angel Classic will present another formidable challenge similar to the ones presented at the Raleigh Relays last weekend and the Hurricane Invitational at the start of the season. The field includes several schools from power conferences, such as Pac 12 foes Arizona State, Oregon and Oregon State along with Big 12 schools Iowa State and Kansas State and the Big Ten's Iowa and Wisconsin. Abilene Christian, Boise State, BYU, Wyoming, Utah State, UC San Diego, UC Davis, Northern Arizona will also be in the field as will familiar foe Georgetown. 

"It is a chance for our relays and the short (running events) folks to try to face top-level competition," Mason head coach Andrew Gerard said. "A lot of our sprinters have kind of been dancing around their events. Rico (Gomez) hasn't run a 400 yet. Sarah Moore hasn't run a 400 yet. So we have kind of been waiting for the time of the season where the weather and competition come together. Looking at this year, that is always a premier event for some of the short events. We will see what we can get done out there."

The Patriots will send a contingent of more than 50 student-athletes to Williamsburg. The large field features more than 25 schools, including Atlantic 10 rivals Saint Joseph's and Fordham along with crosstown foe American.  

"The Colonial is probably one of the biggest meets on the East Coast all year," Gerard said. "Another real, good quality opportunity for everybody else. Throwers certainly will be well challenged there. Distance runners will run the longer stuff under the lights at night. It will be good competition."

As the schedule flips to calendar, it marks just one month until championship season begins with the Atlantic 10 Championships on May 4-5 in Amherst, Mass. 

"Time to start narrowing in, time to start focusing," Gerard said of the upcoming meets. "For people who have been on either side of their individual events, their prime events, it is time to start focusing in on those. You have had a chance or two to get competition under your belt from almost everybody so now is the time to start fine tuning things moving forward."