Liberty Kickoff to Open Indoor Track Season, Thursday and Friday
11/30/2022 10:58:52 AM | Track and Field
Liberty Kickoff Meet Information
Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener Meet Information
Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener Schedule
Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener Video Streaming (FloTrack)
Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener Live Results Site
Liberty will open its 2022-23 indoor track & field season this week with a pair of meets. Most of the Flames and Lady Flames will compete in the Liberty Kickoff, Thursday and Friday at the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex. Meanwhile, Tristian Merchant will make his Flames debut during Saturday’s Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener at the Boston University Track & Tennis Center.
The Liberty Kickoff will get started with multi events each day, including the pentathlon 60 hurdles Thursday at noon and the heptathlon 60 hurdles Friday at 11 a.m. The meet will include competitors from Charlotte, Concordia-St. Paul, High Point, James Madison, Radford and Virginia.
Merchant’s 5K will be the final event of the day in Boston, with the first heat slated for Saturday at 6:10 p.m.
How to Follow the Flames and Lady Flames
Admission is free of charge at the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex.
Video streaming of the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener will be available on FloTrack.
Live results will be available at both meets, with Blue Ridge Timing covering the Liberty Kickoff and Lancer Timing handling the action in Boston.
About the Facilities
The 169,000-square-foot Liberty Indoor Track Complex is highlighted by a six-lane, 200-meter, hydraulically banked oval which is now named for legendary Flames head coach Brant Tolsma. The facility, which includes permanent seating for approximately 1,500 spectators, also boasts ample space for athletes. Competitors are availed a sizeable mezzanine area which sits above an eight-lane, 100-meter warm-up straightaway.
The Liberty Indoor Track Complex opened in January 2017 and has seen records broken ever since. The Liberty Kickoff will open the seventh year of competition at the facility.
The Flames will host five college meets this season, also including the third annual Brant Tolsma Invitational (Jan. 19-21), Liberty Open (Feb. 4), ninth annual Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational (Feb. 10-11) and the ASUN Indoor Track & Field Championships (Feb. 24-25).
The Boston University Track & Tennis Center regularly produces fast times, and many of the nation’s top distance runners are headed there this weekend to chase records and NCAA qualifying marks.
The following current Liberty program records were set at the Boston University Track & Tennis Center: men’s 1,000 (Colin Schultz – 2:23.01 in 2017), men’s 4 x 400 relay (Durham, Todd, Jacobs, Perlaza Zapata – 3:09.88 in 2018), men’s 4 x 800 relay (Onifer, Schultz, Hope, Sherret – 7:29.15 in 2014), men’s distance medley relay (Crowell, Rolle, Prentice, Schultz – 9:47.30 in 2018), heptathlon (Markus Ballengee – 5,537 in 2018), women’s 500 (Tanner Ealum – 1:10.74 in 2019), women’s 4 x 400 relay (Strohman, Dansbury, McDowell, Ealum – 3:39.06 in 2019), women’s 4 x 800 relay (Gebben, Taylor, Scull, McDowell – 8:47.12 in 2016) and pentathlon (Kylie Polsgrove – 3,986 in 2019).
Merchant will be the first Flame to race at the Boston University Track & Tennis Center since March 1-3, 2019, when the Lady Flames captured their second straight ECAC team championship.
Encore, Encore!
Kennedy Sauder will high jump at his home facility for the first time since clearing a program and facility-record 7-4.25 to win the ASUN title on Feb. 25.
Sauder was the nation’s only freshman to earn All-America honors in both the indoor and outdoor men’s high jump last season.
The men’s high jump will take place Friday afternoon, following the conclusion of the 11:30 a.m. women’s high jump.
Celebrating the Champions
As Liberty begins its final season of ASUN Conference competition, Sauder is one of five Flames who are back to defend their ASUN event titles from 2022.
The list also includes Quinten Clay (men’s long jump and triple jump), John Hicks (men’s weight throw), Adelyn Ackley-Fairley (women’s 5K) and Meredith Engle (pentathlon).
All of the Flames’ reigning conference champions are entered in those same events this week except Ackley-Fairley, who will not be competing at this meet.
Noting the Newcomers
Some high-level athletes are expected to make their Liberty track & field debuts this week at the Liberty Kickoff. The following are some of the events to watch in order to check them out:
Women’s 60 Hurdles – Indea Cartwright (Oral Roberts) and Jasmine Williams (ULM) both transferred to Liberty during the offseason. Only one Lady Flame (Arlene Zelinskas – 8.47 in 2007) has ever broken 8.60 in the 60 hurdles. Cartwright boasts a PR of 8.40, while Williams has run 8.52.
Women’s Weight Throw – A native of Mexico, Paola Bueno was the women’s hammer silver medalist at the 2022 World U20 Championships.
Pentathlon – The younger sister of Flames standout Anthony Bryan, Patasha Bryan will debut after redshirting the 2021-22 campaign. She scored 3,596 points at last year’s Liberty Kickoff while competing unattached. That score would rank No. 10 in program history.
Men’s 60 – Trinidad and Tobago native Omari Lewis, who has run times of 10.33 (100) and 21.37 (200), will compete against All-American teammate Donald McClinton.
Men’s 300 – Freshman Elonzo Burroughs will step up in distance after posting a 20.81 200 as a senior at H.D. Woodson High School a year ago.
Men’s Mile – Nicholas Kiprotich will look to carry his cross country success over to the track. He placed third at the ASUN meet and 16th at the NCAA Division I Southeast Regional Championships this fall.
Men’s Shot Put – Following a redshirt season at Liberty, Desmond Coleman came in seventh in the men’s discus at the 2022 World U20 Championships.
Touting Tristian
Saturday’s 5K will mark Tristian Merchant’s first appearance in a Liberty uniform after transferring from Northern Arizona.
The Anchorage, Alaska native clocked times of 8:15.31 (3K) and 13:57.78 (5K) last season for the Lumberjacks.
Competing unattached, Merchant placed 12th at the Panorama Farms XC23 Invitational on Oct. 15 in Earlysville, Va., clocking an 8K time of 23:33.8.
Five of the top eight men’s 5K runners in Liberty program history posted their indoor PR at the Boston University Track & Tennis Center, including Josh McDougal (13:37.32 in 2007), Evans Kigen (14:05.92 in 2008), Josh MacDonald (14:10.33 in 2013), Josh Edmonds (14:12.61 in 2011) and Jordan McDougal (14:15.06 in 2008).
Up Next
After taking more than a month away from competition, Liberty will return to action on Jan. 13-14 at the Virginia Tech Invitational, to be contested at Rector Field House in Blacksburg, Va.
Featured in Main Photo: John Hicks
