Talented Fields Assembled for 8th Annual Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational
2/10/2022 10:16:20 AM | Track and Field
The eighth annual Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational is shaping up to be one of the most highly competitive meets ever contested at the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex. A field of 24 colleges and universities has assembled for Friday and Saturday’s competition.
The teams entered in the meet include Duke, Furman, NC State, North Carolina, Penn, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest among many others.
The meet will begin Friday at 1:30 p.m. with the men’s 60 prelims. Saturday’s slate of events will get started with a trio of field events (women’s high jump, women’s shot put, women’s triple jump) at 10:30 a.m.
On Saturday at noon, the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track will officially be dedicated with a special on-track ceremony.
How to Follow the Flames and Lady Flames
Admission is free of charge at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex.
For those who are unable to attend the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational, live results will be provided by Blue Ridge Timing.
Remembering Darius
Darius Dixon, a promising freshman sprinter from Western Branch High School in Chesapeake, Va., opened his Liberty track & field career by competing in the 200 and 400-meter dash events at the Liberty Kickoff on Dec. 5, 2013. Two days later, he was tragically killed in a car accident at the age of 18.
In his memory, Liberty will hold a Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational meet for the eighth straight year. The inaugural Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational was contested on Dec. 3-4, 2014 at the Tolsma Indoor Track Center.
A special recognition ceremony will take place on Friday at 5:45 p.m., directly prior to Dixon’s signature event, the 400-meter dash.
Touting Tolsma
Brant Tolsma served as Liberty’s track & field and cross country head coach for 34 years (1986-2020) before retiring following the 2020 ASUN Indoor Track & Field Championships. He coached Liberty’s teams to 116 conference championships and coached six NCAA Division I individual national champions. Tolsma was a 77-time conference coach of the year and coached Liberty athletes to 61 All-America honors.
Liberty’s previous indoor track facility was named the Tolsma Indoor Track Center in his honor. The current indoor track oval will officially be dedicated as the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track during a special ceremony on Saturday at noon.
About the Facility
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 sixth year of competition at the facility began with its first-ever December college meet, the Liberty Kickoff (Dec. 2-3).
The Flames will host five college meets at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex this season, with the ASUN Indoor Track & Field Championships (Feb. 25-26) still to come.
Distance Delights
The distance events are among the deepest and most competitive at this meet, especially the men’s and women’s mile and 3K.
Men’s 3K (Friday, 3:35 p.m.)
Liberty’s Felix Kandie (8:07.43), Ryan Drew (8:07.53) and Caleb Olson (8:14.35) have all set 3K personal bests in recent weeks during races where they had to spend significant amounts of time leading and pushing the pace.
Similarly, Charlotte’s Nickolas Scudder (8:02.18) and Duke’s Sam Rivera (8:02.41) went 1-2 at last weekend’s Doc Hale VT Elite Meet while running well ahead of the pack.
No one should have to run alone on Friday, as a field of 90 competitors is entered in the men’s 3K, making it the largest event at this meet.
The top PRs in the field belong to North Carolina’s Jack Aho (7:57.54) and Virginia’s Rohann Asfaw (7:58.14), meaning that Ryan Renken’s 7:59.55 facility record will be one of many under siege this weekend.
Women’s 3K (Friday, 4:45 p.m.)
North Carolina’s Paige Hofstad is back to defend her Darius Dixon women’s 3K title from 2021, but she will face plenty of competition on Friday.
Liberty’s Adelyn Ackley clocked a Liberty and ASUN-record time of 9:24.96 in this event at last weekend’s Camel City Elite on a flat track. Now she will see what she can do on a banked oval.
All-American teammate Calli Doan appears poised to shatter her PR of 9:54.46, having not raced a 3K in over two years.
The Lady Flames’ Anna Hostetler is also entered, one year after clocking a personal-best 9:33.61 at this meet.
High Point’s Hannah Brookover placed 14th in the NCAA 3K final last season, representing Wake Forest.
NC State’s talented distance crew features Nevada Mareno (9:30.97 PR) and Gionna Quarzo, who clocked a 16:16.25 5K at the Camel City Elite meet.
The current facility record stands at 9:22.82.
Men’s Mile (Saturday, 2:15 p.m.)
The men’s mile is one of this meet’s most highly anticipated events, as it certainly boasts the potential to produce the first sub-4:00 mile in Liberty Indoor Track Complex history.
Virginia Tech has entered three sub-4:00 milers, including Benjamin Nibbelink (3:58.34), Ben Fleming (3:59.47) and Antonio Lopez Segura (3:59.60).
The UVA duo of Wes Porter (4:00.08) and Conor Murphy (4:00.09) just missed joining the sub-4:00 club last season.
Liberty’s Ryan Drew and Will Jefferson will race after doing some record setting earlier this season. Drew’s 4:04.71 at Virginia Tech on Jan. 14 set an ASUN record at the time, while Jefferson’s 4:06.63 at Clemson on Jan. 28 broke the Liberty freshman record.
Some times to keep an eye on are 4:01.50 (meet and facility record by Jacob Dumford in 2021), 4:01.63 (Liberty record by Josh McDougal in 2006) and 4:02.93 (ASUN record by Eastern Kentucky’s Ahmed Jaziri last weekend).
Women’s Mile (Saturday, 2:45 p.m.)
Liberty’s Calli Doan is the two-time defending Darius Dixon women’s mile champion, setting a meet record each time. Her winning time a year ago was 4:51.24, but Doan will certainly have to run faster than that if she hopes to retain her title. She will also likely need to eclipse her personal best of 4:45.84.
Virginia’s Mia Barnett (4:40.45), Furman’s Megan Marvin (4:42.96) and NC State’s Anna Vess (4:45.84) have all run impressive mile times this season, while North Carolina’s Brynn Brown has run 9:11.81 for the 3K distance in 2022.
The Liberty mile record has stood at 4:38.52 since Coach Heather (Sagan) Zealand posted that time to win the 2002 NCAA national title. The ASUN record (4:39.39) was set by ETSU’s Heidi Dahl in 2009. Anna Shields owns the Liberty Indoor Track Complex standard at 4:44.96.
Atop the ASUN
Two weeks before the 2022 ASUN Indoor Track & Field Championships, Liberty ranks No. 1 in the ASUN Conference in the following events.
Women’s 3K – Adelyn Ackley – 9:24.96
Women’s 5K – Calli Doan – 16:12.91
Women’s Pole Vault – Taylen Langin – 13-0.25
Women’s Shot Put – Naomi Mojica – 51-0
Women’s Weight Throw – Naomi Mojica – 62-5.25
Women’s Pentathlon – Meredith Engle – 3,722
Men’s 60 – Diamantae Griffin and Brandon Letts – 6.74
Men’s 200 – Diamantae Griffin – 21.08
Men’s Long Jump – Quinten Clay – 25-0
Men’s High Jump – Kennedy Sauder – 7-1.5
Men’s Pole Vault – Anders Janes – 15-11.25
Men’s Weight Throw – John Hicks – 64-11.5
Men’s Heptathlon – Anthony Bryan – 4,961
Among the Nation’s Elite
At season’s end, the nation’s top 16 performers in each event will qualify to the 2022 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships. The meet is slated for March 11-12 in Birmingham, Ala.
The following Flames currently rank among the top 16 in their respective events.
No. 15 – Kennedy Sauder – Men’s High Jump – 7-1.5
Up Next
Liberty will take next weekend off from competition in preparation for the 2022 ASUN Indoor Track & Field Championships. The meet will take place at the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex, Feb. 25 & 26. The Liberty men’s squad will be seeking its fourth consecutive ASUN title and its 25th straight indoor conference championship overall.
