Brendan Pitcher is entered in the men's 1,000 on Friday.
Liberty Set to Kick Off 2023-24 Indoor Track & Field Season
11/29/2023 10:15:00 AM | Track and Field
LYNCHBURG, Va. – Liberty will get its 2023-24 indoor track & field season started in two different locations this week. Most of the team will take part in the Liberty Kickoff, Thursday and Friday at the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex. Meanwhile, women's distance aces Calli Doan and Adelyn Fairley will trek to Boston for Saturday's Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener.
Combined events will begin the Liberty Kickoff each day, including the heptathlon 60 on Thursday at 1 p.m. and the pentathlon 60 hurdles on Friday at 9 a.m. The meet will include athletes from 21 different colleges and universities.
Both Doan and Fairley are entered in the women's 5K in Boston, with the first heat scheduled for 4:25 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
How to Follow the Flames and Lady Flames
Admission is free of charge for the Liberty Kickoff.
Live 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. Tolsma will be doing a book signing for the 2nd edition of his book, The Surrendered Christian Athlete, Friday from 2-5 p.m.
The facility, which includes permanent seating for approximately 1,500 spectators, also boasts ample space for athletes. Competitors are availed a sizable 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 eighth year of competition at the facility.
The Flames will host five college meets this season, also including the fourth annual Brant Tolsma Invitational (Jan. 18-20), Liberty Open (Feb. 3), 10th annual Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational (Feb. 9-10) and the Conference USA Indoor Track & Field Championships (Feb. 23-24).
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).
Champions Coming Back
As Liberty enters its first season as a Conference USA member, the Flames' roster includes 10 athletes who won ASUN Conference indoor event titles in 2023.
The Flames' returning conference champions include Omari Lewis (60), Brendan Pitcher (800), Prosper Ekporere (60 hurdles), Joshua Smith (triple jump) and Anthony Bryan (heptathlon).
The Lady Flames who are back after capturing ASUN titles a year ago are Calli Doan (3K and 5K), Makenzy Mizera (triple jump), Megan Mann (shot put), Paola Bueno (weight throw) and Meredith Engle (pentathlon).
The Liberty Kickoff will see Smith, Bryan, Mann and Bueno compete in those same events with Pitcher stepping up to the 1,000-meter distance.
Meanwhile, Doan will race the 5K in Boston.
Fresh Faces
A number of talented athletes are expected to make their Liberty track & field debuts at the Liberty Kickoff. The following are some events to keep an eye on in order to check them out:
Women's 1,000 – Katelyn Locker will run her first race as a Lady Flame after transferring from Monmouth. Competing unattached in 2023, Locker posted times of 2:07.34 (800), 2:55.02 (1,000), 4:25.91 (1,500) and 4:49.23 (mile).
Women's 3K – Ava Gordon will make her collegiate track debut after being named 2022 ASUN Freshman of the Year on the cross country course. She clocked a two-mile time of 10:19.58 while competing for Loudoun Valley High School.
Women's Pole Vault – Katie Urbine ranked among the nation's top high school pole vaulters a year ago as a senior at Solanco High School. She swept the 2023 Pennsylvania indoor and outdoor state titles, winning the latter in a meet-record 13-9.
Men's Shot Put – Freshman Jordae Edwards was the 2022 adidas Outdoor Nationals shot put champion and was a three-time Virginia 6A shot put titlist. The Grassfield High School graduate owns a personal best of 63-0.5 with the high school shot.
Chasing History
Calli Doan and Adelyn Fairley will join NCAA women's cross country national champion Parker Valby of Florida and an impressive list of collegiate and professional distance runners in Boston on Saturday.
The Boston University Track & Tennis Center has been known to produce fast distance times. Most recently, Tristian Merchant clocked an ASUN Conference-record 5K time of 14:00.86 at this same meet a year ago.
Ednah Kurgat owns the Liberty indoor women's 5K mark at 15:47.89 from Feb. 12, 2016 in Seattle. Doan (15:51.38 in 2023) and Fairley (15:54.98 in 2022) are the only other two Lady Flames ever to break 16:00, but neither has done so indoors.
Doan will be racing for the first time since June 10, when she placed 11th in the NCAA Division I women's steeplechase final to earn second team All-America honors.
Last year, it took a time of 15:42.48 or faster to qualify for the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships in the women's 5K. Eleven of the 16 women who ran the 5K at the NCAA national meet posted their qualifying times at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener.
Up Next
Liberty will split up between a pair of meets when the team returns to campus for the spring semester. A number of Flames and Lady Flames will compete in the Virginia Tech Invitational, Jan. 12-13 in Blacksburg, Va. Others will stay home for The Burg Open, a meet the University of Lynchburg is hosting at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex on Jan. 12.
Combined events will begin the Liberty Kickoff each day, including the heptathlon 60 on Thursday at 1 p.m. and the pentathlon 60 hurdles on Friday at 9 a.m. The meet will include athletes from 21 different colleges and universities.
Both Doan and Fairley are entered in the women's 5K in Boston, with the first heat scheduled for 4:25 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
How to Follow the Flames and Lady Flames
Admission is free of charge for the Liberty Kickoff.
Live 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. Tolsma will be doing a book signing for the 2nd edition of his book, The Surrendered Christian Athlete, Friday from 2-5 p.m.
The facility, which includes permanent seating for approximately 1,500 spectators, also boasts ample space for athletes. Competitors are availed a sizable 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 eighth year of competition at the facility.
The Flames will host five college meets this season, also including the fourth annual Brant Tolsma Invitational (Jan. 18-20), Liberty Open (Feb. 3), 10th annual Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational (Feb. 9-10) and the Conference USA Indoor Track & Field Championships (Feb. 23-24).
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).
Champions Coming Back
As Liberty enters its first season as a Conference USA member, the Flames' roster includes 10 athletes who won ASUN Conference indoor event titles in 2023.
The Flames' returning conference champions include Omari Lewis (60), Brendan Pitcher (800), Prosper Ekporere (60 hurdles), Joshua Smith (triple jump) and Anthony Bryan (heptathlon).
The Lady Flames who are back after capturing ASUN titles a year ago are Calli Doan (3K and 5K), Makenzy Mizera (triple jump), Megan Mann (shot put), Paola Bueno (weight throw) and Meredith Engle (pentathlon).
The Liberty Kickoff will see Smith, Bryan, Mann and Bueno compete in those same events with Pitcher stepping up to the 1,000-meter distance.
Meanwhile, Doan will race the 5K in Boston.
Fresh Faces
A number of talented athletes are expected to make their Liberty track & field debuts at the Liberty Kickoff. The following are some events to keep an eye on in order to check them out:
Women's 1,000 – Katelyn Locker will run her first race as a Lady Flame after transferring from Monmouth. Competing unattached in 2023, Locker posted times of 2:07.34 (800), 2:55.02 (1,000), 4:25.91 (1,500) and 4:49.23 (mile).
Women's 3K – Ava Gordon will make her collegiate track debut after being named 2022 ASUN Freshman of the Year on the cross country course. She clocked a two-mile time of 10:19.58 while competing for Loudoun Valley High School.
Women's Pole Vault – Katie Urbine ranked among the nation's top high school pole vaulters a year ago as a senior at Solanco High School. She swept the 2023 Pennsylvania indoor and outdoor state titles, winning the latter in a meet-record 13-9.
Men's Shot Put – Freshman Jordae Edwards was the 2022 adidas Outdoor Nationals shot put champion and was a three-time Virginia 6A shot put titlist. The Grassfield High School graduate owns a personal best of 63-0.5 with the high school shot.
Chasing History
Calli Doan and Adelyn Fairley will join NCAA women's cross country national champion Parker Valby of Florida and an impressive list of collegiate and professional distance runners in Boston on Saturday.
The Boston University Track & Tennis Center has been known to produce fast distance times. Most recently, Tristian Merchant clocked an ASUN Conference-record 5K time of 14:00.86 at this same meet a year ago.
Ednah Kurgat owns the Liberty indoor women's 5K mark at 15:47.89 from Feb. 12, 2016 in Seattle. Doan (15:51.38 in 2023) and Fairley (15:54.98 in 2022) are the only other two Lady Flames ever to break 16:00, but neither has done so indoors.
Doan will be racing for the first time since June 10, when she placed 11th in the NCAA Division I women's steeplechase final to earn second team All-America honors.
Last year, it took a time of 15:42.48 or faster to qualify for the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships in the women's 5K. Eleven of the 16 women who ran the 5K at the NCAA national meet posted their qualifying times at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener.
Up Next
Liberty will split up between a pair of meets when the team returns to campus for the spring semester. A number of Flames and Lady Flames will compete in the Virginia Tech Invitational, Jan. 12-13 in Blacksburg, Va. Others will stay home for The Burg Open, a meet the University of Lynchburg is hosting at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex on Jan. 12.
Players Mentioned
Decathlon
/ Track and Field
Hammer
/ Track and Field
Distance
/ Track and Field
Throws
/ Track and Field
Hurdles
/ Track and Field
Heptathlon
/ Track and Field
Distance
/ Track and Field
Mid-distance
/ Track and Field
Distance
/ Track and Field
Sprints
/ Track and Field
Throws
/ Track and Field
Distance
/ Track and Field
Jumps
/ Track and Field
Mid-distance
/ Track and Field
Jumps
/ Track and Field
Pole Vault
/ Track and FieldAllie Zealand Talks About The Cross Country & Indoor Track Season
Friday, December 12
Coach Zealand & Ryann Aycock Give An Update On The Cross Country Season
Wednesday, September 17
Emma Unger: Every Step of the Way
Wednesday, May 14
Follow the Leader: Lance Bingham
Tuesday, May 13