Thursday, December 5
Lynchburg, Va.
9:30 AM ET
Liberty University
vs
Liberty Kickoff
All-American Katie Urbine is slated to pole vault Friday afternoon.
Liberty to Kick Off 2024-25 Indoor Season in 2 Places
12/3/2024 8:40:00 PM | Track and Field
LYNCHBURG, Va. – Liberty will begin its 2024-25 indoor track & field season in two different locations this week. Most of the Flames and Lady Flames will take part in the Liberty Kickoff, Thursday and Friday at the newly renovated Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex. Meanwhile, four of Liberty's top women's distance runners will race in Boston at Saturday's Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener.
Group B of the pentathlon will get the Liberty Kickoff started with the 60 hurdles, Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Meanwhile, Group B of the heptathlon will begin Friday's action with the 60 hurdles at 9 a.m.
At the Boston University Track & Tennis Center, Ava Gordon and Allie Zealand will race the women's 3K with the first heat set for Saturday at 2:05 p.m. The duo of Adelyn Fairley and Isabela Ross will follow in the women's 5K, which is slated to begin at 4:10.
How to Follow the Flames and Lady Flames
Admission is free of charge for both days of 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.
A New Look for Year 9
The Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex, which opened its doors in January 2017, will open its ninth season of competition this week. During the offseason, a new track surface and tuned runways were installed at the facility.
The Liberty Kickoff will mark the first of five college meets the Flames host this season, also including the fifth annual Brant Tolsma Invitational (Jan. 23-25), Liberty Open (Feb. 7-8), 11th annual Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational (Feb. 14-15) and CUSA Indoor Track & Field Championships (Feb. 28-March 1).
Multitude of Multis
As usual at this meet, multi-event athlete entries are numerous. The Liberty Kickoff will feature 34 pentathletes and 33 heptathletes, with both events broken up into two sections.
Liberty hopes for a strong showing in the pentathlon especially, returning the champions of both of last year's Liberty Kickoff sections (Patasha Bryan and Paige Greenhagel). They will be joined in Group A by teammate Meredith Engle, the 2022 and 2023 ASUN pentathlon champion.
All-Americans in Action
Paola Bueno and Katie Urbine, Liberty's two returning All-Americans from the 2024 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, are both entered in the Liberty Kickoff.
Bueno, a women's hammer All-American, will look to defend her Liberty Kickoff weight throw crown on Thursday at 5 p.m.
Urbine, who earned women's pole vault All-America honors as a freshman in June, will compete as part of one of the meet's strongest fields, Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. Urbine is one of five 14-foot vaulters on the entry list, joining Duke's Paige Sommers, Virginia's Samantha Romano and the High Point duo of Sydney Horn and Rachel Vesper.
Fresh Faces
Liberty fans will get their first look at some talented newcomers during the Liberty Kickoff.
These include transfers Jasmine Claunch and Stephanie Robson in the women's triple jump, freshmen Tabby DeJong and Bethany Tate in the women's shot put and weight throw, freshman Todd Benhase in the men's pole vault and freshman Trevor Veenstra in the men's shot put and weight throw.
Keep an Eye on the Clock
A bevy of talented collegiate and professional distance runners will descend upon Boston on Saturday at a Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener meet which annually produces record-breaking and national-qualifying clockings.
Fairley will race two weeks after placing 77th at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. A year ago at this same meet, Fairley clocked an indoor personal-best 16:17.62 5K. This time around, she could chase Ednah Kurgat's program record of 15:47.89 from 2016.
Following an impressive freshman cross country season which included a third-place CUSA finish, Zealand will make her much anticipated collegiate track debut on Saturday. She will be part of a women's 3K heat which is aiming for 9:00 pace.
As a result, the Liberty record book will be on watch. Marie Hostetler ran a Liberty freshman-record 9:41.80 3K in 2021. Calli Doan owns the 3K program record at 9:24.67 from the 2023 ASUN Championship.
Now an assistant on Liberty's coaching staff, Doan will also race in Boston on Saturday. She is entered in the women's 5K.
Up Next
After this week, Liberty will not return to action until the calendar flips to 2025. A number of Flames will compete in The Burg Open on Jan. 10. Hosted by the University of Lynchburg, the meet will take place at the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex.
Group B of the pentathlon will get the Liberty Kickoff started with the 60 hurdles, Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Meanwhile, Group B of the heptathlon will begin Friday's action with the 60 hurdles at 9 a.m.
At the Boston University Track & Tennis Center, Ava Gordon and Allie Zealand will race the women's 3K with the first heat set for Saturday at 2:05 p.m. The duo of Adelyn Fairley and Isabela Ross will follow in the women's 5K, which is slated to begin at 4:10.
How to Follow the Flames and Lady Flames
Admission is free of charge for both days of 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.
A New Look for Year 9
The Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex, which opened its doors in January 2017, will open its ninth season of competition this week. During the offseason, a new track surface and tuned runways were installed at the facility.
The Liberty Kickoff will mark the first of five college meets the Flames host this season, also including the fifth annual Brant Tolsma Invitational (Jan. 23-25), Liberty Open (Feb. 7-8), 11th annual Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational (Feb. 14-15) and CUSA Indoor Track & Field Championships (Feb. 28-March 1).
Multitude of Multis
As usual at this meet, multi-event athlete entries are numerous. The Liberty Kickoff will feature 34 pentathletes and 33 heptathletes, with both events broken up into two sections.
Liberty hopes for a strong showing in the pentathlon especially, returning the champions of both of last year's Liberty Kickoff sections (Patasha Bryan and Paige Greenhagel). They will be joined in Group A by teammate Meredith Engle, the 2022 and 2023 ASUN pentathlon champion.
All-Americans in Action
Paola Bueno and Katie Urbine, Liberty's two returning All-Americans from the 2024 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, are both entered in the Liberty Kickoff.
Bueno, a women's hammer All-American, will look to defend her Liberty Kickoff weight throw crown on Thursday at 5 p.m.
Urbine, who earned women's pole vault All-America honors as a freshman in June, will compete as part of one of the meet's strongest fields, Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. Urbine is one of five 14-foot vaulters on the entry list, joining Duke's Paige Sommers, Virginia's Samantha Romano and the High Point duo of Sydney Horn and Rachel Vesper.
Fresh Faces
Liberty fans will get their first look at some talented newcomers during the Liberty Kickoff.
These include transfers Jasmine Claunch and Stephanie Robson in the women's triple jump, freshmen Tabby DeJong and Bethany Tate in the women's shot put and weight throw, freshman Todd Benhase in the men's pole vault and freshman Trevor Veenstra in the men's shot put and weight throw.
Keep an Eye on the Clock
A bevy of talented collegiate and professional distance runners will descend upon Boston on Saturday at a Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener meet which annually produces record-breaking and national-qualifying clockings.
Fairley will race two weeks after placing 77th at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. A year ago at this same meet, Fairley clocked an indoor personal-best 16:17.62 5K. This time around, she could chase Ednah Kurgat's program record of 15:47.89 from 2016.
Following an impressive freshman cross country season which included a third-place CUSA finish, Zealand will make her much anticipated collegiate track debut on Saturday. She will be part of a women's 3K heat which is aiming for 9:00 pace.
As a result, the Liberty record book will be on watch. Marie Hostetler ran a Liberty freshman-record 9:41.80 3K in 2021. Calli Doan owns the 3K program record at 9:24.67 from the 2023 ASUN Championship.
Now an assistant on Liberty's coaching staff, Doan will also race in Boston on Saturday. She is entered in the women's 5K.
Up Next
After this week, Liberty will not return to action until the calendar flips to 2025. A number of Flames will compete in The Burg Open on Jan. 10. Hosted by the University of Lynchburg, the meet will take place at the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex.
Players Mentioned
Pole Vault
/ Track and Field
Heptathlon
/ Track and Field
Hammer
/ Track and Field
Jumps
/ Track and Field
Throws
/ Track and Field
Heptathlon
/ Track and Field
Distance
/ Track and Field
Distance
/ Track and Field
Heptathlon
/ Track and Field
Mid-distance
/ Track and Field
Jumps
/ Track and Field
Distance
/ Track and Field
Throws
/ Track and Field
Pole Vault
/ Track and Field
Throws
/ Track and Field
Distance
/ 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