Thursday, January 23
Lynchburg, Va.
11:00 AM ET
Liberty University
vs
Brant Tolsma Invitational
Brant Tolsma is flanked by Heather Zealand (left) and Lance Bingham (right)
5th Annual Brant Tolsma Invitational to Begin Thursday
1/21/2025 7:19:00 PM | Track and Field
LYNCHBURG, Va. – Liberty returns home this week for the fifth annual Brant Tolsma Invitational. The Flames and Lady Flames will welcome athletes from 33 colleges and universities to the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex for a three-day competition (Thursday through Saturday).
Appropriately for a meet named for Tolsma, both Thursday (pentathlon 60 hurdles at 11 a.m.) and Friday's (heptathlon 60 hurdles at 11:15 a.m.) events will begin with multi events. Four different events are slated to get Saturday's action started at 11 a.m., including the women's high jump, women's shot put, men's triple jump and women's 60 hurdles prelims.
How to Follow the Flames and Lady Flames
Admission is free of charge for the Brant Tolsma Invitational.
Live results will be available, courtesy of Blue Ridge Timing.
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 was officially dedicated as the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track during the 2022 Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational.
The inaugural Brant Tolsma Invitational took place on Feb. 5 & 6, 2021 during the first season of competition following Tolsma's retirement.
Tolsma will be on hand for all three days of this year's Brant Tolsma Invitational. He will have copies of his book, The Surrendered Christian Athlete, available for purchase and autograph on Friday from 4-6 p.m. and on Saturday from 2-4 p.m.
A New Look for Year 9
The Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex, which opened its doors in January 2017, is in the midst of its ninth season of competition. During the offseason, a new track surface and tuned runways were installed at the facility.
The Brant Tolsma Invitational will mark the second of five college meets the Flames host this season, also including the Liberty Open (Feb. 7-8), 11th annual Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational (Feb. 14-15) and CUSA Indoor Track & Field Championships (Feb. 28-March 1).
Fantastic Freshmen
Freshmen have provided some of Liberty's top performances during the early portion of the 2024-25 indoor season. Four different rookies have combined to set five Liberty freshman records this season. They include the following:
Allie Zealand – Women's 1,000 (2:45.63) and 3K (9:07.33)
Todd Benhase – Men's Pole Vault (16-5.5)
Kellen Kimes – Men's Weight Throw (62-5)
Elijah Sherard – Men's 400 (48.53)
Benhase (2:45 p.m.) and Sherard (2 p.m.) will each attempt to improve their records Saturday afternoon, while Zealand and Kimes are expected take the weekend off from competition.
Don't Blink or You'll Miss Them!
Defending CUSA men's and women's 60 dash champions Omari Lewis and Reese Webster are anticipated to make their 2024-25 season debuts this week. Lewis is entered in both the men's 60 (Saturday – 1:50 p.m.) and 200 (Friday – 5 p.m.), while Webster will take on the women's 60 (Saturday – 1:55 p.m.)
Both Lewis (men's 60 – meet-record 6.73) and Webster (women's 200 – then program-record 23.93) won events at last year's Brant Tolsma Invitational. In fact, Lewis has claimed back-to-back Brant Tolsma Invite men's 60 titles in 2023 and 2024, doing so in meet-record fashion each time.
Conference USA Contenders
Liberty's second season as a Conference USA member will culminate with the 2025 CUSA Indoor Track & Field Championships, Feb. 28-March 1 at the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex. Through the early stages of the season, Liberty ranks No. 1 in the following events:
Women's 3K – Allie Zealand – 9:07.33
Women's 5K – Adelyn Fairley – 15:58.74
Pentathlon – Meredith Engle – 3,989
Heptathlon – Gabriel Willis – 4,977
Among the Nation's Elite
At season's end, the nation's top 16 performers in each event will qualify to the 2025 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships. The meet is scheduled for March 14-15 in Virginia Beach, Va.
The following Flames currently rank among the top 16 in their respective events:
No. 3 – Meredith Engle – Pentathlon – 3,989
No. 12 – Patasha Bryan – Pentathlon – 3,762
No. 15 – Allie Zealand – Women's 3K – 9:07.33
Up Next
Liberty split its team between a pair of high-level road meets next weekend as the calendar flips from January into February. A group of sprinters and hurdlers will head to Clemson, S.C., for the Bob Pollock Invitational, while the remainder of the team will take part in the Penn State National Open in University Park, Pa.
Both meets are slated for Jan. 31 & Feb. 1. The Bob Pollock Invitational will be televised on ACC Network Extra, while the Penn State National Open is set to air on Big Ten Plus.
Appropriately for a meet named for Tolsma, both Thursday (pentathlon 60 hurdles at 11 a.m.) and Friday's (heptathlon 60 hurdles at 11:15 a.m.) events will begin with multi events. Four different events are slated to get Saturday's action started at 11 a.m., including the women's high jump, women's shot put, men's triple jump and women's 60 hurdles prelims.
How to Follow the Flames and Lady Flames
Admission is free of charge for the Brant Tolsma Invitational.
Live results will be available, courtesy of Blue Ridge Timing.
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 was officially dedicated as the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track during the 2022 Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational.
The inaugural Brant Tolsma Invitational took place on Feb. 5 & 6, 2021 during the first season of competition following Tolsma's retirement.
Tolsma will be on hand for all three days of this year's Brant Tolsma Invitational. He will have copies of his book, The Surrendered Christian Athlete, available for purchase and autograph on Friday from 4-6 p.m. and on Saturday from 2-4 p.m.
A New Look for Year 9
The Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex, which opened its doors in January 2017, is in the midst of its ninth season of competition. During the offseason, a new track surface and tuned runways were installed at the facility.
The Brant Tolsma Invitational will mark the second of five college meets the Flames host this season, also including the Liberty Open (Feb. 7-8), 11th annual Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational (Feb. 14-15) and CUSA Indoor Track & Field Championships (Feb. 28-March 1).
Fantastic Freshmen
Freshmen have provided some of Liberty's top performances during the early portion of the 2024-25 indoor season. Four different rookies have combined to set five Liberty freshman records this season. They include the following:
Allie Zealand – Women's 1,000 (2:45.63) and 3K (9:07.33)
Todd Benhase – Men's Pole Vault (16-5.5)
Kellen Kimes – Men's Weight Throw (62-5)
Elijah Sherard – Men's 400 (48.53)
Benhase (2:45 p.m.) and Sherard (2 p.m.) will each attempt to improve their records Saturday afternoon, while Zealand and Kimes are expected take the weekend off from competition.
Don't Blink or You'll Miss Them!
Defending CUSA men's and women's 60 dash champions Omari Lewis and Reese Webster are anticipated to make their 2024-25 season debuts this week. Lewis is entered in both the men's 60 (Saturday – 1:50 p.m.) and 200 (Friday – 5 p.m.), while Webster will take on the women's 60 (Saturday – 1:55 p.m.)
Both Lewis (men's 60 – meet-record 6.73) and Webster (women's 200 – then program-record 23.93) won events at last year's Brant Tolsma Invitational. In fact, Lewis has claimed back-to-back Brant Tolsma Invite men's 60 titles in 2023 and 2024, doing so in meet-record fashion each time.
Conference USA Contenders
Liberty's second season as a Conference USA member will culminate with the 2025 CUSA Indoor Track & Field Championships, Feb. 28-March 1 at the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex. Through the early stages of the season, Liberty ranks No. 1 in the following events:
Women's 3K – Allie Zealand – 9:07.33
Women's 5K – Adelyn Fairley – 15:58.74
Pentathlon – Meredith Engle – 3,989
Heptathlon – Gabriel Willis – 4,977
Among the Nation's Elite
At season's end, the nation's top 16 performers in each event will qualify to the 2025 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships. The meet is scheduled for March 14-15 in Virginia Beach, Va.
The following Flames currently rank among the top 16 in their respective events:
No. 3 – Meredith Engle – Pentathlon – 3,989
No. 12 – Patasha Bryan – Pentathlon – 3,762
No. 15 – Allie Zealand – Women's 3K – 9:07.33
Up Next
Liberty split its team between a pair of high-level road meets next weekend as the calendar flips from January into February. A group of sprinters and hurdlers will head to Clemson, S.C., for the Bob Pollock Invitational, while the remainder of the team will take part in the Penn State National Open in University Park, Pa.
Both meets are slated for Jan. 31 & Feb. 1. The Bob Pollock Invitational will be televised on ACC Network Extra, while the Penn State National Open is set to air on Big Ten Plus.
Players Mentioned
Pole Vault
/ Track and Field
Heptathlon
/ Track and Field
Heptathlon
/ Track and Field
Distance
/ Track and Field
Throws
/ Track and Field
Sprints
/ Track and Field
Sprints
/ Track and Field
Sprints
/ Track and Field
Decathlon
/ Track and Field
Distance
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