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ALL-AROUND TEAM EFFORT LEADS RAMS’ DOMINANCE AT COLONIAL INVITE NEWARK, Del. – If this past weekend was any indication of what to expect during the upcoming conference season, the Virginia Commonwealth University men’s track and field team will be among the top teams in the Colonial Athletic Association when the schools meet in late April for the CAA Championships.
VCU, 272 points, posted seven individual titles en route to outscoring Northeastern by 44 points and the Fightin’ Blue Hens by 144 points. “I was really pleased with our effort this past weekend,” Head Coach Julian Spooner said. “Some our top guys, like DeAngelo [Wilson] and Jay [Wyss], took the weekend off and to still come out and perform like we did shows how talented this squad really can be.” Sophomore Antonio Norvell (Portsmouth, Va.) and junior Stephen Mutisya (Machakos, Kenya) (left) both picked up two wins apiece with Norvell winning both the 60-meter and the 200-meter dash, while Mutisya won the 3000-meter and 5000-meter run. “Both Stephen and Antonio have battled injuries this year and to have them each pick up two wins shows just how tough they both are,” Spooner said. The Rams got points from just about every event, including a stellar showing in the distance events, where the Black & Gold posted wins in the 800-meter, mile run, 3000-meter and 5000-meter. Freshman Tyler Simmons (Woodbridge, Va.) continued to show vast improvement with another personal best in the mile run with a time of 4:18.87, just off the winning pace of junior Piotr Dybas (Jaslo, Poland). Simmons picked up his first collegiate win later in the day with a time of 1:57.70 in the 800-meter. “I really thought our distance guys gave us a spark today,” Spooner said. “Tyler Simmons has really been incredible of late. Every week he posts personal bests and this week was no different. He’s best mile time in his school was right around 4:30 and he goes out and nearly wins the event with a 4:18 time.” VCU’s success carried over to the jumping events where sophomore Brian Wallace (Portsmouth, Va.) picked up a win in the triple jump and second place in the long jump for the Rams. Wallace’s leap of 46’ 5 ¼” was tops in the triple jump and he cleared 22’ 8” in the long jump. The Rams will get back to work in two weeks when they make one last ditch effort for the NCAA Indoor Championships at the Virginia Tech Last Chance meet on March 7th.
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The Rams dominated several of their conference foes this past weekend at the first-ever Colonial Invitational, hosted by the University of Delaware. All rights reserved.
