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Dec. 11, 2014

Complete 2015 Schedule

CHARLOTTESVILLE – The Virginia men’s and women’s track and field teams announced their 2015 indoor and outdoor meet schedules Thursday. The Cavaliers’ schedule is highlighted by three home outdoor meets at Lannigan Field.

“Our staff is very excited about our schedule,” said head coach Bryan Fetzer. “As we strive to be a great program, we need to compete against the nation’s best. To pursue greatness, we have to allow our athletes the opportunity to go head-to-head with the best in the NCAA and this schedule does that. In terms of age, we have a young program, but that cannot be an excuse for a lack of competitiveness. We need to be challenged and this schedule will do that.”

The outdoor schedule includes three home meets at Lannigan Field, the Virginia Cup on Mar. 21, the Virginia Challenge on Apr. 17-18 and the Virginia Grand Prix on May 8.

The indoor season begins January 16-17 with the Virginia Tech Invitational. The following week, the Cavaliers travel to Kentucky for the Rod McCravy Meet, which features an elite field including USC, Oregon, Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, Florida and Florida State. Virginia Tech will host the ACC Indoor Championships this year, from Feb. 26-28. Two weeks later, the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships will be hosted by the University of Arkansas, Mar. 13-14.

The first home meet of the year, the Virginia Cup, is the Cavaliers’ outdoor debut. For the second consecutive year it features five schools from around the Commonwealth, with James Madison (women), Liberty, Norfolk State and Radford (women) joining Virginia at the meet.

“This meet has become our opener each year,” said Fetzer. “The Cup is a head-to-head team-scored competition between schools of the Commonwealth. It is an overall great competition.”

On April 4, the Cavaliers will travel west for the third-annual tri-meet with Cal and Michigan, held this year in Berkeley. The meet pits the top public universities in the nation against each other.

“It is developing into a great rivalry among the schools that are of like academic backgrounds,” said Fetzer. “It is a true student-athlete competition.”

The Virginia Challenge moves from May to April this year, being held Apr. 17-18, and will once again feature an elite field. The meet will begin Friday with a shot put invitational to be held at the McIntire Amphitheatre in the middle of Grounds. Friday night will feature a main event with 2.5 hours of competition mixed with a concert. The first day of the meet also includes the start of the heptathlon and decathlon competitions. Saturday’s action will be a three-hour distance and field event carnival from 7-10 p.m., featuring a DJ, with the Master Mile prepared by Ragged Mountain Racing and distance events including a 4x400m relay, 1500m, 5000m and 10000m.

The field for the Virginia Challenge includes the 2014 NCAA Women’s Cross Country Champion Michigan State, ACC rivals North Carolina, NC State, Pitt, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest, regional foes Georgetown, West Virginia and William & Mary, Big Ten schools Michigan and Ohio State, SEC schools Ole Miss and Vanderbilt, strong Northeast programs in Brown, Harvard and Iona and Division II powerhouse St. Augustine’s.

“The Virginia Challenge is a fan-friendly meet that will have high-level competition mixed with great music,” said Fetzer. “This meet is everything you would want in a competition. Every event will be loaded and it is growing into one of the nation’s top events. The crowd is welcome to come trackside and get an up close feel for the events. It will be an experience like you have never had at a track and field meet.”

Following the Virginia Challenge, the Cavaliers will return to the Penn Relays, which run Apr. 23-25 in Philadelphia. The Virginia Grand Prix on May 8 will be the final home meet of the year for the Cavaliers. It will be a short two-hour meet that features 12 events.

Florida State will host this year’s ACC Outdoor Track & Field Championships, May 14-16. The NCAA East Preliminary Round will be May 28-30 in Jacksonville, Fla., with the top performers advancing to the NCAA Championships, held in Eugene, Ore., June 10-13.

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