Virginia Announces 2016-17 Track and Field Schedule
Nov. 8, 2016
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.-Virginia director of track and field/cross country Bryan Fetzer announced the Cavaliers’ 2016-17 indoor and outdoor track and field schedule Tuesday (Nov. 8).
The Cavaliers’ schedule includes 10 indoor meets and nine outdoor meets. Six of the meets will take place in Virginia, including three in Charlottesville at Lannigan Field.
“We are always trying to provide our student-athletes with the most ideal opportunities for success in competition,” Fetzer said. “We travel with a purpose, not just to travel.
“We are also very fortunate to have the ability to spend a majority of the season in our home state. This provides our fans and families the chance to see us compete regularly. It also lessens the missed class time for our student-athletes.”
Indoor Season
The Cavaliers will open the season at the Virginia Tech Invitational Jan. 13-14 in Blacksburg, which beginas a stretch where UVA will compete every weekend until the ACC Championships Feb. 23-25 in Notre Dame, Ind. Other meets on the slate include the Notre Dame Invitational (Jan. 21) in Notre Dame, Ind., the Dixon Memorial Invitational (Jan. 28) and Liberty Elite Invitational (Feb. 10-11) in Lynchburg, Va. and the Crimson Elite Meet (Feb. 3) and Scarlett & Gray Meet (Feb. 4) in Boston.
The NCAA Championships will be held in College Station, Texas, March 10-11. At the 2016 national indoor meet, Henry Wynne captured the NCAA title in the men’s mile and the Cavalier men posted their highest NCAA indoor finish, tying for eighth place.
Outdoor Season
Virginia will open the outdoor season with split squads at two different meets. The distance runners will compete at the Raleigh Relays March 24 in Raleigh, N.C., while the rest of the team will open up at the Miami Alumni Invitational in Coral Gables, Fla. UVA’s throwers will compete at the Texas Relays March 30-April 1 in Austin, Texas.
The Cavaliers will then host three meets in a row at Lannigan Field. Columbia, Maryland and Penn compete at UVA on April 8. The Virginia Challenge will be held April 21-22, while the Cavaliers will close out the home schedule with the Virginia Grand Prix on April 29.
“We love to have the opportunity to compete at home,” Fetzer said. “We feel it is a huge advantage for us as the crowds at Lannigan are fantastic. Baseball has home series each of our home-meet weekends, so we expect large and energetic crowds.”
The meet with Columbia, Maryland and Penn will be scored as dual meets between the competing schools. The Virginia Grand Prix will be a small, but highly competitive meet and feature select events. There will be a heavy ACC presence at the meet with Duke, NC State, North Carolina and Virginia Tech scheduled to compete.
The sixth annual Virginia Challenge will once again include an elite field with schools around the country attending, including Georgia, Michigan, Michigan State, Ole Miss, Penn State and West Virginia. Last year’s Challenge featured over 1,200 athletes, including 81 All-Americans that had captured 16 NCAA individual titles. A total of 31 school records were broken amongst the 61 schools that had at least one competitor at the meet. There will also be an alumni event in conjunction with the meet on Friday evening.
“The Virginia Challenge has created a national buzz about it,” Fetzer said. “It has developed into one of the nation’s premier competitions over the last five years. We work diligently to make it an environment that is special for all that compete. It is a great way to showcase the University and Charlottesville.”
The ACC Outdoor Championships will be hosted by Georgia Tech Mary 12-14 in Atlanta, while Kentucky will host the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds May 25-27 in Lexington, Ky. The NCAA Outdoor Championships will be held in Eugene, Ore., June 7-10. At last year’s NCAA Championships Filip Mihaljevic won the shot put, becoming UVA’s first NCAA field event champion. The Cavalier men placed seventh in 2016, the program’s highest NCAA outdoor finish.