Eastern Track
RELEASE FROM WILLIAM & MARY
William and Mary To Suspend Colonial Relays
College Will Not Host Major Track Meet Before 2006
WILLIAMSBURG, VA (January 13, 2004) < The William and Mary Athletics Department and track and field program announced today that the College will not host the Colonial Relays over the next two year period. As one of the East Coast\'s premier collegiate meets, the break is needed to upgrade facilities and financing to allow the meet to be conducted at its current prestigious level.
The hiatus will be used to organize and fund the refurbishment of the track at Zable Stadium and allow the process to be conducted smoothly, without the interruption of scheduling the work around a major meet. The Colonial Relays will resume upon completion of the project.
Director of Track and Field Dan Stimson explained, \""The stature of this meet is such that we don\'t want to host the event on a sub-par surface. The break will allow us to make the needed improvements. Hosting a meet of this magnitude produces a tremendous amount of wear and to run it on the current surface would significantly hinder our ability to utilize the surface for daily practice."
William and Mary Athletics Director Terry Driscoll added, "Over the past forty years the Colonial Relays has been an important event for our athletic program and for both college and high school track programs in our region. Our goal is to reinstate the event as soon as we feel we can provide the venue and support structure we all expect for this level of competition. This interim break in hosting the Relays allows us flexibility in our evaluation, planning and implementation process."
The Colonial Relays, first run in 1963, has evolved over four decades into one of the premier showcases of track and field talent in the East. The meet, which first included a dozen area college and high school teams, now annually attracts over 3,000 athletes from the finest college and high school track and field programs from the East Coast, boasting an elite field which has averaged one Olympian per year.