Getting to Know: Track and Field's Mary Grace Lemon

Women's Track and Field 3/21/2013 12:24:00 PM VMIKeydets.com

Track and Field to Open Outdoor Season at W&L

VMI track and field returns to action, and opens its outdoor season, Friday in Lexington, competing at Washington & Lee's two-day W&L Carnival. Admission is free for both days at Wilson Field, with action Friday set to begin at 9 a.m. and Saturday's events scheduled for a 8 a.m. start.

Weather Forecast

Athletes and fans will have to contend with cold weather early on both days, with Weather.com calling for lows of 29 (Friday) and 36 (Saturday). Saturday's high, however, will reach a very pleasant 56 degrees with minimal wind.

How to Follow

Unfortunately, no live results will be available for the W&L Carnival.

Another Note

Fans should note the sizes of the scheduled fields for some of the events. For example, 87 runners are entered in the men's 5K and 90 are on the entry list for the women's 800. The current schedule calls for the fastest heats to run first, and fans are also reminded that the schedule may roll ahead.

Six Events to Watch

Women's Discus: Mary Grace Lemon starts her junior outdoor season as the top seeded thrower in her best event, the discus. The Keydets, in fact, hold down the top three seeds, with Renee Reives closely trailing Lemon and Logan Edwards ranked third. Amanda Theall of Shenandoah, the ODAC weight throw champion indoors, will try to break up the Keydet triumvirate.

Men's Decathlon: With Antonio Wood not competing, Quincy Murphy will be the top VMI hope in the multi event. Murphy is seeded third on the performance list, ranking behind Gustavo Osorio of George Mason, who was eighth at last year's outdoor IC4A Championships, and Dillon Myers of W&L, who placed 11th at the 2012 D-III Outdoor Championships.

Men's 5,000-Meters: The Keydets could dominate this event, with Andrey Dmitriev, Cabell Willis and Hartnel Paultre all holding times that would seem to put them in a position to do so - But the race could develop into a battle between that trio and Marietta's Caleb Muller. Muller comes off an astounding indoor year that saw him win the Ohio Athletic Conference titles in the mile, 3K and 5K.

Women's 800: Coming off her first career individual Big South title at the indoor conference championships, as well as a scoring performance at the ECAC meet, Jenna Moye is the top seed in both the women's 800 and 1500. This is the more intriguing race of the two, however, as Kelsey Newcomb is ranked second on the performance list, setting up a potential battle between the current school record holder (Newcomb) and the former record holder (Moye) to start the outdoor season. Rachel Carr of Elizabethtown, second at the Middle Atlantic Indoor Championships, is among those hoping to defeat the two Keydets.

Women's 1,500: The Keydets are poised to do very well in this event, with Moye's seed time being the best by nearly 10 seconds over #2 Leah Schubel. Moye's seed time of 4:34, in fact, is more than five second under the meet record of 4:39.35. Michelle Church (eighth) and Hannah Dickinson (10th) are also entered.

Men's 1,500: Four VMI Keydets, led by Jason Thorpe (third), are in the top 12 on the performance list for the 1,500. Jacob Lysher is among the other three, coming off a Big South 800 title, and is entered in that event as well. Avery Martin will join him in both, while Booth Hornsby will compete in the 1,500. They will be facing a field that includes Connor Rose (sixth at D-III Indoor Championships in the mile) and Jeff Marvel, who was part of the D-III runner-up DMR squad at the D-III Champs. Both Rose and Marvel compete for Tufts.

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