Liberty University’s track and field teams are set for a demanding schedule this week, with athletes competing at three different meets: the Bryan Clay Invitational in California, the Virginia Challenge in Charlottesville, and the WildCat Invitational in Lynchburg. The competitions will take place from Thursday through Saturday.
This busy period is significant as it marks the start of outdoor campaigns for Liberty’s indoor All-Americans Gilles Ouedraogo and Allie Zealand. Ouedraogo is scheduled to compete in the men’s triple jump at the Virginia Challenge on Saturday, while Zealand will participate in both the women’s 800 meters on Friday and 1,500 meters on Saturday at the Bryan Clay Invitational.
The Flames have seen notable achievements recently. Last week at Azusa Pacific’s Bryan Clay Multis, Patasha Bryan set a program record with a heptathlon score of 5,567 points. Nine men’s distance runners and nine women’s distance runners are set to compete again this week in California. Liberty athletes also broke five program records during the first four weekends of this outdoor season across events such as women’s javelin (Isabella Frattura), women’s heptathlon (Patasha Bryan), men’s long jump (Markus White), men’s javelin (Ben Shughart), and women’s 400 meters (Mahogany Mobley).
In addition to individual performances, several Liberty athletes currently lead Conference USA rankings in their respective events ahead of next month’s CUSA Outdoor Track & Field Championships scheduled for May 14-16. Notable leaders include Bethany Tate in women’s shot put, Michael Long in men’s 800 meters, Dale Hall in men’s steeplechase, Jack Cottrell in men’s 5K, Trevor Veenstra in men’s shot put, Christian Hicks in men’s discus throw, Ben Shughart in men’s javelin throw, Markus White in men’s long jump, Gabriel Willis in decathlon and Patasha Bryan again leading women’s heptathlon.
Looking ahead to national competition opportunities later this spring and summer—such as NCAA Division I East First Rounds hosted by University of Kentucky May 27-30—several Flames appear poised to qualify based on current results. In multi-events like heptathlon and decathlon where only top-24 nationally advance directly to NCAA Championships June 10-13 at Eugene’s Hayward Field; both Patasha Bryan (No.17) and Gabriel Willis (No.19) currently hold qualifying positions.
After this weekend’s slate concludes Liberty plans its return to Penn Relays April 23-25 followed by participation at Charlotte Invitational April 24-25.
