College of William & Mary Men's Track

Hall is in his third season as volunteer pole vault coach for the Tribe in 2016-2017. Hunter began his volunteer coaching career assisting Virginia Tech pole vault guru Bob Phillips as well as serving his athletic tenure under his watch. Hunter credits Bob with his coaching style and knowledge. Bob showed Hunter how much of an impact a volunteer could make on a program, student-athletes, and pole vaulting tradition at a college. Hunter arrived at William & Mary in July of 2014 to serve as a Videographer and Multimedia Producer within the office of University Marketing and Advancement Communications. Hunter previously served as a media specialist for the Virginia Tech Schiffert Health Center. During 2015-16, Hall helped Derek O'Connell become the Tribe's first-ever All-American in the pole vault, as O'Connell finished seventh at the NCAA Indoor Championships.  His winter included the seven-best vaults ever at W&M, including a school-record 5.42m (17-9.25) to earn his first NCAA bid, and he also won the IC4A title for the first time since 1977.  Also during the indoor season, Alex Hedrick finished fourth at the IC4A heptathlon and broke his own school record by more than 100 points, and women's sophomore Jacqueline Meeks cleared 3.70m (12-1.5) to qualify for the ECAC Championships for the first time.  Outdoors, O'Connell became the CAA's first-ever three-time vault champion, leading the Tribe to a sweep of the top-five spots in the event.  O'Connell went on to break his outdoor record with a vault of 5.36m (17-7) to unify the IC4A Championship titles.  Hedrick also had a strong spring, finishing second in the CAA decathlon and fourth in the IC4A with a lifetime-best 6,127 points. In his first season coaching with the Tribe, Hall helped coach five athletes to lifetime personal bests in the pole vault. Senior Lizzie Powell capped off her collegiate career with a 138 clearance indoors, Junior Derek OConnell jumped 174.5 to set a conference record and new personal best. In the same meet, sophomore Lucas Wratschko jumped 163 to secure a silver medal at the conference. Sophomore Alex Hedrick set a personal best clearance during his route to becoming CAA Decathlon Champion with a mark of 1411." A native of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Hall was a five-time All-American (Indoor 2009, Outdoor 2009, Indoor 2011, Outdoor 2011, Outdoor 2012) as well as a two-time ACC Conference champion, once indoors in 2010 and once outdoors in 2012. He achieved a personal best height of 5.42 meters (179.25) and comes from a long line of pole vaulters. (Grandfather, Charlie Hall 136, Uncle Rob Hall 166, Father Randy Hall 182, Brother Hudson Hall 150 currently attending Liberty University.) When he is not holding a camera or sitting in the edit bay, he is at home hanging out with his wife (head women's cross country Natalie) and son, Holden, or out at the track coaching the Tribe pole vaulters.

Arnold hungry for more in 2016-17 as he begins his second year at William & Mary.  Arnold assists with all aspects of the Tribe's nationally-recognized men's and women's teams, with an emphasis on coaching the jumpers and short sprinters. In his first year at W&M, Arnold helped pole vaulter Derek O'Connell reach new heights, with a third-straight CAA Championship outdoors and winning the IC4A titles both indoors and outdoors.  That was also just window-dressing, however, as O'Connell earned first-team All-America honors indoors by placing seventh at the NCAA Championships, a first-ever for a Tribe vaulter.  He also set school records both indoors and outdoors, getting as high as 5.42m (17-9.25) during the winter and 5.36m (17-7) in winning the IC4A outdoors. Other notables included Davion Hutt, who broke W&M's 100m dash record with his run of 10.58 seconds at Duke in mid-April.  That was the first time since 1968 that the team's fastest event had been reset.  Indoors, Hutt also tied his own record in the 60m dash, running 6.81 at the IC4A Championships.  Multi-specialist Alex Hedrick set lifetime-bests both indoors and outdoors, breaking his own school record in the heptathlon to earn All-East honors indoors and during the spring, taking second at the CAA Championships and fourth at IC4As in the decathlon. On the women's side, Arnold helped develop freshman Brianna Miller into the CAA runner-up in the heptathlon, and she also ranked as the Tribe's no.-1 long and triple jumper.  Classmate Grace Becker jumped 1.65m (5-4.25) in the high jump outdoors, and junior Abby Jones soared over a lifetime-best 1.70m (5-7) to take second at the conference meet and qualify for the ECAC Championships for the first time. Arnold came to Williamsburg after spending the previous year at Duke as a volunteer assistant in both the pole vault and the multi-events.  While he was with the Blue Devils, he helped the athletes with their technical development which resulted in three NCAA East Preliminary qualifiers, as well as helping Megan Clark take second in the pole vault at the NCAA Indoor Championships.  Arnold's athletes also won ACC titles in the women's pole vault (indoors and outdoors) and the decathlon, as well as six other place-winners. Before his time at Duke, Arnold was a graduate assistant at the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Ky., while taking graduate classes in education.  He was responsible for the jumps and multi-events, and also helped plan and direct the strength program for the sprinters.  His time at Cumberlands produced two Mid-South conference champions, in the men's pole vault and men's javelin, and a total of eight conference medalists as the men's team won the Mid-South title and the women placed second. While an athlete at the University of Memphis and shortly after graduating, Arnold took coaching internships in Europe.  In the summer of 2012, he learned under former Olympian Aleksandrs Obizajevs in Latvia, focusing on the technical and power development of high-level athletes as well as the psychology of the pole vault.  Later that same summer, he worked with Polish professional coach Wiaczeslaw Kaliniczenko on strength and gymnastics-based training styles and techniques for the pole vault.  Arnold spent two stints, in the summer of 2013 and winter of 2014, learning under German coach Wolfgang Striezel for the speed development and event techniques for intermediate to advanced-level athletes in the multi-events. Arnold graduated from Memphis in 2013 with a degree in liberal studies.  While on the team with the Tigers, he was a multiple-scorer at the Conference USA championships both indoors and outdoors in the pole vault, and qualified for the 2013 NCAA East Preliminaries with a best height of 16-4.

Gutridge begins his sixth year with the Tribe cross country and track and field programs in 2016-17, and has been responsible for a renaissance of the long sprint and middle distance groups.  In addition to helping coach the cross country teams and handle travel arrangements for all teams, Gutridge is also primarily responsible for coaching athletes between the distances of 400m (including hurdles) and 1,000m. Over the last six years, W&M has seen significant progress in both the hurdles and the relays, corresponding to a rise in the team's fortunes at CAA and IC4A/ECAC Championships.  In 2016, Dylan Anderson was the surprise winner in the CAA 400m hurdles, a first for the Tribe men since 2000, and earlier in the year he also became the first hurdler since 1999 to break 15 seconds in the 110m hurdles.  As a freshman in 2015, Anderson also broke W&M's freshman record in the 60m hurdles indoors.  The men's 4x400m relay, which included Troy Sevachko and Jomar Aryee, ran 3:21.87 in 2016, the fastest performance since 2003. On the women's side, in 2015 the Tribe won its first-ever ECAC relay, taking the indoor DMR with a school-record time of 11:38.50.  That's been matched by a chipping-away at the 4x400m records, which saw two of the three fastest times ever at successive CAA Championships in 2015 and 2016.  Individually, Breanna Brukalo and Ashley Woodards have both tied for the school record in the 400m hurdles at 1:01.11, with Woodards adding a CAA title in the event in 2014 and a runner-up finish in 2015.  Claire Tito followed up a spectacular 500m dash indoors in 2014 with consecutive all-conference finishes outdoors at 800m in 2014 and 2015, and Kacey Wheeler has gotten her career off to a strong start, and already ranks as the third-fastest woman in school history in the 400m dash. Before coming to W&M, Gutridge spent three years coaching cross country and track and field and teaching English at Grafton High School in nearby Yorktown, Virginia, leading the Clippers to the VHSL Boys AA State Championship in 2011, the first state title in any boys sport for the school.  Gutridge directly trained the distance, middle-distance, and hurdling athletes, and his charges responding by earning four individual and one relay state title during his tenure.  In 2010, Grafton's distance medley relay ran 10:09.40 to take seventh at the Nike Indoor Nationals, and 10:15.38 that spring to finish fourth at the world-renowned Penn Relays. Gutridge graduated from Virginia in 2007 with a degree in English, and also completed his Masters of Teaching degree that same year from UVA's Curry School of Education.  With the Cavaliers, he ran under former W&M great Jason Dunn '96 and helped UVA to a pair of ACC Championships in cross country and three NCAA Championships appearances.  On the track, Gutridge was a regular on Virginia's ACC meet squad in the distance races, and qualified for the IC4A Championships as well.  Gutridge lives in Williamsburg with his wife, Melissa, and son, Henry.

Solinsky is entering his third year on the William & Mary staff in 2016-17, after helping begin a climb back to the top of the national ranks.  Solinsky works primarily with the distance and middle-distance athletes while also helping with all training and administrative aspects of the Tribe's nationally-competitive program. In his two years with the Green and Gold, Solinsky has helped his runners regain the ranks of NCAA qualifiers and IC4A title-contenders, while retaining supremacy in the CAA.  Ryan Gousse won two-straight conference titles in the 3,000m steeplechase, and ranked 31st in the country in 2016 with his lifetime-best time of 8:47.76.  Faris Sakallah was the CAA Champion at 10,000m as a sophomore in 2015, and came within steps of winning the conference title in cross country last fall.  Freshman Riley Covert ran the team's fastest 5,000m of the year in 2016 and qualified for the USAT&F Junior Championships, where he finished 10th in the nation. In his final conference meet, Nathaniel Hermsmeier swept the 5,000m and 10,000m CAA titles in 2016, leading his teammates to five of the six scoring places in both events.  The middle-distance events saw a breakout campaign in 2016 as well.  Sophomore Dawson Connell, who was runner-up in the CAA 1,500m as a freshman to teammate Kurtis Steck, ran a 4:03.41 mile indoors and went on to third at the IC4A Championships indoors.  He carried that over to the spring, running 3:46.40 and winning the CAA crown, as well as taking second in the 800m at 1:53.  Freshman Ryan McGorty was third in the 1,500m at the conference meet, and ran bests of 1:55 and 3:51 in his first season of collegiate training. Solinsky came to W&M after seven years as a professional athlete in the highest ranks, and with three years of Division I coaching experience.  He served as a volunteer coach at the University of Portland from 2012-14, helping the Pilots men's team to a 12th place finish at the NCAA Championships in 2012 and improving to seventh in 2013.  He also spent one year as a student assistant while finishing his degree at Wisconsin. Solinsky's professional running career was the envy of most, including eight years sponsored by Nike.  He was a member of Team USA at the 2009 World Outdoor Championships, finishing 12th in the 5,000m, and was runner-up in the event at the 2009 U.S. Championships.  In 2010, Solinsky ran 26:59.60 in the 10,000m, breaking the American record by more than 14 seconds and becoming the first man not born in Africa to ever break 27 minutes in the event.  He has also broken major barriers in the 5,000m (12:55.53) and the mile (3:54.1), and ranks second all-time in U.S. history in both the 5,000m and 10,000m. Solinsky ran for the Wisconsin Badgers as an undergraduate, helping the team win the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 2005 and the NCAA Indoor Championships in 2007.  He was a 14-time All-American and a five-time NCAA Champion, winning each of his last three years indoors (2005 and 2006 3,000m; 2007 5,000m) and his last two outdoors (2006 and 2007 5,000m).  Solinsky won four individual Big Ten titles, and helped Wisconsin sweep the Big Ten team championships in every season all four years. He graduated from Wisconsin in 2007, with a degree in history.  Solinsky and his wife, former Badgers pole vaulter Amy Dahlin, live in Williamsburg with their daughter, Ayla, and two dogs.

Heacock '09 was promoted to the post of interim Director of Track & Field and Cross Country for the Tribe in July of 2016. "Tribe Athletics is very fortunate to have a young, talented coach like Alex Heacock already in place on the staff," stated Driscoll.  "Alex has demonstrated outstanding leadership and coaching skills in the short time he has been with us.  It is my belief he will be the ideal person to guide our program through this time of transition.  I am excited about the future of our historically successful cross country and track and field programs." Heacock has been W&M's assistant coach for throws the last two years, helping lead that portion of the program to its highest level in school history.  As a result of his efforts, in 2016 he was named the USTFCCCA Men's Indoor Assistant of the Year for the Southeast Region.  He is the first Tribe alumni to hold the Directorship since John Randolph '64 was the head men's coach from 1968-76 (before there was a varsity women's program), and the fifth overall joining Randolph, Lou Hoitsma '48 (1949-51), J.C. "Scrap" Chandler '24 (1924-41), and Fred Crawford '10 (1909-10). In 2014-15, his athletes won six of the eight throwing titles at the CAA Championships, including a sweep of all four men's throws.  Taylor Frenia set the conference record in the discus and also won the shot, while Brian Waterfield set the conference record in winning the hammer.  The javelin went Derek Trott as a freshman, earning him CAA Rookie of the Year honors, but it was silver-medalist Bob Smutsky who went on to place 15th at the NCAA Championships to earn second-team All-American honors and the title of CAA Athlete of the Year.  Waterfield was also named the CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year.  On the women's side, Leia Mistowski was the freshman champion of the hammer throw, and Katie Johnston won her third-straight javelin title before retiring that summer to concentrate on soccer her senior year, which resulted in All-CAA honors and a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Heacock's athletes continued to impress in 2015-16, with Waterfield putting together the most impressive throwing campaign ever at W&M.  Indoors, he ranked 15th in the world in the weight throw and became the Tribe's first-ever throws qualifier to the NCAA Indoor Championship.  He would go on to finish 11th at the national meet, earning second-team All-America honors.  Outdoors, he repeated as the CAA hammer champion by breaking his own conference record, and also won the IC4A title later in May before bowing in the NCAA Semifinal round.  Waterfield again was named the Scholar-Athlete of the Year, in addition to CoSIDA Third-Team Academic All-America as he earned his Master's of Accounting.  He won the CAA Athlete of the Year award, and was also named the Field Athlete of the Championships for the second time in his career. Other standouts on the year included Frenia, who broke W&M's 40-year-old school record in the shot put indoors before redshirting the outdoor season, and Preston Richardson, who won the CAA title in the discus.  Trott repeated as the CAA javelin champion, and also became W&M's first-ever CAA Representative to the National Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.  On the women's side, Mistowski successfully defended her CAA title in the hammer throw and qualified for the NCAA Semifinals for the first time.  Rochelle Evans took second in both the hammer and the shot as well as third in the discus, in her finest season and the first since missing 2014-15 due to injury.  In total, Heacock's athletes have set school records in both the men's (Waterfield) and women's (Mistowski) weight throw and hammer, as well as Evans holding the women's indoor shot put and Frenia both the indoor and outdoor shot put for men, resetting those marks for the first time since the 1970s. Heacock returned to Williamsburg in 2014 after five years of coaching in Division III.  His last two years he'd been an assistant coach at Christopher Newport University, where he helped lead his Captains to six conference team titles out of eight possible.  Heacock's throwers combined for 12 indoor and 19 outdoor all-conference honors, and 17 new entries in the school's all-time top-10 lists.  Heacock also helped coach the team's multi-athletes, including NCAA decathlon champion Richard Roethel. Before coming to Virginia, Heacock spent three years coaching in the Chicago area.  Right after graduating he spent the 2009-10 season at North Park University, coaching athletes to four school records in just one year.  His athletes included a conference-champion and NCAA All-American in the men's javelin, as well as NCAA provisional qualifiers in the men's discus and the heptathlon.  He also helped in the academic support office, overseeing study halls and the academic progress of the student-athletes. From 2010-12, Heacock was an assistant coach at Benedictine University, and was also the athletics facilities manager his second year.  Heacock's athletes won seven conference titles and two NCAA provisional qualifications, and also earned three NAC Conference Field Athlete of the Championships awards.  While coaching and managing the university's outdoor sports complex, he also founded the Chicagoland Summer Throws Series in 2011, a series of three "throws-only" track and field meets that attracts athletes from high school all the way up to professionals. Heacock was a member of the Tribe track and field teams from 2005-09, and won the CAA javelin title in 2007.  He was also the runner-up in 2008 and third as a freshman.  He qualified for the IC4A Championships in both 2007 and 2008, and was an NCAA East Region qualifier in 2007.  He was the seventh-ranked javelin thrower in school history when he graduated in 2009 with a degree in kinesiology, and still ranks eighth all-time. Heacock is certified as a USATF Level I coach, and was invited to the 2011 Emerging Elites Coaches' Camp at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif.  He is also holds a Throws Coach Certification from the World Athletics Center.  Heacock lives in Williamsburg with his wife, Ashley, and their daughters, Hannah and Sarah.

Hall enters her third season as William & Mary's head women's cross country coach in 2016-17, having already led the team to new heights in her first two years.  Hall also coaches the women's distance runners during the winter and spring track seasons, and serves as the recruiting coordinator for all six of the Tribe's nationally-recognized teams (both men and women). In her first season in 2014-15, Hall's charges won W&M's first-ever NCAA Regional cross country title, scoring 74 points to upset four more highly ranked teams and earn a third-straight bid to the NCAA Championships.  All five scoring runners finished in the top-25, led by senior Carolyn Hennessey's second-place showing.  That earned Hall honors as the USTFCCCA Southeast Regional Coach of the Year.  At the national meet, junior Emily Stites surged to All-American status after missing every race but regionals and NCAAs.  Hennessey took home dual honors as both the CAA individual champion and the Athlete of the Year, while Regan Rome was the Rookie of the Year and Hall won her first CAA Coach of the Year award.  Stites went on to qualify for the NCAA indoor championships at 5,000m, earning second-team All-America honors, and outdoors, she finished third in the NCAA 10,000m championships.  Stites was also named the CAA Athlete of the Year in track and field, and the CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year as well. In 2015-16, Hall's efforts led to the breakout season for Regan Rome, who became the youngest women's athlete in track team history to earn All-American honors in all three seasons.  A surprise finish in the South Central region knocked the Tribe out of the NCAA cross country team championships, but Rome still advanced and finished 25th in the nation for her first All-American honor.  Indoors, she became the first W&M women's runner to ever qualify in the 3,000m after a school-record 9:09.74, and finished 12th overall for second-team All-American.  Outdoors, Rome qualified for the NCAA Championships at 5,000m, and finished seventh with a strong kick to earn first-team All-American honors.  She was named the CAA Athlete of the Year in both track and cross country (sharing the latter award with Stites, who won the CAA individual title in meet-record time) and was also the CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year for cross country.  Hall repeated as the CAA Coach of the Year for women's cross country as well. Hall came to W&M after spending the previous 10 years in Blacksburg at Virginia Tech, first as an All-American athlete and later as an assistant coach.  Her mentorship with the Hokies included helping coach the middle-distance and distance athletes from 2012-14, when VT produced six individual All-Americans and two All-American relays.  In addition to helping develop the team training programs, Hall also helped coordinate travel, equipment, and recruiting. Hall also spent the past four years (2010-14) helping to lead the women's side of Virginia Tech's Athletes in Action (AIA) ministry.  In 2013, she volunteered on a trip to the Togolese Republic with (AIA), serving as co-leader for a team of U.S. coaches conducting track and field clinics in the West African country.   A Virginia Beach native, Hall was an All-American runner and record-setter for the Hokies, competing from 2004 to 2009.  Originally a middle-distance athlete, she ran at every distance up to the 10,000m, setting three school records and still ranking in the all-time top-five in eight events.  In the winter of 2009, Hall finished 10th in the mile at the NCAA Championships to earn All-American accolades, the first in the event for either men or women in school history.  At the ACC Championships, Hall was a four-time champion, winning the 2005 DMR and 2009 5,000m indoors as well as repeating as the 10,000m champion outdoors in 2008 and 2009.  Hall also ranks top-four at 1,000m, the mile, 3,000m, and 5,000m indoors; as well as the 3,000m and 10,000m outdoors.  She earned her undergraduate degree in marketing management in 2008, and a Master's in Health Education and Health Promotion in 2009. Hall and her husband, former All-American pole-vaulter Hunter Hall, moved to Williamsburg in the summer of 2014.  He works in the Office of University of Advancement, in addition to volunteering with coaching the Tribe vaulters.  They welcomed a son, Holden, in the fall of 2015.

Stimson is in his 31st year with the William and Mary track and field programs in 2016-17.  After 25 years as William and Mary's Director of Track and Field, he made the decision in 2011-12 to step down and focus on coaching the Tribe throwers.  During his time in Williamsburg, Stimson's teams have demonstrated success both in the classroom and on the track, and have served as an exemplary model for what collegiate athletics should be all about. In recognition of his years of service, the College honored Coach Stimson in 2007 by naming the new throwing facility in his honor, the Stimson Throwing Events Area. Made possible through a generous donation from Mr. And Mrs. Joe Showker, the facility includes an Olympic throwing cage with circles for the hammer and discus, two shot put circles, and javelin runway.  In 2011, another pre-eminent honor came Stimson's way, as the alumni and friends of Tribe track and field established a scholarship endowment named in his honor. After stepping down as Director, Stimson stayed on as the assistant throws coach for three more years, then retired in 2014 and has remained a volunteer coach for the Tribe ever since.  Since fine-tuning his focus onto the throwing corps, Stimson quickly established W&M as the best program in the conference and one of the very best in the region.  In 2011-12, Brandon Heroux wrapped up his outstanding career with his fourth-straight CAA title, and advanced to the NCAA Championships where he earned his first All-American honor with an eighth-place finish.  Heroux made the choice to compete internationally for Canada, where he finished sixth at the 2012 Olympic Trials, and later in the summer took fourth at the NACAC U-23 Track Championships in Mexico.  Heroux was also named the CAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year for mens track and field, and the overall Mens Scholar-Athlete of the Year.  He graduated having accounted for 18 of the top-20 javelin performances in school history, including his school-record 73.55m (241-4) from the NCAA Championship finals. 2012-13 was another outstanding entry in the Tribe archives, with both throwing programs accounting for numerous records and helping lift the team to a sweep of the CAA Track and Field titles.  The womens throwers won three of the five CAA titles, including gold-medal performances from freshmen Rochelle Evans in the shot put and Katie Johnston in the javelin.  Both rookies broke the Tribe freshman record with their performances, and Johnston would come just three centimeters shy of making the NCAA preliminary field.  Senior Natalie Baird won the hammer throw with a lifetime-best throw of 161-1, and would be named the Field Athlete of the Meet after also finishing second in the discus and seventh in the shot put, for a total of 20 points all by herself. On the mens side, sophomore Brian Waterfield was another winner of Field Athlete of the Meet honors, after he scored 28 points in all four throwing events to help W&M to the upset championship.  Waterfield won the shot put, took second in the discus, third in the javelin, and fourth in the hammer throw, the first three events all with lifetime-bests.  Alongside all-time great Chris Parsons, Waterfield is the only man in school history to rank on the Tribes record lists in all four outdoor throws.  Freshman Taylor Frenia set Tribe freshman records in both the weight throw and the hammer throw, and also qualified for the IC4A Championships in the shot put with a heave of 16.35m (53-7.75) at CNU.  That effort qualified him for the USAT&F Junior Championships in June, where Frenia would finish sixth in the nation. Another rookie who had an astonishing season under Stimsons direction was Bob Smutsky, who won the USAT&F Junior National Championship in the javelin.  Smutskys title-winning throw of 226-8 (69.08m) was just a few inches behind the freshman record set by Heroux, and came on the last throw of the competition.  He went on to place 10th at the Pan-Am Junior Games, representing Team USA for the first time.  Smutsky was also the CAA Champion in the event and the CAA Rookie of the Year, and just missed advancing to the NCAA Championship finals by a few inches.  Smutsky was also the Tribes number one sprinter, breaking the 200m freshman record indoors and qualifying for the IC4A Championships indoors and outdoors in the event. During Stimson's tenure as the Director, the mens and womens programs combined for 25 Colonial Athletic Association titles out of 34 possible since the 2002-03 school year, and garnered numerous CAA Athlete and Rookie of the Year awards.  In total, W&M won 49 CAA championships since Stimson arrived in the summer of 1986, almost half of the Tribe's total of 102 league titles.  In fact, if the cross country and track programs were ranked by themselves along with all the schools in the CAA, they would be tied for third with Old Dominion behind James Madison (64) and the rest of W&M's teams (53). In 2010-11, the men's cross country team won an unprecedented third-straight region title, and qualified to the NCAA Championships for the 14th time in a row.  During the track season, four athletes won CAA titles and nine were named All-East, with Jon Grey going on to make All-American status at the NCAA Championships.  In 25 years, Stimsons teams produced 64 All-Americans and one Olympian while winning 49 CAA team titles out of the 94 possible (52%). Stimson has more than 40 years of experience mentoring collegiate and post-collegiate athletes to national prominence, from his earliest days as a graduate assistant at Tennessee to the present day at William and Mary.  Even more impressive, much of his success has come in introducing brand new events to the athletes, since many states don't sponsor the hammer throw, weight throw, or javelin throw at the high school level. Stimson's coaching career began at the University of Tennessee in 1971-72 where he was the throwing coach for Bill Skinner and Danny Martin (among others).  A post-grad, Skinner ranked third in the world that year in the javelin with a throw of 291 feet.  Martin was a freshman for the Volunteers who had thrown 218 feet in the javelin in high school.  In just one year with Stimson's coaching, Martin improved his range to 231 feet. The next nine years came at Miami (Ohio), where Stimson had his first NCAA qualifier in Rich Elkins.  Elkins had thrown the javelin a modest 195 feet in high school, which he improved to 249 feet by 1981.  Geoff Lawrence didn't have a chance to throw either the discus or the hammer in high school in Indiana, but graduated from Miami with personal-bests of 175 feet in the discus, 181 feet in the hammer, and 57-7 in the shot put.  David Zipko was also a throwing triple-threat, throwing 54 feet in the shot put, 164 feet in the discus, and 185 feet in the hammer. After most of a decade with the Redhawks, Stimson went back to Tennessee, this time as the head assistant coach.  Four of his throwers earned All-American honors, including three multiple-awardees.  Pat Reid was a 58-8 shot-putter in high school who improved to 63-10 in college, even with the four-pound size increase in the shot.  Reid was a two-time Penn Relay's Champion and twice an All-American in the shot put, placing as high as sixth.  Jeff Field improved in the javelin from 210 feet to 256 feet while at Tennessee, and J.R. Quinn went from 190 feet to 195-8 in the discus.  Both also earned two All-American honors in their events.  Scott Lundy was already a 61-foot shot-putter in high school, but improved to 61-6 in college to earn All-American honors. When Stimson arrived in Williamsburg in the summer of 1986, he inherited a bare cupboard.  The Tribe had a single men's thrower who was recovering from a major shoulder injury, and no women's throwers.  So it is not a stretch by any means to say that he built the current throwing program completely from scratch.  One of his first throwers in the women's program was Wendy Warren, a walk-on with no previous experience in the javelin.  By the time Warren graduated, she was the school-record holder with a throw of 153-6 and was one of the top throwers in the East.  Mike Howell started with the hammer throw as a freshman, and as a senior qualified for the USAT&F National Championships where his school-record toss of 206-2 was the eighth-best by a collegiate thrower.  Howell was also the first, and so far only, man to win the shot put, discus, and hammer throw at a single CAA Championship when he led the Tribe to its first conference championship in 1992. Adam Williams was a junior-college All-American in the hammer with a personal-best of 188 feet when he came to W&M, but improved to 195-2 and All-East honors by his senior year.  Williams also shares the school record in the weight throw indoors at 59-5.  Scott Young (180 feet) and Mike Berry (171 feet) both came to the College with modest personal-best marks in the javelin, but posted huge gains to become All-East performers.  Young improved 26 feet to throw 206, and Young was even more impressive with an improvement of 36 feet to 207. Tyler Steele was a walk-on who put the shot 48 feet in high school.  Steele shined in the hammer throw in college, winning four consecutive conference titles and graduating with a best of 174-11 despite never having tried the event before college.  On the women's side, the 1990's were marked by Lisa Cronin and Haven Davis.  Cronin threw the javelin 139-11 in college, an improvement of nearly 20 feet over her high school-best.  Davis only threw 38 feet in the shot put and 122 feet in the discus in high school, but improved to 44-11 and 142 feet in college.  She also threw the hammer 148 feet and was the CAA shot put champion in 2001, the first of five straight conference titles for the Tribe in the event (and eight in 10 years). As the millennium turned, Stimson continued recruiting training top athletes in the same fashion as he always had, molding hard work into conference titles and NCAA appearances.  Chris Parsons was a member of the U.S. Junior National Team in 2001, taking second in the javelin throw at the Junior National Championships and setting the school record with a throw of 223 feet.  Parsons would wind up with a total of five CAA titles, and had a top-four showing in every throwing event as a sophomore in 2002.  He graduated having never lost at the CAA shot put to anyone who wasn't a teammate. On the women's side, the decade dawned with Ayanna Jones and Cassidy Harris joining the team.  Both would end up with a pair of CAA titles in the shot put and All-East honors in the event as well, with Jones setting the school record at 48-6 and Harris graduating third all-time at 46-5.   Both also improved tremendously in the discus and hammer throw, with Jones finishing her career with bests of 133 feet and 146 feet, respectively, while Harris would end up throwing 129 feet and 159-10.  Liz Hager was an all-conference performer in the hammer throw, taking second in 2005 with a throw of 145 feet, and was also an All-East javelin thrower, with a personal-best of 140-6.   In more recent years, Jen Showker became the first Tribe athlete to win the CAA title in the discus, throwing 144 feet after coming to the College with a high-school mark of just 129 feet.  Abby Lemon also threw the discus 129 feet in high school before transitioning to the hammer under Stimson's guidance.  By the time she graduated, Lemon was the CAA hammer throw champion and the first woman in school history to throw 175 feet.  Brenna Blevins never threw in high school, but owns the second-best javelin throw in school history at 149-4 and also put the shot 41-11. On the men's side, Andy Smith graduated in 2006 as just the fourth thrower in conference history to win the same CAA title four times when he captured the 2006 javelin crown.  He improved from throwing 194 as a prep in North Carolina, to reaching 219 feet by the time he graduated.  Aaron Mitchell ranked among the Tribe's all-time top-five in both the shot put and the hammer throw upon his graduation in 2006, and was the only man ever to beat Chris Parsons in the shot put at the CAA meet when he claimed the 2003 title. The 2009-10 season marked the end of another set of brilliant careers, while heralding the emergence of the stars of the future.  Ashley Williams never broke 40 feet in high school with the shot put, but graduated as W&M's indoor record-holder as one of just three women to ever throw over 47 feet.  She won the CAA title in both 2009 and 2010, and was All-East in the event as well.  Williams also graduated as the Tribe's record-holder in the weight throw indoors, and the hammer throw outdoors.  Carly Morse was also a CAA Champion in the shot put, reaching a personal-best 45-10 in her four years in the Green and Gold. In 2010-11, Zach Jordan earned his mark as an All-East athlete indoors in the weight throw, and finished his career ranked third all-time in school history with a best throw of 59-0.25.  A 146-foot discus thrower in high school, the second-generation Stimson athlete (his father also threw for Stimson at Miami), Jordan also threw the hammer 182-0 outdoors (fifth-best all-time) and took second at the CAA Championships in the event.  Dan Klatzkin was a 51-foot shot-putter in his prep days, and has claimed four All-CAA honors while throwing the college-weight shot put 48-8 and the discus 156-6. Brandon Heroux broke the College's javelin record with a throw of 227-2 while just a freshman, and became the first thrower to make the NCAA Championships since 1970.  After undergoing arm surgery on his throwing arm in the summer, he quickly returned to form as a sophomore, winning his second-straight CAA title and placing second at the IC4A Championships.  His best campaign, and most heartbreaking, came as a junior in 2011 when he won the CAA Championships (with another conference record-throw), the Penn Relays, and the IC4A Championships, but tore a ligament in his elbow in the process. Natalie Baird was one of the top throwers in Virginia high school history, but surpassed even that as a freshman in 2009 by breaking the W&M discus record that had stood since 1982, eight years before she was even born.  Her throw of 156-7 was good enough to place fifth at the U.S. Junior National Championships, but she also broke W&M's freshman records in the shot put (indoors and outdoors), the weight throw, and the hammer throw.  As a sophomore, she bounced back from illness that disrupted her entire fall to win her first CAA discus title, before redshirting 2010-11. Also a two-time All-East athlete, Baird is one of just two throwers to ever be named Rookie of the Year by the CAA. Stimson's success has not just been limited to the throwing fields.  Also an accomplished jumps coach, Stimson has been responsible for developing W&M into one of the top multi-event programs in the region.  His success goes all the way back to Lisa Rayner, a walk-on who earned All-American honors in the high jump at the 1994 NCAA Outdoor Championships.  Rayner's leap of 5-11.25 still ranks as the school record.  Charlotte LaRoche was a multiple-time All-East award winner in the pole vault, and was ranked 20th nationally indoors in 2002.  More recently, Stimson coached Cam Shriver to the CAA high jump title in 2009 and IC4A indoor title in 2008, and Ben Katz to the conference high jump championship in 2011. In the multi-events, Todd Doughty was a walk-on who, by the time he graduated in 1997, held the school record in the decathlon with 7,240 points and ranked among the nation's 20-best decathletes.  Since the CAA began sponsoring a decathlon championship, W&M has claimed five gold medals, including three by Phil Agee.  The most recent came in 2010, when Doug Zimmer capped off his five-year career with a personal-best 6,322 point effort to end a five-year title drought for the Tribe. Even more impressive has been the growth of the heptathlon.  A W&M athlete has won eight of the 10 CAA championships, including seven in a row before injuries left the Tribe without a competitor last spring.  Bonnie Meekins lays claim to the title of the top multi-eventer in school history, ranking first in both the pentathlon (3,757) and heptathlon (5,457) while winning two CAA titles, an ECAC Championship, and finishing 16th at the NCAA Championships in 2007.  Brenna Blevins won both the CAA and ECAC heptathlons in 2006, just missing the NCAA Championships by 14 points.  Katie Guevel set 15 school records and 15 freshman records in 2007-08, winning the first of two CAA heptathlons with a personal-best scored of 5,158 points.  Guevel never threw in high school, but took quickly to the discipline with marks of 130 feet in the javelin and 38-11 in the shot put.  A hurdler by nature, Guevel continued to tear up the track as a sophomore with All-East honors indoors, and helped W&M qualify for ECACs outdoors in both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays. A native of Falconer, New York, Stimson graduated with honors from Ohio University in 1971 and holds a masters degree from Miami (Ohio). As an undergraduate, he was the All-Ohio and Central Collegiate shot put champion, as well as a two-time MAC shot put champion. He concluded his athletic career by competing in both the NCAA and AAU national championships in the shot put. Dan and his wife Rosemary, also a Falconer native, have two children. Their son, Clare, graduated from Old Dominion in 2010 and is a realtor in the Hampton Roads area. Daughter Krista Crider graduated from W&M in 1996 with a B.S. in biology and earned her masters degree at the College in 1998. She earned a Ph.D. in the field of genetics and molecular biology at Emory University, and works for the Centers for Disease Control. Krista is a former W&M record holder in the hammer throw, and is the proud mother of two future Tribe record-holders in Samuel Daniel Crider, and Kara Elizabeth Crider. W&M Team Finishes Under Stimson