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March 28,

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Full Schedule
Flames Return Home for 3rd Annual Brant Tolsma Invitational Image

Flames Return Home for 3rd Annual Brant Tolsma Invitational

1/18/2023 10:34:19 AM | Track and Field

Meet Information

Time Schedule

Live Results

The third annual Brant Tolsma Invitational, named in honor of the Flames’ legendary head coach, will serve as Liberty’s first home indoor track & field meet of 2023. The event will feature competitors from 16 schools with events slated from Thursday through Saturday at the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex.

Thursday’s schedule features exclusively multi events, beginning at 11 a.m. with the 60-meter hurdles for the first of two sections of the pentathlon. Friday’s action will get started at noon with the heptathlon 60-meter hurdles. Four different events will get things going on Saturday, including the women’s high jump, women’s shot put, men’s triple jump and women’s 60 hurdles prelims.

Liberty will be joined by athletes from American, Army, Campbell, Elon, Lynchburg, Marshall, N.C. Central, Purdue Fort Wayne, Queens, Radford, UMBC, UNCW, VCU, William & Mary and Wofford this weekend.

How to Follow the Flames and Lady Flames

Admission is free of charge for all three days of competition.

For those unable to attend the Brant Tolsma Invitational, live results will be available throughout the meet, courtesy of Blue Ridge Timing.

Touting Tolsma

Brant Tolsma served as Liberty’s track & field and cross country head coach for 34 years (1986-2020) before retiring following the 2020 ASUN Indoor Track & Field Championships. He coached Liberty’s teams to 116 conference championships and coached six NCAA Division I individual national champions. Tolsma was a 77-time conference coach of the year and coached Liberty athletes to 61 All-America honors.

Liberty’s previous indoor track facility was named the Tolsma Indoor Track Center in his honor. The current indoor track oval was officially dedicated as the Brant Tolsma Indoor Track during the 2022 Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational.

The inaugural Brant Tolsma Invitational took place on Feb. 5 & 6, 2021 during the first season of competition following Tolsma’s retirement.

About the Facility

The 169,000-square-foot Liberty Indoor Track Complex is highlighted by a six-lane, 200-meter, hydraulically banked oval which is now named for legendary Flames head coach Brant Tolsma. The facility, which includes permanent seating for approximately 1,500 spectators, also boasts ample space for athletes. Competitors are availed a sizeable mezzanine area which sits above an eight-lane, 100-meter warm-up straightaway.

The Liberty Indoor Track Complex opened in January 2017 and has seen records broken ever since. The Liberty Kickoff (Dec. 1 & 2) opened the seventh year of competition at the facility.

The Flames will host five college meets this season, with the Liberty Open (Feb. 4), ninth annual Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational (Feb. 10-11) and the ASUN Indoor Track & Field Championships (Feb. 24-25) still to come.

Two for Two

Warren Barrett won the men’s shot put at last weekend’s Virginia Tech Invitational, claiming Liberty’s lone first-place finish of the two-day meet.

Barrett has been victorious in both of his shot put competitions to begin the 2022-23 season. His triumph at the Liberty Kickoff came with a program-record mark of 63-3.5 which currently ranks No. 7 nationally in NCAA Division I.

On Saturday, Barrett will seek his third consecutive shot put triumph and could also take aim at the meet record of 61-11.5, achieved in 2022 by High Point’s Chris Van Niekerk.

Multi Madness

Considering the prominence of multi event competitions within Tolsma’s athletic and coaching careers, it is appropriate that the heptathlon and pentathlon will play leading roles within the Brant Tolsma Invitational.

A total of 33 multi event athletes are scheduled to compete this week within two sections of the pentathlon and one of the heptathlon.

Liberty’s talented trio of Meredith Engle, Patasha Bryan and Anthony Bryan will look to build upon their performances from the Liberty Kickoff, which saw all three set new personal bests.

Engle won the Liberty Kickoff pentathlon with a score of 3,960 which ranks No. 2 in program history and No. 4 nationally this year.

Patasha Bryan came in third in the pentathlon while breaking Engle’s Liberty freshman record with her 3,619 points. That currently ranks No. 12 nationally.

Bryan’s older brother, Anthony Bryan won the Liberty Kickoff heptathlon with a score of 5,334 which sits No. 4 all-time at Liberty and No. 6 nationally this season.

A couple other names to watch are Cole Peterlin and Shaina Burns.

Peterlin will be making his indoor track & field season debut after playing wide receiver for the Liberty football team during the fall. He scored a personal-best 5,098 points at last year’s Brant Tolsma Invitational.

An All-American heptathlete during her time at Texas A&M, Burns owns a pentathlon personal best of 4,375. She won the event at the 2021 Liberty Kickoff during her most recent visit to Lynchburg.

Anticipated Action

The men’s and women’s 60 hurdles figure to be two of Saturday’s most anticipated races for Liberty fans.

The men’s hurdles will mark the collegiate debut of Prosper Ekporere. The native of Warri, Nigeria owns a personal best of 13.71 in the 110 hurdles and qualified for the men’s 110 hurdles final at the 2021 World Athletics U20 Championships.

Meanwhile, Indea Cartwright will compete in the women’s 60 hurdles for the first time since blazing a Liberty and ASUN all-time record 8.23 to win the Liberty Kickoff title on Dec. 2. That effort currently ranks No. 13 nationally.

Welcome Back

Flames alum Christian Lyon is entered in the men’s 60 and 200 during his first meet back at Liberty after helping the Flames’ 4 x 100 relay squad qualify for the 2022 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Lyon owns the meet record in the 60 with his winning time of 6.78 from 2021.

In the 60, Lyon will square off with first-year Flame Omari Lewis. At last week’s Virginia Tech Invitational, Lewis lowered his personal best to 6.76, inching closer to Lyon’s program record of 6.71 from 2020.

The men’s 200 will be one of Friday’s featured events, as it includes Lyon and one of his 4 x 100 relay teammates, Donald McClinton. McClinton will run his first indoor 200 as a Flame. He ranks No. 2 on Liberty’s outdoor 200 chart at 20.56. Lyon owns the Liberty indoor record of 20.99, also set in 2020.

Atop the ASUN

At this early stage of the 2022-23 indoor season, Liberty ranks No. 1 in the ASUN Conference in the following events:

Women’s 3K – Calli Doan – 9:36.19

Women’s 60 Hurdles – Indea Cartwright – 8.23

Women’s Pole Vault – Taylen Langin – 12-11.5

Women’s Shot Put – Megan Mann – 46-8

Women’s Weight Throw – Paola Bueno – 61-4

Pentathlon – Meredith Engle – 3,960

Men’s 60 – Omari Lewis – 6.76

Men’s 5K – Tristian Merchant – 14:00.86

Men’s 60 Hurdles – Felix Lawrence – 8.09

Men’s Long Jump – Quinten Clay – 24-4.25

Men’s High Jump – Kennedy Sauder – 6-10.75

Men’s Shot Put – Warren Barrett – 63-3.5

Heptathlon – Anthony Bryan – 5,334

Among the Nation’s Elite

At season’s end, the nation’s top 16 performers in each event will qualify to the 2023 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships. The meet is scheduled for March 10-11 in Albuquerque, N.M.

The following Flames currently rank among the top 16 in their respective events, and all five will be in action in those events at the Brant Tolsma Invitational:

No. 4 – Meredith Engle – Pentathlon – 3,960

No. 6 – Anthony Bryan – Heptathlon – 5,334

No. 7 – Warren Barrett – Men’s Shot Put – 63-3.5

No. 12 – Patasha Bryan – Pentathlon – 3,619

No. 13 – Indea Cartwright – Women’s 60 Hurdles – 8.23

Up Next

For the third consecutive season, Liberty will compete in the Bob Pollock Invitational. The meet will take place Jan. 27 & 28 at the Clemson Indoor Track & Field Complex in Clemson, S.C.

Featured in Main Photo: Brant Tolsma