Liberty Elite Invitational to Open Flames' 2021 Indoor Track Season

Meet Schedule

Live Results

Performance List

@Liberty_XCTF Twitter

The Liberty men's and women's indoor track & field teams will begin their 2021 season and Lance Bingham's tenure as head coach by hosting the Liberty Elite Invitational, Thursday through Saturday at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex.

The meet will feature athletes from 11 colleges and universities. Thursday's schedule consists solely of multi events, beginning at noon with the pentathlon 60 hurdles. The heptathlon 60 hurdles will begin Friday's action at 1:30 p.m. Saturday's busy slate of events gets underway at 11 a.m. with the women's high jump, women's shot put, men's triple jump and women's 60 hurdles prelims.

2021 Spring Sports Admissions/Tickets
Due to COVID-19 and state regulations, capacity at all Liberty Athletics events is under a limited capacity of 250 patrons or 30 percent capacity, whichever is less based on social distancing protocols, per Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's current Phase 3 guidelines. With those guidelines in place, admission to each event has been adjusted per sport. For more information regarding availability, please click here.

How to Follow the Flames and Lady Flames
Live results will be available throughout the Liberty Elite Invitational, courtesy of Blue Ridge Timing.

Periodic updates will also be posted to the Liberty Track & Field/Cross Country Twitter account, @Liberty_XCTF.

Scouting the Competition
Liberty will host teams from six different conferences this week, including the American (East Carolina), Big South (High Point), CAA (James Madison and Towson), Conference USA (Charlotte), MEAC (Delaware State and Norfolk State) and Sun Belt (Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina and Georgia Southern).

The meet will also feature a number of talented post-collegiate competitors, including former Liberty All-American Alejandro Perlaza Zapata in the men's 60. Perlaza Zapata is currently training to represent Colombia at this summer's Olympic Games.

About the Facility
The 169,000-square-foot Liberty Indoor Track Complex is highlighted by a six-lane, 200-meter, hydraulically banked oval. 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. This will be the facility's first event since the NJCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, March 6-7, 2020.

The Flames will host four meets at the Liberty Indoor Track Complex this season, also including the inaugural Brant Tolsma Invitational (Feb. 5-6), the seventh annual Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational (Feb. 12-13) and the 2021 ASUN Indoor Track & Field Championships (Feb. 26-27).

Passing the Baton
The last time Liberty competed at its home facility, the 2020 ASUN Indoor Track & Field Championships (Feb. 28-29, 2020), turned out to be Brant Tolsma's final meet as the team's head coach. He served as head coach of the Flames' cross country and track & field programs for 34 seasons, leading Liberty to 116 conference championships and coaching six NCAA Division I individual national champions.

Lance Bingham has taken over as Liberty's Director of Track & Field and Cross Country. He most recently served as head track & field and cross country coach at Abilene Christian for four seasons (2016-20). Bingham previously served as an assistant on Tolsma's staff at Liberty for 18 years, broken up over two different stints (1995-2001 and 2004-16).

Bingham played a lead role in planning and designing the Liberty Indoor Track Complex before departing for Abilene Christian. This weekend will mark the first time he will coach a meet at the facility, which is now beginning its fifth year of competition.

It's Been a While
The last time any Liberty track & field athletes competed was March 1, 2020, when a handful of Flames took part in the CNU Qualifier & Combined Events in Newport News, Va. Shortly thereafter, the 2020 outdoor track & field season was wiped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

By the time the gun goes off for Thursday's pentathlon 60 hurdles, 326 days will have elapsed since Liberty's last track & field competition.

Split Squad
Liberty's track & field team will be divided this weekend, as most of the team's distance runners will head to Charleston, S.C., for Saturday's cross country season-opening CSU Buccaneer Invitational. Jamie Anderson (women's 5K) is the home team's only entrant in either the 3K or 5K events at the Liberty Elite Invitational.

ASUN Champions in Action
Four returning ASUN individual event champions will be in action this weekend for the Flames.

John Hicks (men's weight throw), Makenzy Mizera (women's long jump) and Naomi Mojica (women's shot put) are entered in their specialty events. Meanwhile, reigning ASUN men's 60 and 200 champion Christian Lyon is expected to compete in the 400 for the first time as a Flame on Saturday.

Fresh Faces
Liberty's roster features a large number of newcomers this season.

For the Lady Flames, Gabrielle Brohard, Kamia Cooper, Meredith Engle, Nanah Fung Loy, Kali Grayson, Annika Hantho, Madeline Hunt, Megan Mann, Joelle Patton, Janai Scott, Luize Velmere and Anna Worth are all set to make their Liberty track & field debuts at the Liberty Elite Invitational.

Meanwhile, the Flames' Warren Barrett, Diamantae Griffin and Gabriel Willis are all slated to sport a Liberty uniform for the first time this weekend.

Up Next
Liberty will take to the road for the only time during the indoor track & field regular season. The Flames and Lady Flames will travel to Clemson, S.C., for the Bob Pollock Meet, Jan. 29-30 at the Clemson Indoor Track & Field Complex.