BIG EAST Championship Central | Watch! (Friday) | Watch! (Saturday)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - The Georgetown University track & field team has arrived in New York for the 2017 BIG EAST Indoor Track & Field Championships, held at the Ocean Breeze Track and Field Athletic Complex in Staten Island. It's a return to the friendly confines as the Hoyas have twice competed at the facility this season and the complex, in its second year of existence, played host to the conference championships in 2016.

Broadcast Information
Friday-Saturday, February 24-25: BIG EAST Digital Network
Play-by-Play: Pat O'Keefe; Sideline: Megan O'Brien

Preview
The Hoyas claimed seven titles across the men's and women's events last season and look to defend all seven with a pair of distance medley relay (DMR) titles, the 800-meter crowns, the women's 4x800-meter relay, women's mile and the women's 3,000-meter run all on the line.

"The BIG EAST Championships are about finishing as high as we can as a team," Interim Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Julie Culley said. "It's about scoring as many points as we can in the events that we are competing in and ultimately we want to have a really great team event. It's an opportunity for us to score together as a team, which is not something we necessarily get to do as much during the regular season. We want good energy from everyone as we take this unique opportunity to come together in this championship meet."

The Blue & Gray will look to a blend of familiar veterans and fresh faces this year as they aim to defend their titles. All-American Joe White (Clifton, N.J./DePaul Catholic), who has spent the last two weekends setting new school records in the open 800-meter run and 800-meter relay carry, will look to extend his unbeaten streak at the conference indoor championships as he won the 400-meter dash and anchored the winning 4x400-meter relay in 2015 and won the 800-meter run and contributed the third leg on the championship DMR in 2016. The junior, who currently has the fourth-fastest 800-meter time in the country, will look to a new event in 2017 as he is in the mile field.

The other returning BIG EAST champion from 2016 is junior Kennedy Weisner (St. Marys, Pa./Elk County Catholic), who aims to defend her mile crown from last season. Weisner was a major role player and point scorer for the Hoyas last season as she scored 10 points individually and contributed to another 20 points as part of two winning relays.

Georgetown has a bit of familiarity with the facility as they twice raced at Ocean Breeze this season, most recently at the Fastrack National Invitational, an event that saw seven personal records (PRs). Jody-Ann Knight (Bentonville, Ark./Bentonville) has twice set a new PR in the 200-meter dash at the facility, breaking 25 seconds each time. Also running a PR at the facility earlier this season, Haley Pierce (Wilmington, Del./Tatnall School) will compete in the women's 3,000-meter run the same event she clocked a PR in at Fastrack.

Nathaniel Gordon (Spartanburg, S.C./Spartanburg), a two-time BIG EAST champion from the 2015 indoor season, ran a 400-meter PR at the Fastrack meet earlier this year. He won the BIG EAST 500-meter dash in 2015 but will compete in the 400-meter field this year. A change in format in 2017 has eliminated the 500-meter dash and 1,000-meter run from the schedule, two events the Hoyas have had success in previously with the Hoya men winning both titles in 2015.

Friday will feature nearly all preliminary track events with the exception of the finals of the 5,000-meter run and DMR as well as the finals of pole vault, long jump and weight throw. Saturday will feature the remaining track finals in addition to the finals of the shot put, triple jump and high jump.