Cullowhee, N.C. – Strong competition throughout indoor and outdoor seasons awaits the Western Carolina men's and women's track & field squads as head coach Jesse Norman announced his program's 2024-25 schedule on Monday. The indoor season opens this week as WCU makes its first of two trips to Clemson in non-team-scored competition.
The Catamounts make appearances in 14 combined meets spanning the indoor and outdoor seasons, evenly split at seven between the two seasons of competition. The indoor season will take place in venues in both South Carolina and Virginia, while the outdoor regular season takes place in North Carolina for the Catamounts before the Southern Conference championships in Birmingham, Ala.
Norman's squad heads to Clemson for the first and second meets of the 2024-25 indoor season beginning with Friday's Clemson Opener (Dec. 6) ahead of the Clemson Invitational (Jan. 11) once the calendar flips. This week's season-opening meet marks the fourth time since 2019 that the Catamounts have attended the Clemson Opener, while WCU is only making its second appearance at the invitational meet.
The Catamounts head to Virginia for the first time for the Virginia Tech Invitational scheduled to run from Jan. 17-18. Western Carolina's appearance in Blacksburg, Va. marks the first time in program history that the Catamounts will compete at the Johnson/Miller Track Complex. The teams then return to South Carolina for the final time this season for the Clemson-hosted Orange and Purple Classic on Jan. 24-25.
WCU closes out its indoor season with three consecutive trips to Virginia with the VMI Winter Relays on Jan. 31 through Feb. 1 and the Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational in Lynchburg, Va., and Liberty University on Feb. 14-15.
The 2025 Southern Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships are slated for March 1-2 at VMI's Corp Physical Training Facility. The Catamounts have a chance to get a lay of the land as they compete at VMI for the Winter Relays just before returning for the conference championships a few weeks later.
The indoor season concludes in Virginia as the 2025 NCAA Indoor National Championships are set to take place at the Virginia Beach Sports Center on March 14-15.
In late March, the Catamounts take to the great outdoors, opening with split-squad action between the Raleigh Relays in Raleigh, N.C. on March 27-29, while a handful of Catamounts head to Davidson, N.C. for the Davidson Relays on March 29. The dual meets will be the first of two weekends where the Catamounts are in simultaneous action at two different meets in the 2025 outdoor season.
April sees the Purple and Gold make four meet appearances beginning with the Vertklasse Meeting in High Point, N.C., and concluding with its annual home meet, the Catamount Classic which is set to run from April 25-26. The Catamounts will split between appearances at the Duke Invitational from April 10-12 and the UNC Asheville Invitational from April 11-12.
WCU will have some time to rest before heading to Alabama for the 2025 Southern Conference Outdoor Championships, which are hosted by Samford for the second consecutive season. The conference championships will run from May 12-13.
The NCAA East Preliminaries are hosted by North Florida and will take place in Jacksonville on May 28-31 with the 2025 NCAA Track and Field National Championships set to conclude the season in Eugene, Ore. on June 11-14.
