In the first of a three-part series, the Frostburg State University department of athletics will preview the upcoming 2012 Capital Athletic Conference Track & Field Championships that are scheduled at FSU on May 5-6.

FSU, in just its second year as a member of the CAC, will welcome six schools for the two-day championships that start on Saturday, May 5, including Hood, Mary Washington, Salisbury, Stevenson, Wesley and York (Pa.).

On the women's side, Frostburg State will look to build on its fourth place finish at the CAC Indoor Championships in February. The Bobcats are currently ranked in the top-five in eight different events in the CAC standings. Sophomore Samantha Taylor holds the league's top spot in the pole vault at 3.20 meters. She won the CAC indoor title and tied the school record at the same height.

As a team, FSU has finished in the top-10 in all five meets during the outdoor season.

Only two schools can lay claim to the CAC title on the women's side as Mary Washington won an impressive 16-straight league titles from 1994-2009. Salisbury has claimed the last two (2010 & 2011) and earned the league's first-ever indoor title this past winter.

The Sea Gulls currently hold the best time/distance in 11 events heading into the championships while Mary Washington holds four of the top efforts. SU is ranked second in the Mideast Region in the most recent USTFCCCA NCAA Division III Regional Team Index.

The CAC men's championships are not quite as lopsided as three different schools have won a league title since the outdoor championships started in 1991. Salisbury has won a conference-best 12 titles followed by six from Mary Washington and three form York (Pa.).

The Sea Gulls, who won the first-ever CAC indoor title in February, won seven-consecutive titles from 2004-2010 and enter the championship ranked fourth in the Mideast Region. York earned the championship last spring, the school's first since winning back-to-back titles in 1991 and 1992.

This year's men's championship is wide open as four different schools hold at least three of the best times/distances in the CAC so far this spring. Salisbury currently holds nine of the league's best times/distances followed by five from FSU, four from York and three from Wesley.

Frostburg senior Wes Jacobs holds the CAC's top times in the 400 (49.29) and 800-meter runs (1:52.72). He is also part of the league's fastest 4x400-meter relay team (3:23.66).

The Frostburg men's team won the Roanoke College Invitational to open the outdoor season in mid-March and have collected a pair of runner-up finishes at the Goucher Invitational and the Mason-Dixon Invitational.

The CAC Championships mark the first home track & field meet for Frostburg State since hosting the two-day Mason-Dixon Conference Championships in May of 2009. The Bobcat women won the league title that year while the men captured fifth. Head coach Dale Luy was named the league's women's Coach of the Year after guiding FSU to the title.