With the 2001 indoor track regular season completed, Coach Randy Bungard's track and field teams travel to Chapel Hill, N.C., for the ACC Indoor Championships Feb. 15 and 16. As well as trying to capture individual and team ACC crowns, team members will aim to garner a trip to the national championships in March by posting a national-qualifying time, jump or throw.
Junior sprinter Shay Clark and senior hurdler and jumper Jarrett Hagwood lead the men's team into the meet with a trip to nationals in mind.
"I think that Jarrett and I want to do our best and be on a plane to Arkansas for the NCAAs," Clark said. "I've already qualified provisionally, but I really want to better my time."
Hagwood not only looks to qualify for nationals, but also score points for the team.
"My only goal is to shave .03 seconds off of my best time to qualify for the NCAAs" in the hurdles, Hagwood said. "But I also think that I can be in the top three in the ACC ... I'm not just in it for third here, I'm really in it to try to win."
Traditionally not a track and field power, Virginia has set optimistic yet realistic goals for this weekend's meet.
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"I think that there's just a goal to be in the top three - which is something that hasn't happened in a long time, if ever," Clark said.
To finish that high, the team will depend on strong performances from its corps of distance and middle-distance runners, as well as pole-vaulter Cory Smith, whose vault of 4.45 meters last weekend was the highest for Virginia this season.
Junior sprinter and jumper Kiamesha Otey, coming off a victory at Virginia Tech in the 60-meter dash, leads the women's squad into ACCs. The extremely deep women's distance squad - a group that finished ninth as a team in this past fall's cross country championships - figures to score many points for the team this weekend. Sharon O'Connor, Dawn Cleary, Jolene Hampson and Ellen Dwyer all bested their previous personal records last week at Virginia Tech in the mile.
The women's squad also will rely on strong performances from shot putter Eliese Mitchell and Carielle Doe, who qualified for the national championships in the 400-meter dash with a time of 54.52 seconds.
With a few of its athletes already set to compete in nationals, Virginia hopes to qualify many more and post a strong performance against its ACC foes.
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