Virginia's track and field teams will take part in the ACC outdoor championships in Chapel Hill today and tomorrow. This meet comes on the heels of a dual win at the Lou Onesty/Milton G. Abramson Invitational in Charlottesville last weekend, in which the Cavaliers captured a combined nine event titles.
At last year's ACC outdoor meet, the Virginia men's team finished in sixth place with 73.50 points, well behind victorious Florida State's 202-point total. The only returning conference champion for the Cavaliers is McGavock Dunbar, who captured the 800-meter title.
A repeat performance of last weekend would bode well for many Cavaliers, including pole vaulter David Sullivan, whose personal-best 16'11" jump would have won last year's conference championship by six inches. Alex Tatu's winning time of 3 minutes, 49.26 seconds in the 1,500-meter run would have put him fourth at last year's outdoor meet.
The youthfulness of the men's squad led to Virginia coach Randy Bungard's qualified assessment of the Cavaliers' chances.
"On the men's side, I think we could finish anywhere from the top three to sixth or seventh -- it depends," Bungard said.
Florida State's men's team has captured back-to-back ACC outdoor and indoor championships. The No. 21 Seminoles will attempt to defend their title despite the departure of coach Terry Long, who left after 19 years.
Seminole senior Brian Dzingai, a native of Harare, Zimbabwe, prepared for the ACC championships with a lifetime-best showing last weekend that qualified him for the 2004 Athens Olympics. His time of 20.36 in the 200-meter run was under the automatic A-standard of 20.59 and set a Zimbabwe national record. Dzingai earned ACC Outdoor Track and Field Performer of the Week for his efforts.
Maryland has captured 26 ACC men's outdoor championships, far and away the most of any school. Clemson trails in a distant second with nine titles.
The Cavalier women took third place in last year's outdoor championships held in Raleigh, finishing behind favorite North Carolina and Florida State. Virginia returns two defending ACC champions -- Anne Bobiak in the javelin and Jane Maxwell in the 10,000-meter run.
The losses of 3,000-meter steeplechase champion Dawn Cleary and 400-meter winner Carielle Doe will make the road to a championship difficult, but assistant coach Jason Dunn was optimistic about the team's chances this weekend.
"Almost everybody had season-best performances or personal-best performances that should set us up well going into next weekend," Dunn said after last weekend's meet. "We've got a really young team on the women's side, and if they can just go out and compete like they did today, then we should be pretty good next week."
North Carolina has won the last three ACC outdoor championships on the women's side and has another streak on the line this weekend. The Tar Heels also are looking to win the annual "triple crown," comprised of the cross country, indoor and outdoor titles in the same year, of which North Carolina has already taken the first two. The last ACC triple crown was captured by the Tar Heel women in 1994, a squad led by Marion Jones.
A key part of a Tar Heel championship will be senior Alice Schmidt, an eight-time ACC champion and a two-time national champion in the 800-meter run. However, a key piece of the past three championship squads is missing, as senior Shalane Flanagan has redshirted this season to focus on training for the Olympic trials. Flanagan has won four national titles and has been an All-American 13 times over her career.
Attempting to dethrone the Florida State men and North Carolina women will be a tall task, but the confident Cavaliers will try and parlay last weekend's success into an ACC championship.
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