Considering the results of last weekend's ACC Championships at Clemson, many a casual Virginia track and field fan might conclude the squads are slipping. Both the men and women dropped from last year's final standings, finishing in third and eighth, respectively - hardly on par with 2009's tied first and fourth.
Don't tell that to Virginia coach Jason Vigilante.
"I wouldn't call it slipping," Vigilante said. "Florida State is a very good track team, as is Virginia Tech. And in the ACC, the women's events are incredible. So I think slipping is a difficult way to describe it, maybe an incorrect way. We competed very, very well. It's just that the teams we're competing against are awfully good."
Seeing as how Florida State's men's team - which Virginia tied with last year for the championship - has now won six straight ACC Outdoor titles and only beat the Cavaliers by 13.5 points, it is difficult to argue with Vigilante's statement. And the narrow hardly seems to be the result of any lack of effort or resolve.
"We were all together fighting to get that title," said sophomore runner Sintayehu Taye, who won the 1500m title Saturday. "Going in, we all thought we had a chance to get it and everyone did pretty well, but we just didn't have enough."
Consider it this way: When the Virginia men's team shared the title with Florida State last year, two Cavaliers won ACC titles and 11 earned All-ACC honors. This year, two Cavaliers - Taye and sophomore runner Lance Roller - won ACC titles and 13 earned All-ACC honors.
"I had no notion of disappointment, reservation or anything like that when I got on the bus and left Clemson on Saturday night," Vigilante said.
On the women's side, none of the teams really stood a chance against Clemson, which had several athletes redshirt last year and entered this season as a suddenly dominant force. Additionally, the sheer depth of women's track and field in the ACC was on full display and even when the Cavalier athletes achieved personal bests, they often had to settle for lower places.
"It's hard to fathom," Vigilante said. "[Junior] Chidimma Uche, in the hurdles, didn't even make the finals - she'd easily make the finals in any other conference in America."
The Cavaliers may have fallen just short of their ultimate goal, but there was no shortage of positive memories to take out of this meet. Meghan Briggs fell down on her fourth attempt in the javelin and launched the winning throw on her next one. Taye, after fellow teammate, junior Alex Bowman, gave him the inside lane on the last lap, outkicked the entire field to capture the 1500m title.
"It was kind of a surprise because I had a rough indoor season," Taye said. "This time I just went out there wanting to have fun."
By the end, the whole team was having fun. The end result was an ACC title, but Vigilante refuses to look at it as a failure. He prefers to see it as a challenge.
"I think the most important thing we can do is have long term, logical and deliberate improvement," Vigilante said. "And if we get a little better every year, we recruit better, and every year is a stepping stone to the next, I don't see any reason why we won't become one of the top programs in the country"
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