In literally fractions of a second, senior All-American Emil Heineking transformed what was already a storied cross country career into a historic one.
Competing in the ACC Championships held at Boston College's Franklin Park Saturday, Heineking completed the 8k track in a time of 23 minutes, 40.1 seconds - a mere four-tenths of a second faster than senior teammate Ryan Collins. With his second consecutive ACC individual title, Heineking etched his name into the record books.
With the back-to-back titles, Heineking joined elite company in the ACC. He became only the ninth runner to accomplish the feat during the championship's 57-year history and the first since Florida State's Andrew Lemoncello won the 2004 and 2005 titles. The eight other runners have continued very successful racing careers after college, most recently highlighted by Lemoncello's participation in the 2008 Summer Olympics.
"It really means a lot to be a repeat champion," Heineking said. "There haven't been a whole lot of guys in the history of the conference that have done that, and the guys that have repeated in the past have gone on to do some pretty good things. So hopefully I continue to follow in their footsteps and do some pretty special things as well."
Heineking was not the only Cavalier who enjoyed success at the championships, however, as Collins finished runner-up to his teammate for the second consecutive year. And while Heineking became only the third Cavalier in program history to earn all-conference honors in all four years of competition, Collins quietly received his third straight All-ACC accolade during his third year of competition. Heineking noted that Collins, who has one year of eligibility remaining, will have a chance to win next year's title.
"We're definitely not rivals or anything and I would have been just as happy if he won instead of me," Heineking said. "Ryan's a really tough runner and he always runs well at ACCs, so it's nice to be able to count on him to step up when it matters most ... He has another year of cross country left and I expect him to win it next year. It will be nice for him to finally get the win of his own."
Despite those two individual performances, the 19th-ranked Cavaliers were unable to come away with the team title, finishing in fourth place with 92 points. No. 8 Florida State took home the overall title with 43 points and was followed by No. 16 N.C. State with 81 points and No. 25 North Carolina with 84 points. Rounding out the scoring for Virginia were junior Sean Keveren, freshman Chris Foley and senior Robbie Eckardt, who finished in 17th, 37th and 40th place, respectively.
The No. 24 women's team, meanwhile, played the role of spoiler in its championship race. The squad finished runner-up to No. 3 Florida State, upsetting No. 12 Duke and No. 17 North Carolina in the process. Leading the way for the Cavaliers were sophomore Barbara Strehler, redshirt senior Stephanie Garcia and junior Morgane Gay, who all recorded top-10 finishes and earned All-ACC honors. Strehler took eighth place in 20:33.1, just slightly ahead of Garcia's time of 20:33.2, good for ninth place and her second consecutive all-conference performance. Meanwhile, Gay finished 10th with a time of 20:36.7. Freshmen Ariel Karabinus and Katherine Walker placed 22nd and 26th, and were the second and third freshmen to cross the finish line.
"Probably the best way to describe the women is as true believers," coach Jason Vigilante said. "I told them all year that if they cooperate and work together as a team, our results can be phenomenal."
The Cavaliers return to action Friday on their home course at Panorama Farms, where they will host the Cavalier Invitational.
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