At the ACC Track and Field Championships in Blacksburg, Virginia athletes laid the foundation for a winning program. The men’s team took third overall — tying its 2009 best — while the women’s side battled its way to a ninth-place finish out of fifteen ACC schools.
Both the men and women’s teams improved their results from the 2013-14 ACC Championships in Clemson, South Carolina, where they scored sixth and 10th respectively. Any progress is good progress.
Sophomore Jordan Young set the tone Thursday. Young’s weight throw of 22.92 meters — 1.56 meters farther than any of his opponents’ — shattered his own school record and secured a first-place finish.
Two and a half hours later, the men’s distance medley relay of senior Payton Hazzard, junior Kyle King and sophomores Henry Wynne and Mike Marsella won its event with a time of 9:42.87. This result boosted the men’s team to first place overall at the end of day one.
Friday, the pole-vaulting duo senior Sarah DeVita and freshman Bridget Guy both cleared a height of 3.97 meters, a new school record, and earned top-10 finishes.
Sophomore Anthony Dunavant also tacked on a valuable point to the men’s total with an eighth-place finish (4,905 total points) in the heptathlon, which involves the 60-meter dash, 60-meter hurdles, 1000-meter run, high jump, long jump, pole vault and shot put.
Sophomore Philip Mihaljevic and Hazzard excelled on Saturday. Mihaljevic won the shot put with a throw of 61 feet and 11.5 inches, while Hazzard finished first in the 400 meter with a time of 46.62 seconds. Both victories protected the men’s third-place lead — 71 points — from a North Carolina team — 67.0 — that was right on its heels.
Although senior sprinter Jordan Lavender, third in 200 and fourth in 400, junior Peyton Chaney, eighth in 60 and eighth in 200, and sophomore thrower Christine Bohan second in shot put, produced points on Saturday, the women’s team was unable to gain ground on its competitors.
Select Cavalier athletes will return to action March 13-14 at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
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