The last time the Virginia women’s track and field team won ACC Outdoor Championships was 1987 — at least until this past weekend.
The Cavaliers traveled down to Winston-Salem, N.C. for the meet hosted by Wake Forest, ready to fight for a title. The team boasted a bevy of strong performances from typical standouts like senior Margot Appleton and junior Celia Rifaterra but also included some of the newer faces like freshman Maya Rollins and recent transfer junior Christiana Ellina. Their combined efforts led to a first place finish for the team and a shiny new trophy coming back with them to Charlottesville.
Appleton entered the women’s 1500 meters as the fastest collegiate runner in the NCAA event this season, and, even with that heavy weight on her shoulders, she did not disappoint.
It was a textbook Appleton race. She got out solidly in the middle of the pack, staying there for the first 1100 meters. As the bell rang to note the last lap, Appleton began moving into Lane 2 to give herself some space to kick. In the first curve, Appleton had angled herself into first place side by side with Clemson sophomore Silvia Jelego with the rest of the runners right on their heels.
In the last 200 meters, the race became a battle between those two, seeing if Jelego could outkick Appleton who had begun to pull away. Appleton’s gait and technique stayed consistent and controlled, but as Jelego opened up her stride, she was clearly fighting exhaustion. Appleton maintained her kick and crossed the line into first place with a time of 4:11.28, winning this ACC event for the third year in a row.
After the race, the announcers asked her about the added stress on her as the top 1500 meter run in the NCAA right now.
“I think it’s good pressure to have,” Appleton said, “I knew I had to win that for my team, and it was even extra pressure but it was helpful and I’m glad I could get those points up.”
The Cavaliers took the win in another distance race as senior Jenny Schilling sped through the women’s 10k, nearly eight seconds ahead of the second place finisher from Notre Dame, senior Emily Covert.
On the field side of things, Rifaterra also won gold in the women’s high jump while also setting a new personal best of 1.86 meters, up from 1.84. Senior Carly Tarentino placed just behind her in second, tying with Pittsburgh junior Eva Baldursdottir.
New to Virginia this season, Ellina proved her talent in javelin, assuming yet another first place finish for the Cavaliers. She threw 52.44 meters — well over a meter ahead of the runner up.
Though only a freshman, Rollins clocked a solid silver in the women’s 100 meter hurdles. She even beat out one of the favorites for the race, Duke senior Birgen Nelson, by six thousandths of a second.
The women finished the meet with 93 points, winning the 2025 ACC Outdoor Championships by four points.
The men, however, did not fare as well, ending up in 13th place out of the 17 teams present. Junior Gary Martin ended up not racing in the men’s 1500 finals despite qualifying a couple days earlier. The announcers mentioned that someone had spotted Martin using an ice pack earlier in the meet, and eventually, it was revealed that he had tweaked his hamstring, and he was still intending to race at NCAA East Regionals.
However, there was still one exciting race for the Virginia men. Senior Alex Sherman took down the Virginia men’s 400 meter hurdles record, dropping 0.3 seconds from his personal best, finishing in 49.98 seconds and taking third in the event.
Overall, the ACC Championships were a good showing for the women’s team and prove that they most certainly have some up-and-coming stars for the rest of the season and for the year to come. Meanwhile, the men’s team will have some challenges to overcome heading into the rest of the postseason if they hope to continue raising the standard for their program finish at NCAA Championships.
Before that though, Virginia will head to Jacksonville, Fla. for NCAA East Regionals, startingMay 28 and running through May 31. The women will hope to continue setting a higher standard for the overall team, having gained some confidence from this past weekend, and the men will find their footing for the remainder of the post-season, especially with Martin back on the track.
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