Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG, Va. - An all-around team effort from top to bottom proved to be the difference as the No. 8-ranked Virginia Tech men’s team claimed the 2015 ACC Indoor Track & Field Championship title. Tech claimed 101 total points, beating out the nearest competitor, Florida State, by almost 15 points.
“A championship like this doesn’t happen by accident,” exclaimed Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Dave Cianelli. “It takes a lot of preparation and a lot of thought in building a team that can go into a meet and have a chance to win. You have to go back a year with a recruiting class and the kids on the team that have come so far within a year. When I see this, it’s a 12-month process. You go in and you let them go. You let them compete, and at the end of the day, you see how it ends up. The way we competed, even if we had finished second, I couldn’t have asked for any more. It’s very gratifying to see it all come together.”
In all, Tech’s men claimed four individual titles on the final day of championships. Patrick Joseph, Manuel Ziegler, Chris Uhle and Thomas Curtin each earned gold medals in their respective events to help power the Hokies to a team title.
The day started off with the men’s one-mile race. Key points were earned by Tech as Patrick Joseph won the event and Neil Gourley finished third for the Hokies. It looked as if Duke’s Nate McClafferty was going to claim the title with two laps remaining, but on the final lap, Joseph used a tremendous kick to surge ahead of McClafferty and claim the win with a time of 4:01.57. Gourley earned his bronze in a time of 4:03.25, earning Tech a total of 16 points in the event.
While the running events were going on, the men’s pole vault proved to be the Hokies biggest point earner. All five Tech athletes competing in the event claimed points for Tech, with Chris Uhle claiming the gold medal. Jared Allison earned the bronze for Tech and Brad Johnson, James Steck and Jeffrey Linta all earned points.
“They’ve had a really solid season, and I just needed them to perform one more time like they have all season. They did that in spades,” explained pole vault coach Bob Phillips. “They came back and jumped really well under a lot of pressure. I was extremely proud of all those guys. It hurt to have Torben [Laidig] out [with an injury] – he was last year’s champion in this event – but the other guys really stepped in and filled the void.”
Uhle proved to be the one to beat in the pole vault from his first jump. After passing on the first height, Uhle hit six-straight heights on his first attempts. Georgia Tech’s Nikita Kirilov was neck-and-neck with Uhle until he was forced to leave the competition due to an ankle injury. Uhle’s mark of 18’1.25” (5.52m) matched his career best. Jared Allison claimed third with a jump of 17’1.5” (5.22m) while Johnson, Steck and Linta achieved career-bests to move into scoring position. Tech’s pole vault crew claimed 25 total points.
Ziegler set an ACC and school record in the men’s triple jump to claim the gold over a formidable opponent in Louisville’s Ben Williams. Ziegler and Williams went head-to-head earlier this season at the Doc Hale Virginia Tech Elite Meet that ended with Williams winning the event, but Ziegler was able to out jump Williams when it mattered most. Ziegler’s second jump of the day of 54’1” (16.48m) was enough to win the competition and claim the school record, but Ziegler outdid himself on his fifth jump by hitting a mark of 54’6 (16.61m) to break the school and ACC record. Ziegler’s jump earned 10 points for Tech.
J.C. Coleman was a true competitor in the men’s 60-meter dash, finishing in fifth place earning the Hokies valuable points with a time of 6.89 seconds, earning four points for Tech.
Grant Pollock finished in sixth place in the men’s 800, claiming three points for the Hokies. Pollock crossed the finish line at 1:50.82.
Marek Barta finished in seventh place in the men’s shot put, earning Tech two points. Barta’s throw of 57’5.5” (17.51m) on his second throw of the day put him in scoring contention and allowed him to earn Tech the valuable points.
Florida State was within striking distance after claiming valuable points in the shot put and 800, it came down to one of the Hokies’ best, Thomas Curtin. If the Hokies could clinch valuable points out of both Curtin and teammate Darren Barlow, Tech had the ability to take the title. Curtin and Barlow did their job, with Curtin ultimately winning the race in an ACC Championship record time of 7:52.92. With a few laps to go, Syracuse’s Martin Hehir, the winner of last night’s 5000-meter race, took the lead from Curtin. A powerful final two laps from Curtin, however, was enough to claim the gold medal. Curtin’s teammate Darren Barlow finished in fourth place bringing Tech’s point total to 99 points, knocking Florida State out of contention for the team title and clinching it for the Hokies.
Tech’s 4x400-meter relay team of Prince Owusu, Martin Dally, Chester Hebden and Dante Price finished in seventh place overall, earning the Hokies two more points to bring the squad’s point total to 101.
It wasn’t only the men’s team who put in quality performances on the final day of competition. Hanna Green won the ACC Championship title in the women’s 800-meter race defeating the national leader in the event in Clemson’s Natoya Goule. With a lap to go, Clemson’s Goule seemed like she was going to take the title with ease, but Tech’s Green had other ideas. On the final straightaway, Green used a powerful kick to edge out Goule at the finish line by fourteen hundredths of a second. Green’s time of 2:03.43 was a championship, facility and school record. In addition, it was also a personal best for the young Green. In the same race, Amanda Smith finished in fourth place with a time of 2:04.49.
Sarah Rapp earned the silver medal in the women’s 3000 with a time of 9:12.86. Rapp kept herself in the thick of things throughout the entire race and surged ahead with Notre Dame’s Molly Seidel. It was a foot race at the finish that Seidel was ultimately able to win. Paige Kvartunas took fourth in the same race with a time of 9:16.53.
Shannon Morton finished fourth in the women’s mile. Morton crossed the finish line at 4:43.48.
In all, the women’s team finished in eighth-place overall with 44.50 total points.
The Tech men and women combined won five individual ACC Championships.
The Hokies will be back in action as several Tech athletes will be headed to the 2015 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in two weeks.
The ACC Championships served as the point in the Commonwealth Clash, presented by Virginia529, the official college savings plan of Virginia Tech Athletics. With a higher finish today from Virginia Tech (Men’s Indoor Track & Field and Women’s Indoor Track and Field, they have added a point for their school to the Virginia529 Commonwealth Clash. The score for the Clash is now, University of Virginia 7.5 and Virginia Tech 5.5. Learn more about Virginia529 and this new competition at www.thecommonwealthclash.com