Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – Dave Cianelli, Virginia Tech’s director of track and field and cross country, has been named the ACC Men’s Coach of the Year for the 2016 outdoor track and field season according to a vote among the league’s head coaches.
"It is an honor to be recognized by the outstanding coaches in a great conference (ACC),” Cianelli said. “But this award reflects directly on the fantastic job the student-athletes, the coaching staff and the support staff did this season. They deserve all the credit.”
Cianelli guided the men’s program to the ACC team title at the ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championships held May 13-15 in Tallahassee, Florida. Led by a group of pole vaulters who took the top seven places in the event and by Thomas Curtin, who won gold medals in the 10,000- and 5,000-meter runs, the Tech men amassed 129 points, finishing 36 points ahead of second-place NC State.
The ACC outdoor title marked the Hokies’ second outdoor crown as a program and its sixth overall (indoor, outdoor, and cross country). The Tech men last won the outdoor title in 2012.
The Tech men’s team finished eighth at the recent NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships held in Eugene, Oregon last week. The program has finished in the top 10 in three of the past six years.
Cianelli now has won 10 ACC Coach of the Year honors since the school joined the league for the 2004-05 season. He just completed his 15th season as the head of the Hokies’ track and field and cross country programs, having come to Blacksburg in 2001.