Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – Heading into the 2020 season sprints/hurdles coach Tim Vaught had his group write down their goals for the season. For rising senior Caitlan Tate, her goal was to break records, and that's exactly what she did.
Before becoming the first Virginia Tech woman to break four indoor school records in a season, Tate had to rebound from a sophomore season that never really got on track due to an injury sustained in the beginning of the indoor season.
Tate began her career as a 60- and 200-meter runner, but following that season, coach Vaught thought that a change to longer sprints would be beneficial to someone that he saw had the talent to be great, he just didn't know how quickly Tate would acclimate to becoming a 200- and 400-meter runner.
Her record breaking season would begin with a bang as she broke the 300-meter school record with her time of 37.15 seconds at the Virginia Tech Invitational.
Over the following two weekends Tate would see two more records fall. Tate won the 400 meters with a personal best time of 53.21 at the Hokie Invitational. She followed that up by breaking the 200-meter school record with her time of 23.39 and she was also a member of the 4x400-meter relay team that broke the school record with a time of 3:36.24 at the Doc Hale "Elite Meet".
After three consecutive home meets, Tate was ready to test herself against some of the top sprinters in the country as her and the rest of the sprints group went to the Lubbock, Texas to compete at the Texas Tech Shootout, one of the biggest meets of the indoor season.
At Texas Tech, Tate shaved almost two-tenths of a second off her previous personal best time to pass 2010 Bowerman winner Queen Harrison-Claye's school record (53.06) with her time of 53.05 seconds to win the event.
The next stop for the Atlanta, Georgia native was a trip to South Bend, Indiana for the ACC Indoor Championships.
The ACC Championship was a coming-out party for Tate. The Atlanta native shaved six-tenths of a second off her previous personal best to win the 400-meter dash with a time of 52.42 seconds. She then turned in a personal-best time of 23.38 in the 200 to win silver. She also ran the opening leg of the 4x400-meter relay team consisting of herself, Kennedy Dennis, Nykah Smith and Arlicia bush that won gold with a time of 3:38.21.
With her performance in the 400 at the ACC Indoor Championships, Tate held the 14th fastest time in the country and earned an automatic bid for the NCAA Indoor Championships
Though she wasn't able to compete at the NCAA championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
it was a season in which she announced herself to the collegiate track and field world, and accomplished her dreams of being a record breaker.