GREENSBORO, N.C. – On Thursday morning the ACC announced awards for the indoor track & field season, as Tech earned 5 of the 8 honors given. Rachel Baxter, Lindsey Butler, Barbora Malíková, and Dave Cianelli claimed awards after a dominant indoor campaign for the Hokies.
Lindsey Butler was awarded Women's Track Performer of the Year, Rachel Baxter earned Women's Field Performer of the Year, Barbora Malíková took home Women's Freshman of the Year, and Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Dave Cianelli won both Women's and Men's Coach of the Year honors.
Butler capped a sensational junior indoor season by capturing the NCAA title in the women's 800 meters on March 12 with a facility record time of 2:01.37 at the Birmingham CrossPlex. That followed her first-place showing at the ACC Championships at Rector Field House, where Butler posted a winning time of 2:01.23 that set a meet, facility and school record. Butler, who hails from Corning, N.Y., also ran a 4:29.8 split on the Hokies' DMR team that set a meet and facility record at the ACC Championships with a winning time of 10:53.75.
Baxter, from Orange, Calif., made her debut on The Bowerman watch list after posting record-setting pole vault marks while winning NCAA and ACC gold medals. Her vault of 4.61m (15' 1.5") placed first at the ACC Championships and set the overall conference and facility records. She improved her own record two weeks later at the NCAA meet, vaulting 4.62m (15' 1.75") to rank fifth in NCAA women's history and win the national title. Baxter is the only student athlete in ACC history, male or female, to win four consecutive ACC indoor pole vaulting titles and only the fourth woman in ACC history to win any event four consecutive years.
Malíková placed second in the women's 400 meters at ACC Championships with a time of 53.32, earning eight points to help push the Hokies towards a team title. The Oldrišov, Czechia native's freshman indoor season also included winning regular-season meet times in the 800 meters (2:05.86) and 600 meters (1:28.02). Malíková finished the winter with the No. 2 600-meter, No. 3 400-meter and No. 9 800-meter times in school history.
Cianelli led the Hokies to the ACC men's indoor title for the second consecutive year and a tie with Duke for the ACC co-championship on the women's side. The Hokie men have now won seven total ACC titles under Cianelli's watch, all of which have come since 2011. Cianelli led the Virginia Tech women's program to the conference championship for the second time in three years and the fourth time overall. The Virginia Tech women went on to place sixth at the NCAA Indoor Championships for the highest indoor finish in women's program history. The Hokies earned a combined 14 men's and women's All-America honors. Cianelli's sweep of the coach of the year awards marks the sixth time that the same coach has earned both the ACC Men's and Women's Indoor Coach of the Year awards, bringing Cianelli's total ACC honors to 17.