I have been remiss in keeping up with it this year, but ACC Outdoor Championships start today at Wake Forest. Looking at the qualifiers seems like the Hokies are a little bit more well rounded on the ladies side than they have been in the past couple of years. However, it does not appear that JLIV will be participating. Looking through the meet notes from the outdoor season, it looks like he only competed in one meet and his times were not his usual so I'm assuming he is still dinged up from his Indoor Championships injury.
TV coverage for the entire event is on ACCNX with Field/Multi event coverage starting today at 1245 and the running events start this evening at 7. Tomorrow Field/Multi coverage starts at 1245 and the running events start at 6. Saturday's coverage starts at 2 PM.
Men
Decathlon - 5/15 at 12 PM - Nathaniel Paris
Hammer - 5/15 at 2 PM - Lukas Baroke
200m Prelims - 5/15 at 745 PM - Calvin Meyer, Ali Diaby, Kahleje Tillmon - top 1 each heat plus next 5 best times advance
1500m Prelims - 5/15 at 820 PM - Ethan Coleman, Benjamin Reynolds, Roan Kelly, William Winter, Viktor Idhammar - top 2 each heat and next 4 advance
10000m - Nicholas Kipchirchir, Sam Hubert, Linus Chepkochei
Pole Vault - 5/16 at 530 PM - Jack Helmich, Jacob Rice, Conner McClure, Maddox Hamm, Benjamin Conacher
Long Jump - 5/16 at 6 PM - Caleb Stephens
400m Prelims - 5/16 at 652 PM - Samuel Herenton, Tomas Kersulis, and Julian Roberson
800m Prelims - 5/16 at 748 PM - Nicholas Plant, Roan Kelly, Dylan Decambre, Christian Jackson
3000m Steeple - 5/16 at 820 PM - Garrett Winter, Declan Rymer, Cameron Davis
Disus - 5/17 at 2 PM - Vlad Puchko
Triple Jump - 5/17 at 530 PM - Federico Lorenzo Bruno
4x100m Relay - 5/17 at 540 PM
4x400m Relay - 5/17 at 855 PM
Women
Hammer - 5/15 at 5 PM - Barbora Stejfova and Mariana Pestana
Pole Vault - 5/15 at 5 PM - Julia Fixsen, Erin Kelleher, Chiara Sistermann, and Lyndsey Reed
200m Prelims - 5/15 at 735 PM - Logan Daley - top 1 each heat and next 4 advance
1500 m Prelims - 5/15 at 8 PM - Lila Waters - top 2 each heat and next 4 best times advance
10000m - 5/15 at 840 PM - Sophia Holgado
400m Prelims - 5/16 at 640 PM - Caitlyn Bobb
Shot Put - 5/16 at 7 PM - Katie Seyfang, Katrin Brzyszkowska
100m Prelims - 5/16 at 705 PM - Janiya Johnson
800m Prelims - 5/16 at 735 PM - Star Price, Lindsey Butler, Kenza Elakari
3000m Steeple - 5/16 at 8 PM - Elizabeth Coe and Mary Kate McGranahan
Triple Jump - 5/17 at 230 PM - Madison McConico
4x400m Relay - 5/17 at 845 PM
Comments
Nathaniel Paris is in 2nd after day 1 in the decathlon.
Lukas Baroke finished 5th in the hammer.
Mariana Pestana finished 3rd and Barbora Stejfova finished 7th in the hammer.
Lyndsey Reed won the pole vault with Julia Fixsen in a three way tie for 3rd, Chiara Sistermann finished 6th to stack important team points. Needed those after Cal had 4 points scoring ladies in the hammer. Erin Kelleher finished out of the points in 10th.
Logan Daley finished 21st in the 200 and will not advance. Good experience for the freshman and I'm glad to see the Hokies starting to attract some women's sprinters.
Hokies advance 2 to the finals in the mens 200m with Tillmon and Diaby winning their heats.
Lila Waters finishes 5th in her heat and does not advance in the 1500m.
Major disappointment in the mens 1500m. None of the Hokies advance to the final.
Sophia Holgado finished 22nd in the 10000m.
Nicholas Kipchirchir finished 8th in the 10000 and snags a team point. Linus Chepkochei finished 13th and Sam Hubert finished 22nd.
After Day 1, the women are in 2nd one point behind Cal and the men are tied for 6th.
Nathaniel Paris finishes 6th in the decathlon with a new PB.
Conner McClure ties for 2nd in pole vault with Benjamin Conacher in 5th and Maddox Hamm in 7th.
Caleb Stephens finishes 12th in long Jump.
Katie Seyfang finished 6th in Shot Put. Katrin Brzyszkowska DNS.
Caitlyn Bobb won her heat with the top overall time of 51.57 which was also a PB and Bermuds national record.
Samuel Herenton was 3rd in his heat but qualified on time in the 400m. Kersulis and Robinson do not advance.
Janiya Johnson finished 14th in the 100m but dif set a PB.
Lindsey Butler finished 2nd in her heat and advances in the 800m. Star Price was 10th overall and will not advance.
Christian Jackson, Nicholas Plant, and Dylan DeCambre all advance to the 800m final. Roan Kelly was 8th overall with a PB but will not just misses a qualifying spot.
Elizabeth Coe sets a PB and finishes 7th in the Steeplechase. Mary Kate McGranahan finished 11th.
Declan Rymer takes 3rd and Garrett Winter takes 8th in the Steeplechase. Cameron Davis was 10th.
After day 2, the women are in 4th and the men are in 5th.
Not an ideal acc championships. Women finished tied for 9th and UVA wins the title. Men finished 4th.
Vlad Puchko finished 2nd in discus.
Madison McConico finished 10th in triple jump.
Federico Brruno DNS in mens Triple jump.
6th in the mens 4x100
Caitlyn Bobb improves her PB and Bermuda national record to 51.11 in the 400..
Samuel Herenton finished 6th in the 400 with a new PB of 45.95.
Lindsey Butler finished 6th in the 800m.
Christian Jackson took the win and set a new meet record of 1:44.83 in the 800m. Nicholas Plant was 3rd and Dylan DeCambre was 8th.
Tillmon and Diaby finished 4th and 5th in the 200m
Declan Rymer finished 6th in the 5000m
Womens 4x400 was 7th and the men were 2nd.
What's keeping us from being in contention? Coaches, athletes, training, luck?? Just curious as I had thought we had a pretty strong track program, but really don't know much outside of updates here.
Also curious - are indoor and outdoor track coached by the same staffs? I assume the athletes interchange between both as applicable.
We have never won a team title in any sport. Why? unlucky? nah... in the olympic sports you need to invest in top notch coaches- that's really all you need. UVA wins natty's regularly. Because they have top notch olympic coaches. If VT was serious about competing in -insert sport here- They would hire one of Michigan, Stanford, Florida, UVA's coaches - they win them all the time. It's all about investment. We don't invest in olympic sports.
Track coaching Legend retired, might take a session or two to adjust
This was an unusually poor showing. VT has won a lot over the last couple of years by stacking points in a couple of events. In my mind the issues are different on the mens and women's sides.
Men - the depth is solid, however, they just didnt place as high as they have in previous years. The performance in the 1500m stands out as a particular killer. JLIV being out also was a serious hit to the 200m, 400m and 4x400 results.
Women - we don't have much in the way of sprinters competing except for Caitlyn Bobb who has been doing great things nor do we have as many competitive Field folks as in years past. I can't tell you the last time we had anyone competing in Hurdles. It's a lot easier to overcome a roster focused on middle distance, hammer and pole vault in indoor than it is in outdoor. I think this is improving, but doesn't happen overnight. This has been an issue the last couple of years.
As to the same old DC narrative, team titles in track are hard, weather/injuries/off days/fluke false starts play a huge roll plus gaming the events for your people so they dont get worn out before finals. In outdoor over the last decade, only Florida (5), LSU (1), Texas Tech (1), Georgia (1) and Oregon (1) have one. Names don't change much when you look further back either.
Also, VT got Ben Thomas to come back from Oregon to take over the program. If you poo poo the Oregon pedigree, then there isn't anything more to say. He has been successfully recruiting Kenyans for the long distances and cross country which wasn't a thing we were doing previously. Tech had three guys in the 10000m and that is new this year. He also happens to be 1500m gold medalist Cole Hocker's coach and I don't think it is a coincidence that the times in the 800m and 1500m this year have improved.
Yep- the same ole DC narrative... a school in Lubbock TX- more remote than VT, and the 4th -at best - major school in their state- committed to track and field and won a natty. Impossible.
Just stop. You don't have to ruin every TKP thread with the same worn-out take. We get it - you're always right, everything always sucks. Just stop, absolutely nobody is asking for you to reword the same take over and over again in every thread.
yeah- I was mentioned by name in the post above mine... start there. You don't want me to respond? tell your buddies not to call me out. Simple.
🤷♂️
Great insight. Thanks for the comment.
Moving on to East Regionals which are the 28th-31st in Jacksonville. I'm pulling this from the performance list, official start lists haven't been posted yet. Despite a poor showing at ACC championships, a lot of good times this season that qualified folks for regionals. Need to finish in the top 12 to make the NCAAs in Eugene.
Women
-400m - Caitlyn Bobb as the 6th seed
-800m - Lindsey Butler as the 11th seed and Star Price as the 14th seed.
-1500m - Lindsey Butler as the 8th seed.
-3000m Steeplechase- Elizabeth Coe as the 27 seed
-4×400m relay - Daley, Bobb, Price, Butler (this one surprised me) as the 22 seed
-Pole vault - Lyndsey Reed (6), Chiara Sistermann (12), Julia Fixsen (14), Erin Kelleher (23)
-Shot put - Katie Seyfang (12), Katrin Brzyszkowska (18)
-Hammer - Mariana Pestana (6)
Men
200m - Kahleje Tillmon (22), Calvin Meyer(43)
400m - Samuel Herenton (25), Ali Diaby (28), Tomas Kersulis (43)
800m - Christian Jackson (1!), Nicholas Plant (6),
Dylan Decambre (35)
1500m - Viktor Idhammar (10), Roan Kelly (36), Benjamin Reynolds(41)
5000m - Nicholas Kipchirchir (25), Declan Rymer (41)
10000m - Nicholas Kipchirchir (14)
3000m Steeplechase- Declan Rymer (11)
4x100m - 21 - Diaby, Tillmon, Kersulis, Meyer, Herenton
4x400m - 11 - Kersulis, Tillmon, Herenton, Diaby, Meyer
Pole Vault- Benjamin Conacher (1!), Maddox Hamm (12), Conner McClure (20), Jacob Rice (23)
Discus- Vlad Puchko (4)
Hammer- Lukas Baroke (22)
Significant lightning delays today so the mens 1500m now starts at 1025 PM. 400m is 1115, 800m is 1140, 200m is 1230 am. Mens pole vault was moved until tomorrow. Really sucks for the 10000m guys, their start time is now 1255 am to end the first days events.
Womens events start tomorrow.
They did get the hammer throw in before the weather. Lukas Baroke finished 13th with a throw of 212'-2" which is the worst position to finish as only the top 12 move on.
Viktor Idhammar finished 4th in his heat to get one of the automatic qualifying spots for Friday's quarterfinals. Benjamin Reynolds and Roan Kelly won't advance.
Herenton finished 7th in his heat of the 400m and Kersulis finished 8th in his heat. Diaby had a DNF so no Hokies advancing.
Christian Jackson was 3rd in his 800m heat to advance to Friday and Nicholas Plant was 2nd in his heat to qualify. Dylan Decambre was 7th in his heat and won't advance.
Kahleje Tillmon was 3rd in his 200m heat to advance. Calvin Meyer does not advance.
Nicholas Kipchirchir had a DNF in the 10000m.
Mariana Pestana is in 12th in the hammer and moves on to Eugene.
Rough day for the mens pole vaulters. Only Benjamin Conacher moves on to Eugene with his 10th place standing. Maddox Hamm t-13, Jacob Rice 21 and Conner McClure NH.
Lindsey Butler was 2nd in her heat of the 1500m to move on to Saturday.
Caitlyn Bobb was 2nd in her 400m heat to move on to Saturday.
Womens 800m is under review, but if everything stays as is Star Price is in a qualifying spot but Lindsey Butler is not. Hopefully Butler is ok she was 15 seconds off pace, something happened in the 2nd lap.
Women are currently experiencing a weather delay.
Womens pole vault and shot put postponed until tomorrow so that buttons up Hokie action for today.
Womens Pole Vault - Sistermann (T-2), Reed (4), and Fixsen (T-5) all headed to Eugene. Kelleher had a NH.
Womens Shot Put - Seyfang finished 15th and Brzyszkowska finished 22nd so neither advance.
Mens discus - Puchko in 2nd and on his way to Eugene.
4x100 - Hokies in 20th. Still a better day than Duke who got a DQ for an out of zone handoff (really easy to do) and Clemson who had a false starts.
Mens 1500m - Viktor Idhammar finished 9th in his heat and 20th overall so he will not advance.
Mens 3000m Steeplechase- Declan Rymer finishes 4th in his heat but went fast enough to advance on time to Eugene.
Mens 800m - Christian Jackson wins his heat and has the top overall time and Nicholas Plant finished 3rd in his heat and 6th overall so both advance to Eugene.
Mens 200m - Kahleje Tillmon finished 19th and will not advance.
Mens 5000m- Declan Rymer finished 43rd and Nicholas Kipchirchir did not start, wondering if he pulled something in the 10000m.
Mens 4x400 - still showing under review for a protest but looks like the Hokies got a DQ for 2+ steps on or over the lane line. Sucks because their time was good enough for 3rd in heat which would be a qualifying spot.
Ladies events tomorrow for the last day of competition.
1500m - Lindsey Butler finished 4th in her heat and qualifies for Eugene.
3000m Steeplechase- Elizabeth Coe finished 22nd and will not move on.
400m - Caitlyn Bobb finished 2nd in her heat and advances to Eugene.
800m - Star Price finished 20th and will not move on.
4x400 - DQ for the ladies too due to an illegal substitution.