GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – For the first time in league history (indoor or outdoor seasons), each of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Track and Field Performers of the Week holds the nation’s No. 1 mark in his or her respective event.
Georgia Tech’s Avery Bartlett is the league’s Men’s Track Performer of the Week, while Florida State’s Austin Droogsma earned ACC Men's Field Performer of the Week accolades. Miami’s Kayla Johnson earned her second ACC Women’s Track Performer of the Week honor of the outdoor season, and is recognized this week along with the Georgia Tech women’s 4x100 shuttle hurdle relay team. Virginia Tech’s Lisa Gunnarsson claimed ACC Field Women’s Field Performer of the Week honors.
This week’s top ACC track and field performers at a glance:
ACC Men’s Track Performer of the Week
Avery Bartlett, Georgia Tech
Bartlett led the way for Georgia Tech at the Florida Relays on Friday, winning a neck-and-neck race in the 800 meters with a nation-leading time of 1:47.76. The Tallahassee, Florida, junior edged out a first-place finished by 0.14 second, leading a 60-runner field that produced the nation’s top three current men’s 800m times. Bartlett’s time currently leads the ACC by nearly two full seconds.
ACC Women’s Track Performer of the Week
Kayla Johnson, Miami
Johnson continued her outstanding debut season, winning the women's 800 meters at the Florida Relays with an NCAA-leading and school-record time of 2:03.92 that is fastest in the United States this season. Johnson broke Thandi Stewart's school record time of 2:04.06, set in 2014. The freshman also anchored the Hurricanes’ 4x400m relay team to a fourth-place finish with a time of 3:33.19 that leads the ACC and ranks sixth in the NCAA this season.
ACC Women’s Track Performer of the Week
Georgia Tech 4x100 Shuttle Hurdle Relay
In a record-setting performance, the team of Marinice Bauman, Raven Stewart, Kenya Collins and Jeanine Williams took first place overall on Saturday at the Florida Relays with a program-record time of 53.16. Ranking as the ninth-fastest performance all-time in NCAA history, the mark breaks the 13-year-old Georgia Tech school record set in 2005 by Shantia Moss, Fatmata Fofanah, Adriane Butler (formerly Lapsley) and Chaunte Howard - a group that individually amassed six national championships, 15 All-America nods and 15 ACC championships. It is the fastest performance by an ACC team since 2012 and places Georgia Tech fifth on the top-10 list by school behind only Texas A&M, LSU, Illinois and Clemson.
ACC Men’s Field Performer of the Week
Austin Droogsma, Florida State
Droogsma successfully defended his Florida Relays Invitational shot put title in style on Saturday, posting a personal-best and collegiate-leading throw of 20.32 meters (66-8) in his first outdoor effort in the event since placing fourth at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Entering the meet with an outdoor-best of 19.70m, established at the same meet last season, the Gulf Breeze, Florida, native turned back a strong field for the win. In the process he moved to No. 2 on FSU’s all-time list and now ranks No. 14 in the World. He is also the second-ranked American in the World to date and owns a qualifying mark to the June USATF National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Droogsma began his Saturday with an eighth-place finish in the Invitational Discus (55.09m/180-9), which was slightly off his 11
th-ranked season-best.
ACC Women’s Field Performer of the Week
Lisa Gunnarsson, Virginia Tech
Gunnarsson continued her banner college debut season on Saturday, breaking the Virginia Tech school record in the pole vault in her first outdoor meet, as well as establishing the No. 1 mark in the country at the Texas Relays. The freshman from Stockholm, Sweden, cleared a height of 4.60 meters (15-1) to place second, trailing only Olympian Jenn Suhr, who competed unattached. Gunnarsson's mark is tied for the seventh-best women’s jump in collegiate history.