CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (theACC.com) – The men’s and women’s 10,000 meter races closed an eventful opening session of the 2019 Atlantic Coast Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships Thursday at Lannigan Field.
It proved a record-setting day for two throwers, as North Carolina sophomore Jill Shippee established new league and ACC mark in the women’s hammer, and Virginia freshman Ethan Dabbs set a new ACC Championship mark in the men’s javelin (see details below).
After placing first in the women’s 10,000 meters two years ago, Notre Dame senior Anna Rohrer returned to the top with a facility record run of 33:30.73. Rohrer placed almost a half-minute ahead of teammate Maddy Denner, who took the silver medal at 34:00.45. Virginia Tech junior Sara Freix claimed the bronze in 34:02.82.
Syracuse junior Iliass Aouani, who set the ACC men’s overall 10K record during the regular season, took the men’s gold medal on Thursday night with a winning time of 29:01.13 that was less than a second off the facility record. Virginia’s Brent Demarest placed second at 29:17.26, and Boston College junior Sean Burke took the bronze at 29:26.40.
Rohrer, who also holds the ACC’s overall women’s 10,000 meters record of 31:58.99, placed second at last year’s ACC Championship behind a meet record by Louisville’s Dorcas Wasike. Another showdown between the two elite runners failed to materialize, as Wasike was forced to withdraw from the race well before the finish.
Host Virginia finished opening day leading the men’s scoring with 34 team points. Syracuse holds second with 15, followed by Notre Dame and Pitt with 12 points each. Louisville holds fifth place with eight points.
Florida State leads on the women’s side with 39 points, and Notre Dame and Virginia Tech share second place with 25 points apiece. North Carolina is fourth with 25, followed by Virginia with 13 points and Wake Forest with 12.
In addition to the finals in five men’s and women’s field events, Thursday’s slate also included the start of the men’s decathlon and women’s heptathlon, in addition to preliminaries in six running events.
Please see the link below for complete results of all of Thursday’s final and preliminary events:
https://theacc.co/otf19results
Day two of the three-day ACC Championship is set for Friday, beginning with the conclusion of the men’s decathlon at 11 a.m. Other schedule highlights include finals in six field events, as well as the men’s and women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase. Also slated for Friday are the concluding events of women’s heptathlon, as well as preliminaries in a combined eight men’s and women’s running events.
ACC Network Extra will continue its coverage on Friday and Saturday evenings. Sean Kenney returns to handle play-by-play, while former U.S. Olympic standout Dan O’Brien will serve as analyst. The pair will be joined by distance race analyst David Mitchell and Melanie Newman as sideline reporter.
Friday’s live coverage will air from 6 p.m. until 8:30 p.m., followed by Saturday’s finals from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m.
Links to each day’s livestream:
Other links of interest:
Schedule of Events:
https://theacc.co/otf19sched
Live Results:
https://theacc.co/otf19results
Make sure to follow @ACCTrackField on Twitter throughout both days for news and updates.
WOMEN’S HAMMER
North Carolina’s Shippee became the first competitor of the 2019 ACC Outdoor Championships to put her named into the record books. Shippee’s gold medal hammer throw of 68.36m (224-3) on her fourth attempt set both the ACC overall and meet mark. Virginia Tech senior Pavla Kuklova placed second at 65.78 meters. Defending champion Emma Thor of Virginia Tech took this year’s bronze medal with a personal best throw of 65.31 meters.
MEN’S JAVELIN
It is debatable as to whether a “homefield advantage” can exist in the javelin throw, but Virginia’s Dabbs appeared more than comfortable as he registered his ACC Championship record toss of 76.04 meters (249-06) on his very first attempt. That more than held up for the gold medal, as 2018 champion Kiegan Liehan of Duke took the silver with a throw of 70.97m, and Clemson junior Dylan Aherns was third with a throw of 66 meters.
WOMEN’S JAVELIN
North Carolina freshman Madison Wiltrout took the gold medal with a throw of 55.60 meters in her ACC Championship debut. Defending champion Laurie Paredes of Florida State took the silver at 53.77m, and Virginia’s Maria Bogavac was next at 48.78m.
MEN’S LONG JUMP
Jordan Scott entered the ACC Championships as the league record holder in the men’s triple jump, but the Virginia junior didn’t wait until that event to grab a gold medal. Scott jumped 7.83m (25-8.25) to place first in long jump on Thursday evening. Florida State sophomore Jacore Irving followed at 7.56m, finishing on progressions ahead of Virginia freshman Ayende Watson, who posted the same mark in claiming the bronze.
WOMEN’S LONG JUMP
Florida State placed one-two in the women’s long jump, with a pair of seniors coming up big. Rougui Sow took the gold medal with a leap of 6.48 meters (21-3.25) on her fourth attempt, while Jogaile Petrokaite’s jump of 6.44m on her third attempt was good for the silver. NC State’s Janel Pate took the bronze at 6.34m.
MEN’S DECATHLON
Consistency paid off on day one for Louisville freshman Michael Johnson, who did not place first in any of Thursday’s five men’s decathlon event, but will hold the points lead heading into Friday.
Johnson closed the day with 3,683 total points. Virginia Tech freshman Sean Murphy is a close second at 3,674, followed by Louisville sophomore Dominic McClinton (3,644) and Virginia Tech sophomore Jaelyn Demory (3,574).
A glance at Thursday’s decathlon action by event:
- Virginia Tech’s Demory opened the day with a first-place time of 11.01 in the 100 meters, .03 ahead of runner-up Johnson of Louisville.
- Decathlon veteran Andreas Christodoulou of Miami posted an event-winning 6.99 meters on his final long jump attempt, pushing past Louisville’s McClinton.
- Virginia Tech’s Murphy delivered a shot put throw of 12.21 meters on his first attempt and made it stand up for first-place decathlon points. He edged teammate Demory, who placed second by a fraction (12.20m).
- Murphy made it back-to-back event wins with a field-leading high jump of 2.02 meters. Louisville’s McClinton (1.96m) and Johnson (1.93m) placed a respective second and third.
The decathlon wraps up on Friday with the 110 hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500 meters.
WOMEN’S HEPTATHLON
Defending ACC outdoor heptathlon/NCAA indoor pentathlon champion Michelle Atherley of didn’t disappoint on Thursday. Placing or tying for first in each of the first four events, the Miami finished the day atop the leader board with 3,647 points. Duke’s Erin Marsh – who placed second behind Atherley with a strong showing at the ACC Indoors pentathlon in Feburary – held second place Thursday with 3,502 points. She was followed by NC State’s Timara Chapman (3,241) and Louisville’s Holly Hankenson (3,173).
A glance at Thursday’ decathlon by event:
- Atherley wasted little time asserting herself, posting a winning 100 hurdles time of 13.14 that placed more than a half-second in front of the second-place Marsh.
- Atherley and Marsh each registered 1.72 meters (5-5.75) to lead the heptathlon high jump.
- Atherley launched a shot put throw of 12.61 meters (41-4.5) on her first attempt, and that more than held up for the lead in that event. NC State’s Chapman was next at 11.91m (39-1).
- It was all Atherley again in Thursday’s 200-meter finale as her time of 24.19 led Marsh (24.61) and Chapman (25.17).
Three hepathlon events – the long jump, javelin and 800 meters – remain on the docket for Friday.