GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – Three national champions and five All-Americans highlight the 2021-22 Atlantic Coast Conference Indoor Track and Field season awards announced on Thursday.
NCAA gold medalists Trey Cunningham of Florida State (Men’s Track Performer of the Year), and Lindsey Butler (Women’s Track Performer of the Year) and Rachel Baxter (Women’s Field Performer of the Year) of Virginia Tech were among the honorees selected in a vote of the league’s head coaches.
Virginia Tech claimed five of the eight season awards with Barbora Malíková earning ACC Women’s Freshman of the Year honors and Dave Cianelli selected both Men’s and Women’s Coach of the Year. Miami’s Isaiah Holmes was voted the ACC Men’s Field Performer of the Year, and Clemson’s Daniel Cope claimed Men’s Freshman of the Year accolades.
FSU’s Cunningham was named the ACC Men’s Indoor Track Performer of the Year for the second time (also 2020) after winning the NCAA title in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 7.38 that stands as the second-fastest in NCAA history and is just 0.03 seconds off the all-time collegiate record. Cunningham is the only 60-meter hurdler in NCAA history to post four times under 7.42, including his time of 7.40 during the ACC Championships preliminaries that set a meet and (then) overall conference record. The Winfield, Alabama, native became the first five-time single-event champion in ACC Indoor Championships history.
Butler capped a sensational junior Indoor season by capturing the NCAA gold medal in the women’s 800 meters with a facility record time of 2:01.37 at the Birmingham CrossPlex. That followed her first-place showing at the ACC Championships at Virginia Tech’s 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, New York, also ran a 4:29.89 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, California, made her debut on The Bowerman Watch List after posting record-setting pole vault marks in winning NCAA and ACC gold medals. Her vault of 4.61 meters (15’1.5”) placed first at the ACC Championships and set overall conference and facility records. She topped herself two weeks later at the national finals, vaulting 4.62 meters (15’1.75”) to rank fifth in NCAA women’s history. Baxter is the only student-athlete in ACC history – male or female – to win the four consecutive conference indoor pole vaulting titles and only the fourth woman in ACC history to win any event four consecutive years.
Miami’s Holmes earned Most Valuable Men’s Field Performer at the ACC Championships with first-place marks in both the long jump (8.03m/26’4.5”) and high jump (2.17m/7’1.5”). His ACC Championship long jump mark set a program record, as did his high jump of 2.19 meters at Meyo Invitational during the regular season. The grad student from Roseville, California, earned second-team All-America honors in the long jump with an 11th-place mark of 7.15 meters (23’5.5”) at the NCAA finals. Holmes, a 2022 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholars Finalist, ranked fourth nationally in the long jump and 17th nationally in the high jump during the regular season.
Clemson’s Cope took home the gold medal in the weight throw at the ACC Championships with a toss of 22.28 meters (73’1.35”) that broke his own school record and set a new Jamaican national record mark. Cope had set the previous school record with his throw of 21.43 meters (70’3.75”) at the Tiger Paw Invitational. He closed out the Indoor season by earning second-team All-America honors with his throw of 20.71 meters (67’11.5”) at the NCAA Championships.
Virginia Tech’s Malíková placed second in the women’s 400 meters at ACC Championships with a time of 53.32, earning eight points that loomed big when the Hokies ended the meet tied with Duke for the team title. The Oldrišov, Czech Republic, 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.
Virginia Tech’s 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 league 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 finish in women’s program history. The Hokies earned a combined 14 men’s and women’s All-America honors.
This marks the sixth time that the same coach has earned both the ACC Men’s and Women’s Indoor Coach of the Year awards and the first time since Florida State’s Bob Braman claimed both in 2018.