Cavaliers Open Up at ACC Championships

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Feb. 14, 2002

Chapel Hill, NC – The Virginia Cavaliers travel to Chapel Hill, NC this weekend to compete in the ACC Indoor Championships. Naccole Guinn, the defending champion in the triple jump, returns to defend her title and three other Cavliers who were on the All-Conference team also look to improve their places from last year and help the Cavaliers finish in the uper echleon of the conference. Kiamesha Otey, Shay Clark, and Eliese Mitchell, all medallists from 2001, are all back for Randy Bungard’s Cavaliers. Otey and Clark are the conference leaders this season in the 60-meter dashes, and Mitchell has the conference’s third-best mark in the 20# weight throw so far.

Otey, who has qualified provisionally for the NCAA meet in the long jump already, has the ACC’s second-best jump this season at 20′ 4″, one inch behind leader Terri Robinson of Clemson. Otey also has the fastest time in the 60-meter dash in 2002, sprinting 7.47, .05 in front of Robinson. Otey also holds the third-fastest time in the 200-meter dash at 24.39, which is also an NCAA provisional qualifying mark.

Carielle Doe, who has also qualified provisionally in the 400-meter dash, ran a 54.52 last weekend at Virginia Tech to take the lead in the conference standings this season. She is the third-fastest performer at that distance indoors in school history, and her mark leads all other ACC performers by .24 seconds. Doe is also ranked in the ACC at 200 meters, coming in seventh with a time of 24.60.

Guinn, an All-American in the triple jump in 2001, holds the third-longest jump this season in the ACC. Right behind her is teammate Curtrell Frye, whose top jump this season is a quarter of an inch behind Guinn, making Virginia the only school with two of the top four performers in the triple jump.

The Cavaliers also show a great deal of depth in the 5000-meter run as four Hoos are rankedin the top eight, led by Sarah Folse at 17:20.37. Folse, an All-ACC performer in cross country the last two seasons, leads teammates Jane Maxwell, Meg McGarvey and Ashley Seaton under the 18-minute mark in the 5k run thus far in 2002. Other distance runners ranked in the top six include Sharon O’Connor in the mile (4:52.57).

Mitchell is ranked sixth in the shotput following her personal-best throw last weekend at 47′ 10″. The school-record holder in the 20# weight, Mitchell had two throws over 19 meters last week but fouled on both attempts.

Virginia’s depth in the high jump is also solid as the Cavaliers are the only team with three teammates ranked in the top nine heading into the Championships. Jessica Randolph (5′ 5.75″) leads the way for Virginia.

On the men’s side, the Cavaliers have a pair of athletes ranked in the conference’s top two heading into the meet. Besides Clark who leads the 60-meter dash, Jarrett Hagwood holds the ACC’s second-fastest time in the 60-meter hurdles at 7.93. Hagwood is also ranked eighth in the long jump at 23′ 7″, which is just six inches shy of the third-best jump thus far in 2002. Clark is also ranked in a second event, coming in with the seventh-best time in the 200-meter dash (21.81). Ranked right behind him is teammate Scott Kimball (21.93). Herb Ried is also among the conference leaders in the 60-meter hurdles, having run 8.31 this season.

Matt Antunes comes into the meet with the fourth-fastest 800-meter run time, clocking a 1:53.08 earlier this season. Steve Gross also sits in the top-ten in the ACC, running 1:54.44 last week. Both relays (1600m, distance medley) are ranked third going into ACC’s.

Other Cavaliers who are ranked in the conference’s top ten include high jumpers Mike Riso and Chris Clementson, who have both cleared 6′ 7″ this season, and shot putters Tim Bilmanis and Ben Vincent. Bilmanis is ranked ninth (48′ 2.25″) and Vincent is tenth (47′ 11.25″). Andy Filachek holds the tenth-fastest time in the ACC in the 5K, running a 15:09.20.

The Virginia women finished in fourth last year with 80 points, just 4 points out of third place. The men took sixth, a point behind fifth place.