Cavaliers Head to NYC to Compete in Virginia Duals
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. The Virginia track and field teams will travel to New York City this weekend to compete in the Virginia Duals at the Armory Track and Field Center. The Cavaliers will join Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Lehigh, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Rutgers and Wake Forest in a unique scored event on Saturday evening, with events kicking off at 6:30 p.m. and concluding with the men’s 4x400m relay at 10 p.m.
The Cavaliers have already made a successful run this season, as they have set four school records and provisionally qualified eight competitors into five events at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Senior Yemi Ayeni and freshmen Morgane Gay and Matt Meyer have each broke the school record in their respective events with a provisionally qualifying mark, while junior Ayla Smith (Winchester, Va.) and the men’s distance medley relay team met the provisional mark for their events.
At the VT Challenge, Ayeni (Kendall Park, N.J.) threw a personal-best distance of 61’ 8.75” to break his own school record in the shot put and earn ACC Performer of the Week honors. His throw currently leads the ACC and ranks fourth in the nation.
Gay (Bethesda, Md.), competing in her first collegiate 800m race at the Penn State National Invitational, shattered Kim Kelly’s 2:09.27 school record from 1985 with her time of 2:08.07. Gay currently ranks 17th on the national charts.
Meyer (Suhlendorf, Germany) broke the previous long jump record of 24’ 7.25” held by Marion Mason and Tiki Barber with a leap of 24’ 8.75” at the Virginia Tech Invitational. Meyer’s jump places him 19th nationally.
Smith (Winchester, Va.), Virginia’s school record holder in the 60m hurdles, competed in her first-ever pentathlon competition at the PSU National Invite and finished fourth at the meet with 3778 points, ranking her fourth on Virginia’s all-time pentathlon records and 18th-nationally. Earlier this season, she shattered Kim Turko’s 8.55 60m hurdle record from 2001, running 8.45 at the VT Challenge. She is currently one-tenth of a second shy of reaching the NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the event.
The DMR team of freshman Kevin Anding (Houstin, Texas), redshirt freshman Emil Heineking (Chardon, Ohio), freshman Lance Roller (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) and senior Kevin Tschirhart (Northport, N.Y.) finished second at the PSU National Invite in a season-best time of 9:45.55. The quartet currently holds 11th on the national charts.
Following the Virginia Duals, the Cavaliers will take a weekend off to prepare for the ACC Championships, set to take place at Virginia Tech. Events will begin on Thursday, Feb. 26 and conclude on Saturday, Feb. 28.