Lavender Named Women's Track MVP at ACC Indoor Championships

Story Links

March 1, 2014

Lavender Interview | Complete Results

CLEMSON, S.C. – Virginia junior Jordan Lavender was named the Women’s Track MVP at the 2014 ACC Indoor Track & Field Championships. The meet, which concluded Saturday at Clemson Indoor Track & Field Complex, saw the Cavalier men finish sixth and the women tied for 10th place.

Lavender becomes the first Cavalier woman to win the award. She shined on Saturday, winning the 400m title and finishing runner-up in the 200m.

“Jordan had a very special performance today,” said head coach Bryan Fetzer. “Keep in mind she didn’t make the ACC final or score her freshman year indoors. Now, two years later, to be the ACC Track Athlete of the Year and one of the fastest 400m runners in the NCAA says a lot about how she prepares and competes.”

WOMEN’S DAY THREE RECAP

The Cavaliers finished in a 10th place tie with 32 points. Florida State (96.50 pts) won the championship, followed by Duke (83), Notre Dame (65), Miami (62) and Virginia Tech (52).

“We are very young overall but that is not an excuse,” said Fetzer. “We have to learn to compete better in pressure situations. Championships are about competing. Times and past results do not matter, it’s what you do today. We need to see as the outdoor season starts who we are as a team. They need to look at their peers, such as the men’s basketball team, as a great example of what we need to do as a group. They where at a point after a few tough losses early on that they could’ve fallen apart but they regrouped and won a championship. We need to use that as an example going forward.”

Lavender highlighted the Cavaliers final day of the meet. She claimed her second career ACC championship, winning the 400m in a time of 52.75. Last year, she was the ACC outdoor 400m title. She followed that performance by running 23.96 in the women’s 200m, just .02 off the school record time she set earlier this season to finish second. Peyton Chaney (Belleville, Ill.) was seventh in the 200m, with a time of 24.66.

Vicky Fouhy (Buckinghamshire, England) also scored for Virginia, placing seventh in the mile with a time of 4:46.18.

The meet ended with the Cavalier 4x400m relay team of Chaney, Lavender, Vanessa Fabrizio (Denver, Colo.) and Andrea Wright (Chesapeake, Va.) finishing fifth in a time of 3:42.27.

MEN’S DAY THREE RECAP

The Cavaliers finished in sixth place with 54 points. Florida State (96 pts) won the championship, followed by North Carolina (89), Notre Dame (84), Duke (67), Virginia Tech (65) and Virginia.

“We knew going into today that most of our points would come at the end of the meet,” said Fetzer. “Our freshman (Marsella, Wynne, Rogers, Worrell, Bartha, Chavez, Herriott) stepped up on the final day. To finish sixth in a conference as tough as the ACC, with only having competitors in 50 percent of the events, says a lot about what we can do in the future. We have a long ways to go but we are on the right track.”

The Cavaliers had a strong performance in the triple jump, with both Aaron Worrell (Fort Eustis, Va.) and Ryan Satchell (Central Islip, N.Y.) earning All-ACC honors. Worrell was second with a jump of 51’3.75″, breaking his own UVa freshman record and posting the fifth best jump in school history. Satchell was third with a jump of 50’10.25″.

Virginia also had two athletes score in the 3000m. Thomas Porter (Fredericksburg, Va.) also earned All-ACC honors, as he finished third in the 3000m with a time of 8:18.00. Zach Herriott (Kansas City, Mo.) added a seventh place finish in a time of 8:21.90.

Drequan Hoskey (Richmond, Va.) ran the second-fastest time in school history, 7.79, to finish second in the 60m hurdles and earn All-ACC honors.

Mike Marsella (Hope Valley, R.I.) also earned All-ACC honors, finishing second in the 800m. His time of 1:51.41 was the fifth-best freshman time in school history, and was just .03 seconds behind the winner. Henry Wynne (Westport, Conn.) scored a point his first ACC meet, finishing eighth in the mile with a time of 4:14.18.

The Cavaliers ended the meet with a fourth-place finish in the 4x400m relay. The Cavalier team of David Bartha (Bonyhad, Hungary), Anthony Kostelac (Charlottesville, Va.), Austin Chavez (Annandale, Va.) and Payton Hazzard (Huntington, N.Y.) ran a time of 3:16.62.