Pair of Titles Give Cavaliers Day One Lead at ACC Indoor Championships
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Feb. 26, 2015
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BLACKSBURG, Va. – The Virginia men’s track and field team grabbed the lead Thursday at the 2015 ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships at Rector Field House by winning both scored events during day one. Sophomore Jordan Young (Windsor, Ontario) won the weight throw title before the opening day concluded with the Cavaliers winning the distance medley relay.
Virginia leads the competition with 20 points through two events. Virginia Tech is second with 11 points and Pittsburgh is third with nine points.
“On day one, to have two finals and win both gives us a lot of momentum,” said head coach Bryan Fetzer. “You can’t ask for anything more on the first day. We need to build on the spark that Jordan and the DMR gave us.”
Young broke his own school record on each of his first two throws, throwing 22.73m on his first attempt and following with a 22.92m (75-2.5) on his second attempt. His mark ranks him fourth in the nation this season. Young becomes the second Cavalier to win the ACC weight throw title, joining Mike Murphy in 1993.
“The scary thing about Jordan is that he has a lot left in him,” said Fetzer. “He seemed to press on his last few throws as he tried to break a record. He threw better when he was more relaxed. This performance sets him up very well for the NCAA meet in two weeks and sets him up well for a good performance in the shot put on Saturday.”
The distance medley relay of Kyle King (Yorktown, Va.), Payton Hazzard (Huntington, N.Y.), Henry Wynne (Westport, Conn.) and Mike Marsella (Hope Valley, R.I.) took the title, crossing in a time of 9:42.87 as the top five teams were separated by less than two and a half seconds. Marsella’s kick on the final leg gave the Cavaliers their third all-time ACC title in the DMR (2008, 2010).
“They ran a very smart race,” said Fetzer. “It went the way we thought it would go. Mike continues to have confidence in every race he is in and it is great to have a game-changing 400-meter guy in Payton. That puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the field. All four of the guys ran great and executed to game plan perfectly.”
The heptathlon competition began Thursday with three Cavaliers competing. Cam Collins (Calhoun, Ga.) had PRs in the 60m, long jump and shot put and tied his PR in the high jump to sit in seventh place with 2,785 points after day one. Anthony Dunavant (Franklin, Tenn.), who won the shot put with a PR of 44-1.25 and also had a PR in the long jump and a season-best in the 60m, is in ninth place with 2,725 points. Christian Lavorgna (Jefferson, N.J.), who had a PR in the 60m, is in 13th place with 2,503 points.
“The heptathletes are in great position to score heading into day two,” said Fetzer.
The meet will run through Saturday at Rector Field House. Friday’s schedule starts at 11 a.m. with the conclusion of the men’s heptathlon. Friday’s field events (high jump, long jump and women’s pole vault) begin at noon and running races (preliminaries for the 60m, 200m, 400m, 800m, mile and 60m hurdles and the finals of the 5000m) begin at 2 p.m. The meet concludes Saturday with field events (shot put, men’s pole vault, triple jump) starting at 10 a.m. and running events (finals of the 60m, 200m, 400m, 800m, mile, 3000m and the 4x400m relay) starting at noon.