Track & Field Travels to Tallahassee for ACC Outdoor Championships

Story Links

May 12, 2015

CHARLOTTESVILLE – The Virginia men’s and women’s track and field teams travel to Florida State this week for the 2015 ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The meet will be held Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Mike Long Track in Tallahassee. Live results will be available at the ACC Championship website on theACC.com and ESPN3 will provide online coverage of evening events on all three days.

The meet begins 10 a.m. Thursday with day one of the women’s heptathlon and men’s decathlon. The opening day schedule also includes the men’s and women’s hammer throw and men’s and women’s long jump. The day concludes with the preliminary rounds of the 400m hurdles, 200m and 1500m and the finals of the 10000m. ESPN3 coverage begins at 7 p.m.

Friday’s schedule starts at 10 a.m. with field events (women’s javelin, shot put, women’s pole vault, men’s high jump) and the conclusion of the heptathlon and decathlon. Track events (preliminaries for the 100m hurdles, 400m, 100m and 800m, followed by the finals of the 3000m steeplechase) begin at 5:45 p.m and ESPN3 coverage begins at 7 p.m.

On the final day, field events (men’s javelin, women’s high jump, discus, triple jump, men’s pole vault) begin at 11 a.m. Track events (4x100m relays, finals of the 1500m, 100m hurdles, 400m, 100m, 800m, 400m hurdles, 200m, 5000m and 4x400m relays) begin at 5 p.m. and ESPN3 coverage begins at 6 p.m.

The Cavaliers look to improve upon last year’s finishes when the women were seventh and the men were eighth. The Virginia women have won five titles, claiming the first five championship meets from 1983-87. The Cavalier men won their only title in 2009.

Virginia will have six athletes in action who have won an ACC Championship during their career, either indoors or outdoors. Jordan Lavender (Nashville, Tenn.) is the two-time defending ACC outdoor champion in the women’s 400m. Filip Mihaljevic (Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina) is the reigning ACC champion in the men’s discus, Kyle King (Yorktown, Va.) is the reigning champion in the men’s steeplechase and Ryan Satchell (Central Islip, N.Y.) won the men’s triple jump at last year’s outdoor meet. Payton Hazzard (Huntington, N.Y.) was the men’s 400m champion at this year’s ACC Indoor Championships, while Jordan Young (Windsor, Ontario) won the weight throw at that meet.

The Cavalier men have the top-seeded athlete in three events. Mihaljevic and Young are the top two seeds in both the shot put and discus, while Young has the conference’s best mark in the hammer throw.

The meet will also signify the outdoor track and field matchup between Virginia and Virginia Tech in the Commonwealth Clash, sponsored by Virginia529, the official college savings plan of University of Virginia Athletics. There are two points at stake in the Virginia529 Commonwealth Clash, the new point rivalry series between University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. The school that finishes higher in each competition, men’s and women’s, will receive a point in the competition. The Cavaliers have already clinched the 2014-15 Commonwealth Clash as they hold a 13-7 lead with just the two outdoor track and field points remaining . Learn more about Virginia529 and this new competition at thecommonwealthclash.com.

Virginia will return to action later this month with athletes competing at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds. The 48 individuals and 24 relay teams selected for each event at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds will be announced on Thursday, May 21. The meet will run May 28-30 at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.