Romero, Lananna Earn VaSID Men’s Outdoor Track Top Awards
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia’s discus thrower Claudio Romero and head coach Vin Lananna earned the State Field Athlete of the Year and Coach of the Year awards as announced by the Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID) Thursday (July 6).
Two-time All-American Claudio Romero was named the 2022 VaSID Field Athlete of the Year after a sophomore campaign that ended with the NCAA discus title. Romero threw a personal-best mark of 67.02 at the historic Penn Relays which set meet, school, and ACC records while meeting the entry standard for the World Athletics Championships. Romero won his second consecutive ACC discus championship and secured the first NCAA individual championship for the men’s program since 2017. Romero was named the ACC Field Athlete of the Year as well as the USTFCCCA Regional Field Athlete of the Year.
Lananna was named the VaSID All-State Coach of the Year after coaching the Cavaliers to a third-place finish at the ACC Championships, their sixth top-three finish in seven years. Lananna’s men scored a total of 18 points at the NCAA Championships and placed 14th, their highest finish since 2017, and third-highest all-time.
VaSID names 44 all-state teams in 23 sports each year, as well as an Academic All-State squad and an all-sports champion in both the University and College Divisions. Membership in VaSID is open to all media relations professionals working at a university or conference in the state of Virginia.
Coach of the Year: Vin Lananna, Virginia
Field Athlete of the Year: Claudio Romero, Virginia
Field Rookie of the Year: Kennedy Sauder, Liberty
Track Athlete of the Year: Cole Beck, Virginia Tech
Track Rookie of the Year: Kahleje Tillmon, Virginia Tech
VaSID All-State First Team:
Sprints: Cole Beck, Virginia Tech
Sprints: Jordan Willis, Virginia
Sprints: Kennedy Harrison, Virginia Tech
Middle Distance: Seb Anthony, Virginia Tech
Middle Distance: Wes Porter, Virginia
Distance: Ben Fleming, Virginia
Distance: Yasin Sado, Virginia
Distance: Antonio Lopez Segura, Virginia Tech
Hurdles: Felix Lawrence, Liberty
Hurdles: Emmanuel Waller, VCU
4x100m: Virginia Tech
4x400m: Virginia
Jumps: Chauncey Chambers, Virginia Tech
Jumps: Owayne Owens, Virginia
Jumps: Kennedy Sauder, Liberty
Jumps: Quinten Clay, Liberty
Throws: Bedoui Khalil, Virginia Tech
Throws: Claudio Romero, Virginia
Throws: Kevin Nedrick, Liberty
Throws: Jacob Lemmon, Virginia
Multi: Sean Murphy, Virginia Tech
VaSID All-State Second Team:
Sprints: Kahleje Tillmon: Virginia Tech
Sprints: Christian Lyon, Liberty
Sprints: Kai Cole, Norfolk State
Middle Distance: Ryan Drew, Liberty
Middle Distance: Conor Murphy, Virginia
Distance: Ben Nibbelink, Virginia Tech
Distance: Felix Kandie, Liberty
Distance: Nathan Mountain, Virginia
Hurdles: Alex Sherman, Virginia
Hurdles: Luke Anderson, Liberty
4x100m: Liberty
4x400m Norfolk State
Jumps: Aidan Clark, Virginia Tech
Jumps, Joshua Peterson, Norfolk State
Jumps: KJ Moore, Virginia Tech
Jumps: Donald McClinton, Liberty
Jumps: Anders Janes, Liberty
Throws: John Hicks, Liberty
Throws: Tyson Jones, Virginia Tech
Throws: Evangelos Fradelakis, Virginia
Throws: Jaekob Vollbrecht, VCU
Multi: Anthony Bryan, Liberty