Cavs rake in titles at Relays

As Virginia continues its emergence as a force to be reckoned within collegiate track circles, a few things have to become second nature for the Cavaliers’ athletes.
“Part of doing that is competing well in front of 45,000 people,” said Virginia coach Jason Vigilante.
He can go ahead and put a check mark next to that one.
A selection of Virginia athletes pieced together a strong performance at Philadelphia’s Penn Relays over the weekend, winning three titles in the championship flights of three different field events while also winning several collegiate division titles in running events.
Caitlin Kelly and Yemi Ayeni won the women’s and men’s discus respectively, with Kelly tossing a personal best in her first ever trip to the Penn Relays. Meghan Briggs completed the three field event titles with a win in the javelin, tossing a 172 foot, nine-inch throw on her final opportunity to take the title.
“They were phenomenal,” Vigilante said. “It validates a lot of their training — it justifies all the training and the hard work they put in.”
The Cavaliers piled up several titles in the collegiate sections of various running events too.
In the women’s DMR, junior Sara Casscells, freshman Meagan Gillespie, junior Lyndsay Harper and ACC freshman of the year Morgane Gay teamed for a time of 11:33.00 to win the college section, while Dezubay finished 16th in the 5000-meter championship in an NCAA regional qualifying time of 16:49.61.
The 4x800 meter relay team of sophomore Andrew Lobb, sophomore Emil Heineking, junior Steve Finley and freshman Lance Roller won the college section of the event in 7:22.99.
In the college division of the men’s distance medley relay, the Cavaliers’ quartet of freshman All-Americans Sintayehu Taye and Lance Roller, sophomore Andrew Lobb and junior Steve Finley combined for a first-place finish in 9:43.59.
“We kind of moved some legs around and all the guys we used will be back for one or two years at least,” Vigilante said. “I was really happy with how savvy some of those guys were. They were just terrific.”
The 4x1600 championship section team of freshman Sintayehu Taye, senior Kevin Tschirhart, sophomore Emil Heineking and senior Andrew Jesien finishing runner-up to Arkansas in 16:22.49, with the Razorbacks winning the title in 16:16.11. Virginia’s average of about 4:05 per runner was impressive on a sweltering day in Philadelphia.
“I was exceptionally pleased with how we performed,” Vigilante said. “It’s never pleasant to finish second, but Arkansas has a phenomenal team and we can come away being pleased with our effort.”