UVa takes third at ACC Indoor Championships

If Virginia’s men’s track and field team wants to become one of the nation’s premiere programs, the Cavaliers’ athletes will have to perform at their best on the sport’s biggest stages.
They’re off to a good start.
In Jason Vigilante’s first year at the helm, Virginia put together its best-ever performance at the ACC Indoor Championships in Blacksburg, placing third for the first time in school history.
“I’m so proud of our coaching staff,” Vigilante said. “Every event group indicated that our best performances were available when it matters most and that’s not easy to do.”
Things got started for the Cavaliers on Friday during preliminaries when the squad kept advancing people in every event they needed to, and freshman Ryan Collins ripped off the third fastest time in school history in the 5,000-meter run. Collins’ performance was the first-ever Virginia win in the event.
“I think the best thing about Ryan Collins is that he thinks of himself as one of the best athletes in the country,” Vigilante said. “Despite not having the experience of some other guys, he truly believes that he’s going to race as hard as he can every time. He’s got the drive.”
Collins also finished third in the 3,000-meter run to pick up another All-ACC designation on the weekend.
Saturday got started off on the right foot for Virginia when Greg Nelson put together a monster performance in the high jump, tying a personal best. That built the momentum for Virginia.
“We got to Saturday and Greg Nelson had no misses in high jump, just a phenomenal performance,” Vigilante said. “And that got our day started. We really competed well.”
In the mile, two Virginia runners were involved in a photo finish where six runners crossed the finish line within one second of each other.
Freshman Sintayehu Taye and senior Andrew Jesien finished third and fourth respectively, just tenths of a second behind ACC Champion Billy Berlin of Virginia Tech.
Vigilante has pointed to the mile in the past as an event he wants to build a strong contingent of runners in at Virginia.
“Take nothing away from the guys who finished first and second, but we didn’t feel that that was a good result for us with how fit Andrew is,” Vigilante said. “We really hoped to go one-two, but three-four isn’t bad. When we look to the future that’s going to be an event that we certainly want to excel in. We know this is just the start.”
Virginia’s 4x400 relay team capped the meet with a strong outing, finishing third on the strength of four non-seniors, freshmen Kevin Anding and Lance Roller, sophomore Meikle Paschal and junior Brian Lee. Paschal anchored the quartet’s blistering time, which was just a little more than a second behind Wake Forest’s first-place squad.
The performance in Blacksburg also gave Vigilante and his staff a good idea of what areas they need to target on the recruiting trail.
“We want to develop the whole team and we’ve got young people in just about every event,” Vigilante said. “We need some more short sprinters and we need to fill some holes in field events, but we’re recruiting to do that now.”
On the women’s side, Virginia placed eighth, but the future certainly appears bright for a young squad.
“Despite the score and the place not being what we were looking for, we really saw kids stepping up and doing their best,” Vigilante said.
Rashawnda James, a Charlottesville High School product, had one of the better performances for the women.
She had a personal best in the long jump and finished sixth on Friday, and then finished fifth in the triple jump despite a sore back on Saturday.