The opportunity to host the ACC Championships for the first time in eight years produced solid results for the Virginia cross country teams. Both the men’s and women’s squads for the Cavaliers improved on their spot from a year ago with the latter jumping into a podium finish against the colorful fall backdrop at Panorama Farms.
UVA took sixth place on the men’s side, while the women’s team claimed third place ahead of a pair of teams with higher national rankings (UVA entered at No. 25 with UNC at No. 8 and Syracuse at No. 15). Last season, the Virginia men finished eighth while the women finished 10th at the ACC meet. Friday’s results gave Virginia both points in the Commonwealth Clash competition with Virginia Tech as well, moving the Hoos ahead 3.5-0.5 in those standings.
The Wake Forest men and the NC State women won the ACC Championships in the team competition. The Demon Deacons posted a total score of 44 to outpace Syracuse and North Carolina at 86 and 87 points, respectively. The Wolfpack held off a big push from Notre Dame to win 34 to 38, while the Cavaliers came home third with 98. The individual races were thrilling for different reasons as Notre Dame’s Carter Solomon overtook North Carolina’s Parker Wolfe in the final stretch of an impressive battle that saw the duo post times of 22:55.9 and 22:56.1 at the line, while NCSU’s Katelyn Tuohy put on an incredible show in the women’s race as she shattered the course record by 40 seconds in 19:08.9 well ahead of the field.
Overall, Virginia coach Vin Lananna said that the race provided valuable experience for the Cavaliers as they prep for the regional round in two weeks. It also acted as a precursor to next year’s NCAA Championships that will be hosted at Panorama. (Jump on the message boards to discuss the meet.)
“On the men’s side, I think we went out waaay too hard, but I do think that it’s a very young team that needs an opportunity to kind of see what it feels like to race in a championship portion of the season,” Lananna said. “I think we’re going to address it as three races – we’ve got this one, then we’ve got the regional meet in a couple of weeks, and then we’ve got the NCAAs. On the women’s side, what can you say? They were 10th last year and third this year so I don’t think I could have asked for a better performance from the women. I think that they put aside their own individual needs and worked for the team so they did a marvelous job.”
The women’s 6K race capped the day of competition with Tuohy putting on a show. In the end, the top six runners all came in ahead of the previous course record of 19:48.9. Behind the one-two battle between NC State and Notre Dame, Virginia emerged as the story of the day. In beating a pair of teams ranked ahead of them in the national polls, the Cavaliers climbed seven spots in the team standings thanks to a mature and confident team run.
Sophomore Margot Appleton set the pace once again for the Cavaliers. She’s been the top finisher in every race this fall for UVA and Friday proved no different as she led a group of three Hoos to capture All-ACC honors (top 21 finishers). Appleton placed ninth in a time of 19:57.9 with Cameryn Menninger close behind in 12th place with a time of 19:59.7. Mia Barnett followed in 17th place with a time of 20:13.
The two other scoring runners for Virginia were Sophie Atkinson, who narrowly missed an All-ACC spot with a 22nd place finish in 20:18.9, and Esther Seeland, who recorded a 39th place run in 20:33.4. Lananna said that the Panorama Farms course lends itself to a fast start, but it’s important for the runners to settle into the race vs. getting pulled into too fast of a pace. He said he was “very impressed” with how the Cavalier women handled that part of the challenge on a big and competitive stage.
“I think what describes all of those women is that they’re good competitors and I think Margot is just a really good competitor,” Lananna said. “That’s a good field. I think it’s easy to look at third place and say well ‘big deal, third in a conference meet’ but when you’re talking about the No. 1 team in the country [in NC State] and I don’t what Notre Dame is, but they’re good. … For us to finish third, beat many of the traditional programs, they did a good job.”
Appleton said the team was happy to reach its goal of a top 3 finish in the meet as a result of the Hoos’ collective effort.
“Honestly our goal last year was top three and we had a lot of roadblocks and things just weren’t clicking, but this year everything came together. Our goal was top three and we did it,” Appleton said. “We’re super happy. We beat some nationally ranked teams, which is exciting. We still have some more to go but this is a good start to the championship season.”
While the women’s field started to space out fairly early, the men’s pack stayed intact even with a quicker pace in the 8K race. At the 5K split more than halfway into the men’s event, more than 40 runners were still within 5 seconds of the leader vs. just 7 runners within that same time spread at the halfway point of the women’s race.
After the fast start, Virginia still hung on to get three runners into the All-ACC tier (top 21 finishers). Justin Wachtel led the way in 13th place in 23:19.9. Yasin Sado came home 17th in 23:22.3 and Wes Porter finished 20th in 23:24.6. The other scoring runners for UVA were Derek Johnson in 35th with a time of 23:41.3 and Rohann Asfaw in 40th in 23:45.6.
Ahead of the Wahoos, the race to the line captured exactly what the organizers at Panorama Farms and cross country fans wanted to see for a championship meet. Solomon started to narrow the gap on Wolfe up the final hill and then just narrowly beat him to the finish with fans lining the whole home straightaway cheering on the close clash.
“How do you say anything other than a great deal of appreciation for Steve Murray, Panorama Farms, and the people that came out today,” Lananna said. “I think this is just a precursor to what is on the horizon next year for the NCAAs so I think the atmosphere was really great.”
