DURHAM, N.C. – Georgia Tech track & field competed at the final day of the ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday. Yellow Jacket women turned in four podium performances courtesy of Nicole Fegans, Taylor Grimes, Shanty Papakosta and Lydia Troupe, securing All-ACC first team honors in the process.
The first All-ACC first team honor came by way of Grimes in the 100m hurdles. She qualified on Friday with a personal best of 13.37 and matched that time on Saturday to come in second. This is the second All-ACC performance for Grimes. She was All-ACC second team in the long jump during the 2020 indoor season.
Troupe was the next to step atop the podium when she came in third in the 400m hurdles. The performance was a personal best for Troupe. Her previous best came on Thursday during prelims when she ran a 1:00.14. Troupe proceeded to smash that personal best in finals clocking in at 58.90, improving her personal best by 1.24 seconds.
The now two-time All-ACC performer, Papakosta placed second in the high jump, setting a new personal best of 1.79m (5-10 ½) wile not missing a jump before the height she went out on. Papakosta narrowly missed the podium during indoor season, placing fourth. She stormed back with a vengeance to secure second at the outdoor championships.
As she has become all too accustomed to, Fegans notched yet another All-ACC first team performance on the night. She was at the front of the pack the whole race. Never dropping below the top three. Fegans would eventually settle into third place.
The men’s side did not score on the final day but did see several personal bests and promising results. The men’s 4×400 relay team posted a season best with Jameson Miller having an impressive opening leg of the race. The 5000m saw a personal best from James Cragin who came in at 14:07.50.
The White and Gold will compete again at the east preliminaries in Bloomington, Ind. Athletes who rank in the top 48 of their events in the region will be invited to the meet.
WOMEN’S HEAD COACH ALAN DROSKY ON THE CHAMPIONSHIPS
We had some great individual performances this week and we’re proud of how the women competed. To finish with four first-team all-ACC performances was outstanding.
Shanty didn’t have a miss until the height she went out on, and in the end, those first attempt clearances were the difference between second and third place. Taylor came into this meet on a mission, ranked seventh in the straight-away hurdles, and came away with a brilliant second place finish. Nicole, always in the hunt for an ACC Championships, put her nose in the fight and battled to a hard fought third place. And Lydia ran with such joy in the 400m Hurdles, smashing her previous best, running several women down in the final stretch to snatch a third place finish.
Rounding out our scoring was Olivia in the pole vault and the 4 x 100m relay team. Even Olivia didn’t have her best day, she still competed hard and is someone the team can always count on. And the relay team has really come together this season. With every leg returning, they will be hungry for more next year.
Beyond the group that scored points, we had several breakthrough performances that will give us great momentum going forward.
MEN’S HEAD COACH GROVER HINSDALE ON THE CHAMPIONSHIPS
This was a rough meet for the men’s team. We were a couple guys short and points seemed to be hard to come by for us. I’m not disappointed in the effort as we hand many PRs throughout the meet. We just didn’t get on any kind of a roll.
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