LOUISVILLE – The Georgia Tech men’s and women’s track and field teams opened the 2026 ACC Outdoor Track & Field Championships with top-five program marks and notable finishes on Thursday afternoon.
Lottie Chappell raced in the opening heat of the women’s 1500m and crossed the line at 4:18.18. She came within a few seconds of her record time, the second-fastest 1500m in program history. She was seeded outside the top-25 and claimed a 14th-place finish.
Chappell was within 0.6 seconds of the qualifying time for the finals. Stella Chambless made her ACC Outdoor Championships debut and set her personal best time by 0.49 seconds to finish 24th.
Sophomore Tahir Hines entered the circle in the men’s hammer event and launched a 58.30m throw in his third attempt. All eight of his best marks on the season are among the greatest in Tech history, the fifth-furthest attempt by any Tech thrower is 54.40m, all of Hines’ best efforts in any appearance this season cleared 58.00m.
Hurdler Aaron Jones made his debut in an individual ACC Championships event and blazed past his 400m hurdles personal best by 0.22 seconds in prelims at 51.69. Jones secured the ninth and last spot into the finals session on Saturday, setting ACC standard times in seven of his eight appearances during the outdoor season.
Taylor Wade competed in his first career 10,000m event on the track and was amongst some of the best by finishing 12th overall at 29:57.16. John Jessup led Tech in the 1500m with a 3:48.91 time to place 23rd overall.
Georgia Tech will begin Day 2 tomorrow evening with the running prelims sessions slated at 5 p.m. as Omar Arnaout competes in the men’s high jump final. Billy Carlton headlines the nightcap as one of the top-five racers in the 3000m steeplechase finals.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
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