Feb. 25, 2012
BOSTON, Mass. – Highlighted by an All-ACC performance by freshman Nikita Kirillov, the Georgia Tech men’s and women’s track and field teams rounded out their time at the ACC Championships, Saturday. The men’s team placed 8th with 33.5 points while the women’s team took 11th with 21.
Kirillov’s third place performance in the pole vault 5.25m (17-2.75) broke his own school record that he set at the Vulcan Invitational and helped him to earn All-ACC honors. He was followed by Aaron Unterberger in fourth place with a height of 5.15m (16-10.75). The duo combined for 11 of Tech’s points.
Omar Morrison continued to score this time in the triple jump where he finished with a career best distance of 15.24m (50-0). Julienne McKee took sixth on the women’s side of things with a distance of 12.58m (41-3.25) while Jhanelle McLeod ended up in eighth place with a leap of 12.45m (40-10.25).
In the track finals, Melanie Akwule and Leslie Njoku went seventh, eighth in the 60m hurdles finals with times of 8.47 and 8.50 respectively. Stephanie Kalu took seventh in the 60m dash finals with a time of 7.51 seconds and on the men’s side of things, Perron Jones placed sixth for the sprinters in the 200m dash finals with a time of 21.88 seconds.
The distance runners accumulated some points for Tech as Shawn Roberts, who won the preliminary race, upped his career best time in the 800m run with a fourth place finish in 1:50.12. Rick Scheff who took sixth in the prelims, also placed sixth in the finals with a time of 1:53.25.
Jeremy Greenwald, earned a finals appearance with a 10th place finish in the 1-mile prelim, moved up into the points during the finals with a sixth place finish in 4:11.26.
Njoku also competed in her first pentathlon, finished fourth with a point total of 3,545. Monique Pate, who finished in 11th place last year, took seventh at this year’s meet with 3,477 total points while freshman Alex Braxton took 11th with 3,244 points. Njoku took won the 60m hurdles, took sixth in the high jump, seventh in the long jump, and second in the 800m run to propel her to her fourth place finish.
The Clemson women earned the victory for the third-straight season, the first women’s program to win three straight ACC Indoor championships since North Carolina’s run of nine straight from 1993 through 2001. On the men’s side, Florida State ended up back on top for the ninth time in 10 years.
The field MVP award on the men’s side went to NC State’s Kris Kornegay-Gober, who set a meet record of 2.23 m (7-3.75) in the high jump on Friday night. Duke’s Michelle Anumba, who registered a gold medal throw of 54-1¼ in the shot put, earned the women’s field MVP honor.
Tech will return to action next weekend at the Last Chance Invitational in Birmingham, Ala. as they ready for the NCAA Indoor Championships in Boise, Idaho.
Final Women’s Team Scoring
1. Clemson 166
2. Florida State 87
3. North Carolina 85
4. Virginia 59
5. Virginia Tech 53
6. Duke 48
7. NC State 47
8. Maryland 35
9. Miami 32
10. Boston College 26
11. Georgia Tech 21
12. Wake Forest 4
Final Men’s Team Scoring
1. Florida State 123
2. Virginia Tech 95.5
3. North Carolina 84.5
4. Virginia 80
5. Clemson 78
6. NC State 61
7. Duke 47
8. Georgia Tech 33.5
9. Maryland 28
10. Miami 19
11. Wake Forest 10
12. Boston College 2.5
