BLACKSBURG, Va. - The Georgia Tech cross country teams had seven runners place in the top-100 across the 8k and 6k races on Friday morning at the ACC Championships.
The opening race was underway after two restarts and the Yellow Jackets were off. Taylor Wade was pacing in the top-50 along with Matt Castronuovo. Castronuovo dropped towards the 70-80s places by the 2.5k split with Wade still racing among the top-50.
The Jackets had a trio of Wyatt Windham, Billy Carlton, and Joey Sandel who were placing 114th through 116th, conserving their pace and managing the remaining 5.5k ahead. The three began overtaking and ascending up the order, cracking into the top-100 placements during the final stretch of the race.
Wade led the Jackets for the fifth time this season, crossing the line at 23:53.0 and placing 66th overall. Castronuovo finished five seconds behind at 23:58.0 to secure 69th place. The earlier trio rounded out the scoring five as Windham locked down 89th place with Carlton just behind in 91st. Sandel finished in 99th place.
Sandel secured his third top-100 finish at the ACC Championships as Wade and Castronuovo repeated as top-100 finishers from 2025. Windham and Carlton achieved their first top-100 finishes at ACCs. The men placed 14th overall with 373 points on the outing.
In the next race, the women’s team found their packs early and were consistent throughout the race. Claire Shelton was just outside the top-50 grouping and was pacing at 5:30 per mile. Shelton crossed the line as the first Tech finisher for the fourth time this season, finishing at 20:33.6 to place 70th overall.
Lottie Chappell ran towards the back of the top-100 and made overtakes towards the end to finish 84th overall at 20:45.4, securing her first-ever top-100 finish at the conference championships. Stella Chambless was next for Tech, placing 105th with Sadie Honig coming in at 121st. Alexis Wingenbach rounded out the Tech five in 148th.
The women’s squad finished 17th with 463 points, improving on last year’s point tally with 33 less points. Shelton achieved back-to-back top-100 finishes at ACCs as Chappell broke through after two straight years just outside the mark.
Three Jackets set personal bests on the day, all three set in the first race as Castronuovo ran his first sub-24-minute time in an 8k race. Carlton had his best race of the season at 24:21.2 to join the Tech scoring five for the first time in his cross country career with Cooper Timberman coming in at 25:14.1.
Georgia Tech turns its attention towards the NCAA South Region Championships on November 13 from Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Florida.
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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