April 20, 2011
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech men’s and women’s track and field teams will return to the track after a week off for the ACC Championships from Thursday, April 21 to Saturday, April 23 at Wallace Wade Stadium on the campus of Duke University.
The meet will kick off with the multi-events on Thursday morning at 10 a.m. and will conclude Saturday night with the 4×400 meter relay at 7:50 p.m. All events will begin with the women’s race and conclude with the men.
Thursday will just see a few of the Championships’ events as the day begins with the heptathlon at 10 a.m. followed by the decathlon at 10:30 p.m. The discus will start at 12:30 and will be followed by the javelin at 5:30 p.m. The day will conclude with the 10,000 meter run beginning at 8 p.m.
Friday starts with the conclusion of the heptathlon and decathlon events at 10 a.m. The shot put, long jump and high jump will begin at 1p.m., followed by preliminaries for the 1500-meter run, 100- and 110-meter hurdles, 400-meter dash, 100-meter dash, 800-meter run, 400-meter hurdles and 200-meter dash. The day will end on Friday with the 3000-meter steeplechase finals.
Saturday’s events start at Noon with the pole vault, hammer throw and triple jump, while the he running event are to begin at 4 p.m., starting with the 4×100-meter relay. The 1500-meter run, 100- and 110-meter hurdles, 400-meter dash, 100-meter dash, 800-meter run, 400-meter hurdles, 200-meter dash, 5000-meter run will follow and the meet will conclude with the 4×400-meter relay. The awards ceremony is scheduled for 8:10 p.m.
Duke will host the championship for the ninth time overall and first since 2000. The Florida State men and Clemson women look to successfully defend their conference titles and if they are successful, it would be the sixth consecutive and eighth overall for the Seminoles, while the Tigers are seeking their fourth overall. Maryland’s men’s squad leads all league teams with 26 titles, while North Carolina’s women have claimed 14.
Senior Joanna Wright heads into the ACC Championship ranked fifth in the nation and first in the ACC in the pole vault with her career best and school record jump of 4.31 meters (14-1.75) recorded at the Seminole Invitational on April 8. Her counterpart Aaron Unterberger
Also excelling on the year is senior Leslie Njoku who ranks 21st in the nation in the 400 meter hurdles with a season best time of 58.39 and freshman jumper Julienne McKee who is in the top-50 in the country in both the long (49th, 6.05 meters) and triple jumps (32nd, 12.62 meters).
On the men’s side, Shawn Roberts ranks in the top-100 in the 1,500 meter run and 13th in the ACC, setting a career best time of 3:47.19 earlier in the season at the Auburn Tiger Classic.
