All day today and tomorrow men and women from the Virginia track and field team will compete at ACC championships hosted by NC State in Raleigh. After a strong showing at the Lou Onesty/Milton G. Abramson Invitational home meet last weekend, the team's ACC qualifiers are ready compete against the whole conference.
Sprinter Scott Kimball finished sixth in the 200-meter dash at ACCs last year. As a senior going into his last conference meet Kimball remains hopeful after last weekend's meet.
"We've been running some pretty good times before ACCs, so hopefully it'll keep coming out when the time comes," Kimball said.
The Cavaliers' "pretty good times" include the three conference bests set by Kiamesha Otey last Saturday. Otey's victories in the 100 and 200-meter dashes and also in the long jump helped her earn ACC Track and Field Player of the Week honors. At last year's conference meet Otay won All-ACC honors in long jump with a distance of 6.45 meters. She also placed sixth in the 100-meter run and eighth in the 200.
"She probably got down to where she needs to be in the 100-meter," coach Randy Bungard said.
Otey is not the only one to improve, according to Bungard.
"I'm feeling better now than I was feeling the first two weeks. It's taking us a while to get moving, but now we're going," Bungard said.
Other notable ACC qualifiers include Brain Kollar. His 66.67-meter javelin throw has him top-ranked in the ACC. After redshirting last year, this weekend's events will be Kollar's last in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Along with Kollar, Matt Ruhl spent last year redshirted. In his last performance at ACCs, in 2001, he placed second in the 3000-meter and fifth in the 5000-meter steeplechase races. After ranking in both events this season, Ruhl will compete in the 3000-meter steeplechase tonight against the best in the region.
Eliese Mitchell took first place in the discus last year. She holds the school record in the weight throw with a mark of 20.06 meters. She also set a school record for hammer throw with a toss of 56.35 meters. She took fourth in the hammer throw at last year's ACCs and will be competing in the hammer, shot put and discuss this year.
Both the men's and women's teams placed sixth overall at ACC championships last year when Virginia hosted the event.
Today and tomorrow the Virginia track and field team again will face the ACCs, this time in Raleigh, NC. After a season filled with record-breaking and long days of training, former ACC Outdoor Coach of the Year, Randy Bungard takes his team to North Carolina.
When asked about how his team will do at the meet Bungard said, "This is the best I've felt this year."
The Cavalier qualifiers look to set records and win their events as they did last week, but they face much steeper competition as they take on the best in the ACC.