Sixty-two days ago, Virginia began its cross country season at Panorama Farms. Those 62 days saw the men and women sweep the home invitational and take to the road to test their abilities against the nation’s best.
Now, none of that seems important.
The Cavaliers will kick off the part of the year with real implications — the post-season — this Friday, with the ACC Championships also to be held at Panorama Farms. There, the Virginia men and women, both ranked No. 13 nationally, will battle with conference foes for ACC supremacy.
An ACC title is not the only thing on the line this Friday, with two huge Commonwealth Clash points in play between the Cavaliers and rival Virginia Tech. For each the men and the women, the team which finishes highest in the overall team standings receives the point.
Women’s coach Todd Morgan will be without the services of sophomore Maria Hauger once again. Hauger — the reigning ACC freshman of the year — has been battling an injury all season and will redshirt the 2014 campaign.
“We do look forward to having [Hauger] with us for an extra year down the road,” Morgan said.
Virginia has remained a competitive squad even in Hauger’s absence. She was the team’s projected top runner entering the year. Sophomore Sarah Fakler responded to the opportunity to lead the team in the field, and earned her first collegiate victory at the Panorama Farms Invitational.
Two graduate students who transferred into the program have also made immediate impacts. Morgan Kelly — a 2013 All-Ivy runner from Harvard — was the first Cavalier to cross the finish line at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational and placed 21st overall.
Kelly and Fakler said they have formed a close relationship in their short time together on the team.
“I love training with [Fakler],” Kelly said. “We run together during workouts and we help each other out. It’s anybody’s race, but I could see us working off of each other.”
Additionally, Iona Lake, a transfer from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, moved directly into the Virginia scoring five with a fourth-place finish at the Panorama Farms Invitational.
The Cavaliers will need contributions from all runners in the field to improve their runner-up finish from 2013. No. 12 Florida State remains the team to beat and has a virtual monopoly of women’s ACC titles, having won the last six — but the Seminoles edged out Virginia by only seven points last year.
“We need to [perform] to the best of our abilities, everything we can control,” Morgan said. “We’re still the underdogs until someone beats Florida State. We’re running with everything to gain and nothing to lose.”
But the Cavaliers are not the only threat to Florida State. For the men’s teams, four other ACC schools are ranked in the top 30, including No. 15 North Carolina and No. 16 Syracuse.
The Virginia men did not produce the result they desired at last season’s conference championship, where, led by Kyle King’s seventh-place finish, they managed only fourth place, with 108 points. Third-place Notre Dame squeaked by Virginia with 105, while Syracuse and UNC finished first and second, respectively. However, the Cavaliers were able to right the ship and advance all the way to the NCAAs, where they placed 13th.
Coach Pete Watson’s team started the season on the right foot. They claimed victory at the Panorama Farms Invitational and emerged in fourth place at the Washington Invitational — a tough meet with five of the top nine teams in the country.
This early-season success is somewhat surprising for Virginia, as past teams have taken their time rounding into shape before the postseason.
“We have a group of guys that don’t typically hit it well in September or October,” Watson said. “Being able to race so well while shouldering a heavy workload was a huge boost in confidence for us.”
The Cavalier men will enter the ACC Championship healthy and fit, but a stiff challenge will await — in the form of No. 3 Syracuse. After winning the championship meet last season, the Orange returned three of their five scorers from 2013.
“We’re going to go in there and compete,” Watson said. “Obviously, the goal is to win, but most importantly we want to run better than we have all year. I want all of my guys to hit it on the same day, and it looks like we’re headed in that direction.”
Friday’s race will begin at 10 a.m. at Panorama Farms in Earlysville, Virginia.
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