Virginia cross-country completed its regular season after competing at the 2020 ACC Championships Friday at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C. The men’s team placed fourth with 92 points while the women’s team placed seventh with 205 points.
Virginia’s runners raced against athletes from 14 other ACC schools. On the men’s side, Notre Dame won with 40 points, securing its second conference championship in three years. On the women’s side, NC State placed first with 47 points, winning its fifth straight ACC title.
Virginia’s men’s team had three runners in the top 15. Senior Rohann Asfaw led the team with a fourth place finish, graduate student Randy Neish finished in eighth and senior Harry Monroe placed 13th. All three runners were awarded All-ACC cross-country awards.
Asfaw’s time of 23:15.0 marked his career-best performance on the 8K course. Neish and Monroe also recorded career-best times of 23:28.8 and 23:33.3, respectively.
Freshman Wes Porter and sophomore Justin Diehl recorded points for the Cavaliers as well, finishing in 23rd and 45th place respectively. Five other Virginia runners finished between 57th and 85th.
For the women’s team, senior Hannah Moran led the way with an 18th-place finish, earning her first All-ACC honor with a time of 20:39.4. Senior Kiera Bothwell crossed the finish line second for the Cavaliers in 33rd, running a time of 20:58:5. Both Moran and Bothwell ran career-best times.
Beyond Moran and Bothwell, graduate student Michaela Meyer, junior Abbey Green and senior Gabriella Karas placed 47th, 52nd and 61st, respectively. The three women all finished within 21.2 seconds of each other.
Four other Cavaliers finished inside the top 121 including seniors Olivia Sargent and Doria Martingayle and freshmen Liza Neely and Anna Workman.
“The watchword for the entire program is improvement,” said Vin Lananna, director of track and field and cross-country. “Three guys in the top 13, which is fantastic. Twenty-five points in the three. I think it’s a good example of a team that is on the improvement mark. The women were piles ahead of last year.”
Virginia cross-country now awaits the national championships, which will be held in Stillwater, Okla. March 15.
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