Back in Charlottesville for the Virginia Challenge this weekend, the Cavaliers took to the track and to the field for two days of intense competition. The meet also included pacing lights for some of the marquee events, including the men’s and women’s 5k.
Junior Gary Martin set a new Virginia record in the men’s 5,000 meters with a time of 13:16.82, smashing his own previous record of 13:31.51. Other standout performers included junior Celia Rifaterra, who set a new meet record for high jump, and junior James Donahue, who won in the men’s 1,500 meter invite.
Junior Sarah Akpan rolled into a second place finish in the 100 meters, placing second there as well as in preliminaries, where she had a season-best time of 11.35. Akpan’s time for the final was 11.40.
Once the hurdles were on the track, Virginia sophomore Elizabeth Imoh took third for the women’s 400 hurdles in a personal best of 1:01.35, while senior Alex Sherman won the men’s 400 hurdles in 50.59 seconds.
Graduate student Estel Valeanu placed second overall in the women’s shot put with her throw of 16.19 meters. It was a personal best for Valeanu and ties her performance with former Cavalier Ashley Anumba, who held the No. 4 program mark. This pulls Valeanu up from her seventh best overall Virginia performance in the event.
Back on the track, senior Billy Atkinson won the men’s 1,500 meters with a personal best time of 3:48.11, which was about three-tenths of a second faster than his finish at Raleigh Relays.
In the men’s 1,500 meter invite, Donahue won the event in 3:39.72 —- a slight improvement on his previous personal best.
On the women’s side of the 1500, sophomore Tatum David nabbed a second place finish and a new personal best, moving into seventh in the Virginia program history for that event. David ran 4:14.47.
Senior Margot Appleton took to the track for the 5k, set with pacing lights for 26 athletes running. Appleton stayed on the pacing lights for the first two thirds of the race but began to fall behind them as the race came to a close. Appleton still had a commanding first place finish, coming 15 seconds ahead of the runner up, and her time was 15:25.19.
Junior Jeremiah Nubbe threw 72.73 meters in the men’s hammer throw, granting him a second place finish behind Rudy Winkler, a professional athlete who holds the American record in hammer throw.
Literally raising the bar for the meet was Rifaterra in women’s high jump invite, setting a new meet record of 1.84 meters. Just behind her was senior Carly Tarentino in second with a jump of 1.75 meters.
In the pole vault invite, a duo of junior Samantha Romano and senior Trina Barcarola placed third and fourth vaulting 4.20 meters for the former and personal best of 4.10 meters for the latter.
Another strong meet for the Cavaliers is now in the books, and a clear improvement from Martin can be seen in his new 5k record — it proves that he is not only a strong competitor in the 1,500 but is now a greater threat to his competitors in longer distances. The next meets for Virginia are the Drakeford Relays, which start Wednesday, and the Penn Relays, which will start the following day. Both meets will run through Saturday.
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