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Inside Hokie Sports
The ongoing renovations to Rector Field House call for the building
of an area to display the Virginia Tech track and field teams’ ACC
championship trophies among other awards and honors.
The program desperately needs such an area. Dave Cianelli’s office
looks a little cluttered these days with 10 ACC team trophies tucked
away in various places within his lair.
Cianelli, the director of Tech track and field and cross country, saw
his Tech men’s team demolish the competition at the ACC Outdoor
Track and Field Championships last May in Tallahassee, Florida en
route to the team’s sixth ACC title. It was almost a perfect performance,
as the Hokies won four gold medals and six silver medals, scoring 129
points and winning in a landslide (36 points).
“I’ve been coaching for 33 years, and that’s happened maybe three
times,” Cianelli said of his team’s performance. “Maybe four. In our
sport, it doesn’t happen much.”
Bolstered by 14 seniors, the men’s team appears to be in excellent
shape to make yet another run at an ACC crown and finish high at the
NCAA Championships. The women’s team features 10 seniors, and that
team should be much improved this upcoming season.
In preparation for the indoor season, which starts Jan. 13, Cianelli
answered questions about his program.
Q: How much is the Rector Field House project going to help
your programs?
DC:
“I think the biggest thing is in recruiting because recruits
will be able to see that we’ve invested in our sport, and I think that’s
important. They can see that track and field is important here at
Virginia Tech. Then from a training aspect, it will be a much better
situation for everyone, and then for our meets, this facility will
allow us to showcase some of the better athletes. Overall, it helps
everything.”
Q: The men’s team has won at least one ACC title in five
of the past six years. Why have the men enjoyed so much
success recently?
DC:
“We’ve been fortunate in the recruiting process to attract
some very good student-athletes that fit into our program. It starts
with that, and that’s a product of our staff identifying the right
people. Identifying talent in our sport is pretty easy because you’re
working with numbers. You have something quantitative that you can
compare. But you have to dig deeper to find who is going to be a good
fit for your environment — Virginia Tech and our team. That’s the
harder part. That takes time. The coaches have done a wonderful job
of identifying the right fits.”
Q: The women’s team finished 12th at the ACC’s indoor meet
and 9th at the outdoor meet last year. Yet you’re optimistic
about this group. Why?
DC:
“I said last year that I really thought that this year would be a
turning point based on the development of the kids that we have in
the program and also this influx of freshmen that we have. Coaches
are leery of expecting a lot out of freshmen, but I’m optimistic about
this group contributing immediately, and that can put us in an area
where we can start talking about a championship. Even if we don’t
win one this year, I think we’re going to be close, and to me, that’s a
key. If you get close, then the athletes can kind of feel it. It’s more real
to them. For us, I think this year will be that breakthrough year.”
Q: What concerns you heading into this season?
DC:
“Well, you’ve got to keep everyone healthy to have a shot.
That’s always key. But also, complacency is always a concern when
you’re coming off a successful year, like we had on the men’s side. It’s
human nature to sometimes relax a little bit. Even as coaches, I think
we do that. What I try to do with the staff—and they carry that over
to the team—once the previous year is over, it’s over. We never talk
about the previous year. I never say, ‘You’re trying to defend a title.’
They’re not. That title was won by that group. This group is a different
group, and they’re going to have to establish what they want, and they
may go about it a different way.
“But this is a pretty mature team overall, so I’m not too worried
about them becoming complacent. I think there is a lot of leadership,
and I think it’s a group that is motivated. We lost a couple of key
people to graduation. These were people that were at a high level and
contributing, but also ones that provided a lot of leadership. Now,
other individuals will have to fill that role. We have those people, which
is good.”
TOP RETURNERS
Andrew Gaiser, Daniel Jaskowak, Peter Seufer,
Neil Gourley, Patrick Joseph, Brent Musselman,
Vincent Ciattei, Diego Zarate
NEWCOMERS
Fitsum Seyoum, Jack Joyce, Drew Piazza
OVERVIEW
This group lost arguably the best distance runner in Tech history
in Thomas Curtin, but the returning group possesses both talent and
depth in the middle distance and longer distance events.
In the longer distances—the 3,000- 5,000- and 10,000-meter
runs—Gaiser, Jaskowak, Seufer and Musselman form a formidable
quartet. Gaiser, who scored for Tech in the 10,000 at the ACC Outdoor
Championships last spring, and Jaskowak are coming off cross country
seasons in which both earned All-NCAA Southeast Region and All-ACC
honors. Those two serve as the leaders of the group.
MEN’S
DISTANCE
READY
REPEAT
T
O
The Tech men’s track and
field team is aiming for
another ACC crown, while the
women’s squad feels that it has
positioned itself to contend for
one, as the Hokies get set to
launch the 2017 season
by
Jimmy Robertson
Neil Gourley