Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 11 No. 4 | March 2019

28 Inside Hokie Sports Virginia Tech and Florida State rarely get paired in anything, and rarely want to, but the two schools’ men’s track and field programs together made history at the ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships in late February. For the first time in the 60-year history of the ACC indoor championships, two men’s teams shared a league track and field title, as the Hokies and the Seminoles each finished with 117 points at the league’s annual indoor event held this year at Rector Field House on the Tech campus. The student-athletes weren’t quite sure what to think at the meet’s conclusion, as neither squad engaged in a lengthy celebration. However, both head coaches shared the same opinion of the outcome. “Virginia Tech is a hard place to win, and there are only a handful of times in my career I’ve been able to carry a trophy out of here,” Florida State coach Bob Braman said afterward. “I’m glad to be carrying half of one out of here today.” “I’m not disappointed at all,” Tech Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Dave Cianelli said. “Would I have liked to have won it outright? Sure, but this is better than finishing second by a point. We still got a trophy, and I’ll take that any day.” The title marked the 14th overall for Tech track and field and cross country programs since the school joined the ACC for the 2004-05 season. The men’s team has won nine of those, including five indoor titles, and the men’s program now has won an ACC title in seven of the past nine years. This one came down to the final event, as it often does between the ACC’s two standard bearers. Tech and Florida State went into the 4x400-meter relaynearly neck and neck. A mere six points separated the two, with Tech leading, but Florida State specializes in the sprints areas, and many expected the Seminoles to win the relay. If that were to happen, then Tech would need a fourth-place finish from its relay quartet to win the team title by a point. The Seminoles won the 4x400 relay, and the Hokies finished fifth—just four-thousandths of a second behind fourth-place Clemson. That served as the margin—four-thousandths of a second. “You know, you’re in it, and you want to try to win it outright at the end,” Cianelli said. “We did everything we could, and it just ended up a tie. The funny thing about our sport is there is no overtime or extra innings like in most other sports. It’s just a tie. “We were close last year at Clemson [they lost to Florida State 111-107]. It was four points on the men’s side, and that really hurt, especially because we had all those senior distance guys. But to be able to come back this year with such a young team and be able to win the championship with so many new faces and freshmen … to me, that’s probably the most impressive thing.” Tech’s upperclassmen certainly put the Hokies in position to capture the title. On the final day, Deakin Volz won his second career ACC gold medal in the pole vault with a top vault of 5.45 meters (17 feet, 10.5 inches), while Peter Seufer added a gold medal by using a late kick to sprint to the finish line in the 3,000 in a time of 7:59.60. Also, Jacory Patterson continued his sensational freshman season, winning the gold medal and breaking his school record in the 400 in a time of 46.04 seconds. There were other great performances. Diego Zarate finished second in the mile with a time of 4 minutes, 3.54 seconds; Seufer added a silver medal when he came in second in the 5,000 on the second day of the meet; and Joel Benitez came in behind Volz in the pole vault with a top vault of 5.15 meters (16 feet, 10.75 inches). In addition, Jaelyn Demory showed some toughness, as the sophomore—participating with a cast on his hand—came in second in the heptathlon, scoring a personal-best 5,086 points—the third-most points in the event in program history. Tech also got a tremendous contribution from transfer Isaiah Rogers, who won two silver medals and was the ACC Men’s Field Performer of the Meet. Coming to Three gold-medal performances helped the Hokies to a share of the league crown, while the Tech women’s team came in third by Jimmy Robertson Rachel Baxter set a school record in the pole vault on the way to winning her first ACC gold medal at the ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships.