By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Time marches on, and the University of Virginia track & field record book requires regular revision.
On the women’s side, program records in 10 outdoor events have been established in the 2020s alone, including the 200 meters, 800, 1,500, 5,000, shot put, discus throw and heptathlon.
Some outdoor marks, though, have stood unchanged for decades at UVA. Ann Bair high-jumped 6 feet, 2 inches in 1983. Patty Matava ran the 10,000 meters in 32 minutes and 58.64 seconds in 1987, and Sonja Kinney covered 400 meters in 51.93 seconds that same year.
Before marrying Earl Kinney in 1993, she was Sonja Fridy (pronounced Fry-dee), and she stamped herself as one of the nation’s top track & field performers during her four years at UVA.
Not so long ago, Kinney held two other longstanding school records in outdoor track. But Halle Hazzard ran the 100 in 11.20 seconds in 2019, and Jada Seaman ran the 200 in 23.06 in 2022, and so Kinney now ranks No. 2 in those events at UVA.
When they met a couple years ago, Seaman let Kinney know she was after one of the two marks Kinney still held. “She was like, ‘I’m really trying to break this 200 record. But I can tell you one thing: Your 400 is safe. I don’t want any part of the 400,’ ’’ Kinney recalled, laughing.
Indoors, Kinney holds program records in two non-NCAA events: the 55 and the 500.
Kinney grew up in Hanover County, near Richmond, and starred at Patrick Henry High School in Ashland. Among the universities that recruited her was Tennessee, and she liked the school and its track & field program. But she had concerns about the 430 miles that separate Knoxville and Ashland.
At that time, “Southside Richmond seemed far away to me,” Kinney said. And so when UVA began recruiting her, “I thought, ‘Oh, that’s perfect. It’s an hour away. I can come home, I can be with all my friends, and it’s UVA,’ ” said the 5-foot-2 Kinney, who recalls meeting 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson during her recruiting visit.
In Charlottesville, Kinney joined a powerful program led by head coach Dennis Craddock. The Cavalier women won four ACC outdoor titles and one ACC indoor championship during her college career. (The ACC held its first indoor meet for women in 1987.)
In 2010, Kinney was among the Cavaliers named to the ACC’s 50th anniversary team for women’s track & field and cross country. She was a five-time All-American who…