ATLANTA, GA. – The Virginia men’s and women’s track and field teams closed out a thrilling final day of competition at the 2024 ACC Outdoor Track & Field Championships in which the Virginia men won the first men’s team title outright in program history with 107 points while the women’s team tied for third place with 74 points.
The Virginia men won the ACC Championship for the first time in program history to beat out rival Virginia Tech by 4.67 points. The meet came down to the final event, the 4x400m relay. Heading into the relay, the Cavaliers were in first place with 104 points just ahead of North Carolina at 100 points, Florida State at 95 points and Virginia Tech at 92.33 points. The Virginia quartet of Jaden Lyons, Alex Sherman, Gage Gose and Evans White IV solidified the team title earning three points by finishing sixth in a season-best time of 3:08.46. While Virginia Tech won the relay in 3:03.35, it was not enough as the Hokies as Virginia scored a total 107 points to Virginia Tech’s 102. Virginia has never won a men’s team title outright as the team tied with Florida State in 2009 with 141 points. The Cavaliers have finished in the top-three many times, this marks the first men’s team title in program history and the first in the Head Coach Vin Lananna era.
On the women’s side, the team scored a total of 74 points to tie with Notre Dame for third place overall. The last time Virginia finished third as a team was in 2019 and 2021 when the women scored a total of 92 and 84 points respectively.
Appleton Put on a Show
Margot Appleton found her way to the podium twice in one day. Appleton went back-to-back in the women’s 1500m crossing the line in 4:11.04. Despite getting boxed in, Appleton swung wide to run away with the title heading into the home stretch. At these championships a year ago, Appleton bested the field by just over a second clocking 4:14.58. She betters her time at the conference championships by three seconds in Atlanta.
Her success did not stop there. Later in the day, Appleton returned to the track to take on the field in the women’s 5000m and bring home the bronze medal. As the race went on, the pack of runners began to spread out and Appleton stuck with the leaders to ultimately cross the line in 15:36.95. The Mattapoisett, Mass. native completed the same 1500/5000m double last year finishing just out of scoring position in nineth with her time of 16:50.00. She becomes just the second…