Clemson edges Seminoles to win ACC men’s track title

Seminoles.com

RALEIGH, N.C. —  The ACC Outdoor Track & Field Championships came down to the final race to determine both the men’s and women’s champions.

Clemson won the men’s championship with 92 points to FSU’s 91.  Duke won the ACC on the women’s side with 145.5 points.  Virginia Tech was second with 84.5, Miami third with 83 and FSU fourth with 78.

Florida State’s men held the slimmest of leads over Clemson with only the 4×400 relay left. Unfortunately, head coach Bob Braman wouldn’t have his normal relay team as injuries suffered during the championship to three of the stalwarts meant FSU’s final race would have just one experienced member on the team.

Just as they had the entire meet on both the men’s and women’s side, FSU fought but the fourth place relay finish was not good enough. That left the men in the runners-up spot by a single point.

The Seminole women also had an outstanding conference championship, finishing fourth.

“It was just a tremendous ACC Championship, one of the best ever,” said Braman.  “I am so proud of both our teams.  We fought so hard and overcame some really tough breaks with the injuries, but I can’t say enough about how our teams performed.

“So many close races and we competed just as hard as we could.  We had lifetime bests, won so many events and the meet was just back and forth all day. I’m really pleased with how we answered and we were close to winning it on the men’s side.”

FSU won six events last Saturday, led by freshman Dajaz DeFrand who won the women’s 100 meters in 11.18 and the 200 meters in 22.67.  Alexandra Webster won the ACC Championship in the women’s 100-meter hurdles. Amir Willis is the men’s 100-meter champion at 10.08 and the Seminoles swept the discus with Milton Ingraham winning the men’s with a throw of 62.13 and Caisa-Marie Lindfors the women’s championship at 60.80 meters.

Both the men’s and women’s 4×100 relay teams took home silver with the men crossing the finish line in 38.74 and the women at 43.91.

James Rivera ran a personal best 49.98 in the men’s 400-meter hurdles and took home the silver medal.

Women’s distance runner Alyson Churchill had an outstanding three days, including a fourth-place finish in the 1500-meters race with a time of 4:16.98 on Saturday. Willis’ win in the 100-meters was pivotal and Ismael Kone’s third-place finish (10.15) along with Taylor Banks’ sixth-place in 10.19 made it one of the highest-scoring events for the Seminoles.

Willis and Kone continued to put up points for FSU, with Willis coming in third in the men’s 200-meter race with a time of 20.41 and Kone checking in at sixth in 2006. David Mullarkey finished fifth with a time of 13:53.36 in the men’s 5000-meter race.  Patrick Donnelly finished in 15:07.26 and Coleman Crank in 15:21.23.

Riley Bahr was 29th in the women’s 5000-meter race with a time of 17:30.22.

Adding to Florida State’s outstanding showing was Jacob Hoeffner’s 10th-place finish in the men’s discus with a throw of 49.16, and Amani Heaven’s eighth-place finish in the women’s discus at 50.36 meters.

DaeQwan Butler’s 400-meter race in which he finished sixth with a time of 1:05.67 proved costly as he was one of the three unable to compete on the meet-closing 4×400 relay.