By Sean Blue
Assistant Sports Editor
The men's and women's track and field teams kicked off their version of a postseason last weekend at the ACC Championships in Orlando, Fl.
While the teams did not win overall, many individuals fared well as they begin preparing for the major meets in the college circuit such as the Penn Relays, Reebok Invitational and NCAA Championships.
The women finished sixth overall with 59 points, while North Carolina won the event for the seventh consecutive year with 187 points.
However, Head Coach Francie Goodridge was extremely pleased with her team's performance.
"The quality of the performances, the fact that our strength continued to show and the fact that we beat Virginia, Maryland and Duke all adds up to one of our best performances, one of the four in the 14 years I've been here."
The Deacs placed in 12 events on the women's side, eight of which were top-five finishes.
Sophomore Janelle Kraus became only the third female in Demon Deacon history to win two ACC Championship events in the same meet when she won the 3,000-meters (9:53.91) and 5,000-meters (17:10.50).
Kraus's wins earned her All-ACC honors, only the third female Deac ever to earn All-ACC honors in cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track in the same season.
"She's a tremendous athlete. The meet wasn't comfortable to distance runners with sunny 90-degree weather.
"We ran a tactical race, not trying to break records, but just win. She (Kraus) ran extremely well and showed great control," Goodridge said.
Senior Chrissy Person and sophomore Jill Snyder also earned All-ACC honors for their second place finishes in the 800-meters (2:07.47) and 1,500-meters (4:32.01), respectively.
Person won the 800-meters her freshman year and has placed among the top finishers in the event ever since.
She just missed reclaiming the title this year by fractions of a second when the outcome had to be decided by a photo finish.
As close as Person was, Snyder was even closer to winning the 1,500-meters. She took second place in the event, barely missing first by less than a hundredth of a second, again being decided by a close photo finish.
Freshman Summer Shaw placed in two events, finishing fourth in the 800-meters with a time of 2:13.99 and then pole vaulting 9'04.25" to take fifth in the event.
"It was nice to see her make such a breakthrough. The 800-meters had been an event that she had not done really well in in the past. It took a lot of guts for her to go into a major meet and do what she did.
"She beat some very good people. The pole vault was also nice to see. She's had very little time to train and she's done very good in the event," Goodridge said.
The Deac's 4x400-meters relay team set a school record as it finished fifth overall in 3:47.56.
Junior Amy Wallace also finished fifth in the 10,000-meters with a time of 39:10.39.
Junior Becky Pollock finished eighth in two events with times of 10:11.91 in the 3,000-meters and 18:01.54 in the 5,000-meters.
In the 1,500-meters, freshman Erin Haugh also claimed an eighth place spot.
In the field, sophomore Tasha Pickney claimed sixth place in the javelin with a thorw of 107'10".
The men also fared well individually, claiming nine places.
Overall they finished seventh with 44.33 points, beating Duke and Maryland.
Senior Nolan Swanson earned All-ACC honors by winning both the 5,000-meters (14:24.74) and the 3,000-meters steeplechase (8:49.48).
This was the first time Swanson had earned All-ACC honors for outdoor track, but he had already earned All-ACC and All-American honors in cross-country earlier this year.
Senior Hunter Kemper also earned All-ACC honors for his second-place finish in the 10,000-meters (30:47.23).
Rounding out the Deac's All-ACC team, the 4x100-meter team of seniors Dameon Daniel and Garrett Putman, junior Jammie Deese and sophomore Reggie Austin, who finished third overall in the event with a time of 41 seconds flat for the race.
Austin also placed sixth in the 100-meter with a time of 10.59.
Also finishing sixth in his event was senior Jon Russell, who finished the 10,000-meters in 31:14.86.
Sophomore Matt Udvari took sixth in the decathalon as he racked up 6,209 points.
Also competing in the 3,000-meters steeplechase, sophomore Jack Bishop finished eighth in 9:11.06.
Freshman Ryan Turner pole vaulted 14'03.50" to claim eighth overall in the event.
Both teams left April 22 for the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Pa., to be held today through April 26. THe Pen Relays are the nation's most historic track event.
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Carlton Ward/Old Gold and Black