Feb. 25, 2010
Results | Wake Forest Results | ACC Championship Site
BLACKSBURG, Va. -
Senior Caroline Vaughn turned in three personal-bests on her way to setting the school record in the women's pentathlon on the opening day of the 2010 ACC Indoor Track & Field Championships at Rector Field House on the campus of Virginia Tech.
Vaughn scored a total of 3,758 points and finished fourth overall. She broke Molly Kennedy's previous school-record of 3,743 points which she set at the ACC Indoor Championships in 2007. Vaughn's score of 3,758 also eclipses the NCAA Provisional mark by 28 points.
Fellow senior Alex Gove also had a tremendous day, recording personal-bests in all five events and finishing ninth with 3,602 points. She was just one point out of eighth place as this was just her second pentathlon.
Freshmen Maddy and Gwen Ricco also competed in the heptathlon on Thursday. Maddy finished 13th overall with 3,345 points while Gwen took 16th with 3,109 points.
Vaughn started the competition strong, running an 8.46 in the 60m hurdles to win the event. That times ties her season-best from last weekend and is just .03 seconds off her school-record. She then jumped a personal-best 5-5.75 in the high jump, breaking her previous best of 5-2.50. She was second through two events with 1,844 points.
Despite tossing the shot put a season-best 27-10.00, Vaughn slipped back to seventh through three events, earning just 430 points. She then bounced-back with a jump of 17-5.50 in the long jump to hold steady in seventh with 2,922 points with one event remaining.
Vaughn would then turn in a strong final performance in the 800m run. She ran a personal-best 2:19.11 to finish fourth overall and earn 836 points. That was enough to jump her from seventh to her final spot of fourth.
"Caroline just had a really gutty performance today," said Wake Forest assistant coach Michael Bennett. "She really worked hard in the summer and fall to get ready for the season and her hard work paid off."
Gove also started with a bang as she turned in a personal-best in the 60m hurdles at 8.78. That bettered her previous personal-best of 8.88 which she ran last week at the VT Challenge. Gove also notched a personal-best in the second event, the high jump, with a mark of 4-9.50.
She continued her remarkable day with a toss of 33-10.25 in the shot put and then jumped 17-2.25 in the long jump. Through four events, Gove was in the 13th place with 2,709 points.
Needing a good performance in the 800m run, the Castle Rock, Colo., native blitzed the first heat, winning by almost 10 seconds with a time if 2:15.00. That time was also good enough for second place in the event and it jumped her four spots to ninth overall.
"Alex's performance today was truly remarkable," Bennett said. "She had turned in four PRs in the first four events and then she came out of nowhere and ran a tremendous race in the 800. It was just really fun to watch."
After starting the day a little flat, Maddy Ricco turned in season-best marks in the final three events. She tossed the shot 32-5.50 and then jumped 18-1.75 in the long jump before finishing the day with a solid 2:24.29 in the 800m
Gwen Ricco turned in a nice shot put of 33-4.50 and had a solid time of 9.08 in the 60m hurdles.
"This was a good learning experience for the two freshmen (Gwen and Maddy Ricco)," said Bennett. "They got a taste of the ACC Championships and got to see their senior training partners perform really well. We had them competing quite a bit this winter, more so than you would normally compete when preparing for a pentathlon like this but we used this winter as a learning opportunity and these two have done a tremendous job."
On the first day of the men's heptathlon, senior Brent LaRue and sophomore Alex Hill both got off to good starts and are in position to score well heading into Friday.
LaRue started the day by running a solid 7.04 in the 60m dash to win his heat and finish second overall. He then jumped 22-1.50 in the long jump and posted a heptathlon-best 41-3.75 in the shot put.
The senior from Kernersville, NC, finished the day with an impressive performance in the high jump. He started his progression at 5-11.25 and quickly worked his way up to 6-4. After failing on the first two attempts at 6-5, he cleared the bar on the third attempt and then also cleared 6-6.25 on his very next attempt. Now going for a new indoor-best, LaRue cleared 6-7.50 on his third attempt, earning 822 points and finishing second in the event.
Through the first four events, LaRue is in fourth place with 3,085 points, just two points behind Curtis Beach of Duke and five points behind Mateo Sossah of North Carolina. The leader through the first day is Clemson's Miller Moss, who earned a total of 3,108 points in the four events.
"Brent managed his events really well today," said Wake Forest assistant coach Scott Hall. "He is coming off a hamstring injury last spring and he was still kind of dealing with that but he managed things well today and put himself in good shape for tomorrow."
LaRue is in a good spot heading into the final day's events - the 60m hurdles, the pole vault and the 1,000m run. He was the 2009 ACC indoor 60m hurdle runner-up and he has already set the school-record in the pole vault twice this winter.
Hill is also off to a good start as he is currently seventh with 2,757 points. He opened with a personal-best 7.17 in the 60m dash to finish third overall in that event. He slipped back to seventh in the standings after he long jumped 21-0.50 but rebounded with a personal-best shot put of 41-7.00 and jumped back up into fifth. But he only cleared 5-10 in the high jump and would finish the day in seventh.
The final three events of the heptathlon will take place on Friday starting with the 60m hurdles at Noon. The pole vault will start at 1:15 pm and the 1,000m run will wrap things up at 3:40 pm.
The bulk of the meet will also get started on Friday afternoon. The prelims of the men's and women's one-mile runs will start at 1:30 pm while the finals of the men's long jump will start the field events at 1:00 pm.
