North Carolina track and field teams have strong showing at ACC Championships

All the hard work and determination of the long track season came to its climax Saturday at the ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Tallahassee, Fla. The three-day event took place from Thursday through Saturday and culminated in a men’s team championship for host school Florida State, while Clemson took home the women’s title. 

North Carolina track and field placed fifth in the men’s team competition and fourth in the women’s. The Tar Heels did have several impressive finishes in individual events. Junior Elizabeth Whelan won the bronze medal in the women’s 800-meter. Junior Sarah Howard finished second in the women’s shot put final. 

Perhaps the most impressive individual feat achieved by the Tar Heels track team was by redshirt junior Xenia Rahn. She won the gold medal in the women’s heptathlon and set multiple records in the process. Rahn set new ACC Championship, ACC overall and Mike Long Track records for the event with 6,057 points in the competition. 

“It’s all really exciting. Congrats to her. She had a wonderful year all season,” said Tar Heels head coach Harlis Meaders. 

Rahn helped the women’s team hold an overall lead though the event’s first two days, a lead that would end in a fourth place finish after the final day. 

The men’s team hovered around the middle of the standings throughout much of the championships but finished strong with a gold medal in the weekend’s final event, the 4x400 relay. The Carolina team of RJ Alowonle, Javonte Lipsey, Kenny Selmon and Ceo Ways finished in first with a time of 3:04.55. 

“We were glad we finished on a high note. It was the final day, so everybody was tired, but we had to get the job done,” said Lipsey. “The most important thing was just being there for each other.”

Meaders said he was really proud of what his team did this season.

“I just told them that I was really proud of what we could accomplish this year. The women were much improved from an eighth-place finish last year to fourth this year,” said Meaders. “And even though the men fell back a spot, they were a better team this year.”

The ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championships came to a close with Florida State and Clemson claiming the men’s and women’s titles respectively, but despite this, several Tar Heels said they were grateful for the experience, including Lipsey. 

“The meet went well. There were a lot of weather delays because of thunderstorms, but that just forced us to battle through adversity," he said. "Any ACC competition is great. It was fun; I enjoyed it.”