The 2023 ACC Outdoor Track & Field Championships were held at NC State this year where the team showed out, earning 6th and 13th place in the women’s and men’s field’s respectively. Although it wasn’t the strongest team showing, both the men’s and women’s team crowned individual champions throughout the weekend.
The Wolfpack found its first individual title on day one and on the field thanks to senior Jirah Sidberry, whose 6.35 meter long jump was enough for first place and her own personal best. Sidberry also finished seventh in the women’s triple jump on day two.
Junior Katelyn Tuohy continued her tear, earning first in the women’s 10,000-meter in her first collegiate 10k. Tuohy wasn’t the only Pack runner to set an impressive time in the women’s 10,000-meter as junior Gionna Quarzo and graduate student Mariah Howlett finished second and fifth respectively.
It wasn’t smooth sailing all weekend for the Wolfpack though — after finishing first, third, and fifth in the women’s 1500M prelims the team would go on to earn results of 6th, 8th and 9th in the finals. Despite these disappointing results, the Wolfpack’s resilience gave them the chance to bounce back in the women’s 5,000-meter.
In the women’s 5,000-meter race, sophomore Amaris Tyynismaa and senior Kelsey Chmiel took the top two spots with two more Pack members in the top 10. This gave NC State their second one-two finish on the weekend.
“Yeah the culture they have been able to build with each other is just great,” said head women’s track and field coach Laurie Henes. “You can see they were just trying to work together and that really helps to be able to have a team aspect in such an individual sport.”
Once again showing off her all-around ability, graduate Timara Chapman took the Women’s heptathlon with a facility record of 5710 points. First place in the shot put and 800M lifted Chapman over the edge as she won by a slim margin of 20 points.
The men’s team struggled to win a lot of hardware, however graduate Cameron Murray made the most of his weekend in the 110M hurdles, setting a school record with a time of 13.43 in prelims and would go on to win the finals with a time of 13.46, slightly slower than he would have liked.
“I didn’t run the time I wanted to but my main goal was to get the win and that’s what I did today, Murray said. “The times are going to set me up for regionals, run faster, and at nationals bring it home.”
Graduate Jamar Davis earned an impressive fourth in the men’s triple jump with a distance of 15.45 meters. Although just off the podium it was still a good result for both him and the team.
Although the results throughout the year have been reliable metrics of success, the only thing that matters is who performs when the titles are on the line.
“We say the season doesn’t really start until here, so I think it was a very good start to springboard into regionals and nationals” Henes said
Both teams will look to continue their success at the NCAA Regional Championships in Jacksonville, Florida from Wednesday, May 24th to Saturday, May 27th.
