Highlighted by three individual first-place finishes, the NC State track and field team had a strong showing in Blacksburg, Virginia at the ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships over the weekend with the men’s team placing third and the women’s team coming in sixth.
Florida State and Virginia Tech won the meet on the men’s side, while Miami took home the top spot for the women’s portion of the meet.
The Wolfpack earned 17 all-conference honors overall, with 11 of those being First-Team All-ACC awards.
The men’s third-place finish, their best since 2011, was led by First-Team All-ACC senior Grant Rivers, who won the heptathlon with 5,177 points while beating Virginia Tech’s Jaelyn Demory and Miami’s Andreas Christodoulou. Rivers won the shot put, pole vault and high jump portion of the event to take first place overall Saturday.
Redshirt freshman Ian Shanklin had a stellar performance of his own Friday during the second day of competition, earning a first-place finish in the men’s 5,000-meter run with a time of 14:03 for his first individual ACC Championship of his career. Shanklin outran second-place finisher Peter Seufer of Virginia Tech by just over a second.
The Pack’s third ACC Champion of the weekend was redshirt senior Lauren Evans, as she won the women’s shot put with a throw of 53 feet and 11.75 inches Saturday during the final day of the meet.
Freshman Timira Chapman also secured a podium finish for the Pack, coming in third place in the women’s pentathlon thanks to a career-best 2:19 in the 800-meter. Her teammate Mikeija Covington placed fifth in the event.
Freshman Jamar Davis had a great weekend, medaling twice with second-place finishes in the men’s triple jump and the men’s long jump.
Among other standout performances for NC State were redshirt junior Phillip Hall’s third-place finish in the men’s mile final, senior Gabriele Cunningham’s third-place finish in the women’s 200-meter final and junior Elly Henes’ silver medal in the women’s 3000-meter final.
The Wolfpack’s next event is the NCAA Indoor Championships, which will take place March 8-9.
