Virginia women set school record in DMR at ACC Championships

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The Virginia men’s and women’s track and field teams opened competition at the ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships at Virginia Tech’s Rector Field House where the women’s DMR squad started the meet with a bang.

The Virginia women’s distance medley relay team featured freshman Mia Barnett, Anzhelika Parenchuk, Keara Seasholtz and Margot Appleton anchoring as a freshman. At the end of the first leg, Barnett closed an early gap for the Hoos and sent Parenchuk into the second leg with the lead. In the final leg Appleton kept pace with Virginia Tech and NC State. The pack separated in the final 100-meters as Appleton pulled away from NC State, to secure a second-place finish for the Hoos with a school record time of 10:56.84.

On the men’s side Virginia fielded a team of Ka’eo Kruse, Jay Pendarvis, Liam Bellamy in the first three legs while true freshman, Jackson Braddock, anchored the squad. The team turned in a time of 9:42.60 to secure a fifth-place finish for the Hoos.

Alex Still turned in consistent performances across pentathlon events to and placed fifth in the competition. Still opened the competition with a personal best time in the 60m hurdles to earn a sixth-place finish in the event. Following seventh and 10th place performances in the high jump and shot put, Still leaped 5.86m (19’2.75”) to earn fourth place in the long jump. A seventh-place finish in the 800m locked up a personal best point total of 3978.

Derek Pekar finished the first day of heptathlon competition in fifth place while posting a personal best time in the 60m hurdles.