Syracuse Track & Field : ACC Championships Day 1 Recap - Orange Men in 1st

The Syracuse Orange indoor track and field squads are in Boston battling for ACC titles this weekend. Right now after the first day and a half, the women are in 10th  place with 8 points, while the men are in 1st place with 32 points. Can the men hold on to win? Well, it's going to come down to 3 events- the 60m hurdles, the mile, and the 3k. We'll look at those events in more detail later, but first, let's recap the completed events.

The only athletes to compete on Thursday evening were the distance medley relay teams. The Syracuse women's team of Karina Ernst (1200- 3:35.97), Brittany Belo (400-56.16), Elizabeth Reynolds (800-2:16.17) and Sydney Leiher (Mile-4:38.22, which was the fastest split at that distance) finished 6th. The men's team of Joel Hubbard (1200- 3:00.01, which was the fastest split), Paul Lovell (400-49.89), Adam Palamar (800-1:49.99) and Justyn Knight (Mile- 3:56.86) were just edged out by .5 seconds by Virginia, who was anchored by Henry Wynne in 3:56.37.

In Friday's finals, Syracuse made the most of their strong distance depth by scoring 20 points in the 5k. Justyn Knight took the win in a time of 14:01.70 while Colin Bennie (3rd in 14:02.88) and Philo Germano (5th in 14:05.08) helped the Orange rack up 20 points in the event. Knight's closing 400m was 56.52 as he edged out Thomas Curtin from Virginia Tech in what you can see was a close finish.

5000m (M) | VT's Thomas Curtin loses by a stride. Finished 2nd in a time of 14:01.78 pic.twitter.com/yonaHpOcAN

— VT Track & Field (@VT_Track) February 27, 2016

In the women's 5k, Shaylyn Tuite turned in a personal record of 16:15.53 to grab 4th place. Notre Dame's Molly Seidel ran away from the field and set a new ACC record with her winning time of 15:19.64.  Syracuse long jumper Reggie Morton finished 5th with a jump of 24' 1.5" while Jabari Butler was just outside of the scoring range with his 9th place finish in the high jump.

Advancing to Saturday's finals on the women's side were: Shaina Harrison and Khadejia Sellers in the 60m dash, Tia Thevenin in the 60m hurdles, and Sydney Leiher in the mile.

For the men, the qualifiers for finals on Saturday were: Winston Lee in the 60m dash, Freddie Crittenden, David Gilstrap, Richard Floyd and Chevis Armstead in the 60m hurdles, Joel Hubbard and Adam Palamar in the mile. These athletes along with the 3k group will be the ones who determine if Syracuse can hold onto the team lead. Even though the Orange don't have athletes in a lot of events on Saturday there is a chance that they can post three more individual wins, and with strong performances, can load up the points as they did in the 5k.

Online coverage is available on ESPN from 1-4 on Saturday so tune in and see if the Orange can bring home another ACC title.