While the Syracuse Orange Men's Track & Field team was unable to complete a sweep of all ACC titles this year, the meet still provided some top performances. Chris Fox's 18th ranked squad finished 9th, well behind the winning Virginia Tech Hokies. The Orange women finished 11th overall, with the host Florida State Seminoles taking the title.
The Orange were led by Junior hurdler Freddie Crittenden III, who was a convincing winner in 110m hurdles. Crittenden's winning time of 13.58 was well ahead of the rest of the field, as he earned his second straight win in the hurdles. Crittenden heads into the NCAA Regionals with the third-fastest time as he looks to earn his way back to Eugene. Richard Floyd and David Gilstrap finished 4th and 5th in the hurdles respectively. Winston Lee turned in a 7th-place finish in the 100m dash, and joined Crittenden, Gilstrap, and Kashif Miller to grab 6th place in the 4x100m relay.
Syracuse's distance group notched two top-3 finishes from Justyn Knight and Adam Palamar. Knight earned a 3rd-place finish in his first collegiate 10k, while Palamar placed 3rd in the 1500m. Both runners will be favored to qualify for the NCAA Meet, with Knight likely to run the 5k there. Syracuse's distance group also received scoring performances from Joel Hubbard (4th in 1500m), Colin Bennie (5th in 5k), and Philo Germano (6th in 10k).
The Syracuse women were led once again by two seniors-Shaina Harrison and Margo Malone. Malone finished 2nd in the 10k, and then came back to grab 3rd place in the 5k on Sunday. This was the 3rd-straight year that Malone has finished in the Top 3 places in both events at the ACC Championships. Also scoring in the 10k were Shaylyn Tuite (5th place) and Shannon Malone (6th).
Harrison finished 2nd in the 100m dash, and was part of the 7th-lace 4x100m relay, along with Khadejia Sellers, Rebecca Robinson, and Tia Thevenin. These finishes give Harrison a career total of 61 points scored in conference meets during her Syracuse career.
Syracuse will be back on the track in two weeks at the NCAA East Regional meet. We'll take an in-depth look at that meet as we get closer.