The weather forecast caused the final day of the ACC Outdor Track and Field Champions to be moved up several hours. Syracuse Orange stars Paige Stoner and Iliass Aouani didn’t let that stop them from winning their second individual titles of the meet as the duo took home wins in the 5,000m run.
Unlike her win in Friday night’s steeplechase Stoner was content to sit in the lead pack and let others do the work. She was able to stay on the inside while many of the leaders ran in lane two to avoid the water on the track. With a decisive move heading into the final lap Stoner pulled away for the win in a time of 16:05. Laura Dickinson ran another strong race finishing 4th in 16:08 and showing she might be ready to challenge for ACC titles next year. Rachel Bonner finished 13th in 16:29 and Abigail Spiers was 32nd in 17:33.
Aviana Goode delivered a personal-best mark of 5’7” in the women’s high jump which earned her a 7th place finish. The 4x100m relay of Eunice Boateng, Cheyenne Trigg, Alexis Crosby and Dassia Pressley finished in 6th place in a time of 45.17 seconds. The Syracuse women finished in 11th place in the team standings with 38 points as the Florida State Seminoles took the women’s title.
In the men’s 5000m it was clear that Syracuse had a strategy in place to get Iliass his 5k/10k double. Dom Hockenbury took over the lead early before Nathan Henderson and Kevin James took over bringing the race to a respectable time. Iliass ended up part of a pack of five runners who pulled away and he made a final push in the last 100 meters to win in a personal-best time of 14:00.38. The other Syracuse finishers in the event were Joe Dragon (9th in 14:16), Matt Scrape (13th in 14:20), Michael Phillips (18th in 14:32), James (21st in 14:36), Noah Beveridge (32nd in 14:54), and Hockenbury (38th in 15:01).
Richard Floyd took home 3rd place in the 110m hurdles with a time of 14.07 while Chevis Armstead II was 7th in 14.38. The only other Syracuse competitor on Saturday was Nathan Henderson and he finished 11th in the 1500m run in a time of 3:53.97
The Syracuse men finished in 12th place in the team standings with 33 points. The Virginia Tech Hokies were the men’s team champions.
The Orange will be back in action for the NCAA Eastern Regionals May 23rd- 25th in Jacksonville Florida. We’ll have information on the list of competitors once the qualifiers and declarations are final.