Amanda Vestri leads the way for Syracuse Track at the ACC Championships

It’s been a weird year for many Syracuse Orange teams. Among those is the cross—country and track teams who have seen their seasons overlap in 2021. That hasn’t stopped Syracuse junior Amanda Vestri from finding success on the trails and the track. Vestri took the title in the women’s 5k title at the ACC Indoor Track & Field Championships hosted by Clemson over the weekend. Her time of 16:10 was over six seconds ahead of the second-place finisher and she ranks 23rd nationally in the event this season. This was Vestri’s first ACC title and follows her 2nd-place finish in last fall’s ACC XC Championships.

Vestri was the only point-scorer for the Orange women who finished 14th overall in the team competition. The other Syracuse competitors were: Shaleah Colaire (9th in the 60m hurdles ), Ashley Wallace (17th in the 60m hurdles), Eunice Boateng (19th in the 60m and 22nd in the 200m), Emma Eastman (19th in the mile), Rachel Bonner (31st in the 3k), Olivia Elston (38th in the 3k), Justus Holden-Betts (42nd in the 3k), Abigail Spiers (14th in the 5k) and Ellie Lawler (26th in the 5k).

The Syracuse men were also 14th in the team competition scoring 14 points at the meet. Orange point scorers were Brevin Sims (6th) and Jamil Adams (7th) in the 60m hurdles, Nathan Henderson (8th in the 3k), JP Trojan (4th in the 5k) and Alex Comerford (7th in the 5k). Gavin Richards (10th in the mile), Aidan Tooker (9th in the 3k), Matthew Scrape (9th in the 5k) and Silas Derfel (10th in the 5k) were the other top Syracuse finishers.

We’ll find out this week if any Syracuse athletes will be selected for the NCAA Indoor and/or XC Championships which will be held in March.