Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, will always be a special day in Virginia Tech history as both the Hokies’ men’s and women’s track and field squads claimed ACC indoor championships, marking the first time in program history that both teams won ACC titles at the same indoor meet.
Even more special was that the Hokies won the championships in Blacksburg at Rector Field House as Tech served as the host for this year’s edition of the conference indoor championships meet.
The men’s team won convincingly with a score of 97 points while the women’s team tied with Duke (86 points) in nail-biting fashion.
Friday’s highlight came via Rachel Baxter, who finished out her ACC indoor vaulting career by breaking the ACC indoor pole vault record by clearing 4.61m (15′ 1.5″), in the process winning the ACC title for the fourth straight year. Having become the first woman to win three consecutive indoor titles in 2021, Baxter now stands alone as the only vaulter, man or woman, to be crowned ACC champion four straight indoor seasons.
“Rachel has been close to a breakthrough every meet this year, and it was great to see her realize that breakthrough tonight,” Assistant Coach Bob Phillips said. “She is a super hard working young woman who has so many more big jumps ahead of her.”
Baxter’s vault took over the top spot all-time in the ACC as she beat the previous record set by Duke’s Megan Clark at 4.60m (15′ 1″) in 2016. Additionally, the grad student out of Orange, Calif., now holds the No.-5 mark all-time in the NCAA, the No.-10 best vault in the world this year, and is the only collegian to clear 15 feet so far in 2022. As an aside, Friday night marked the first time Baxter had cleared 15 feet in her career, and she broke her own school record that she set in 2020 by eight centimeters.
In addition to Baxter’s fireworks, the Hokies claimed four more medals and set two school records Friday. Rebecca Mammel shattered the ACC Championships record for the women’s weight throw with a heave of 23.08m (75′ 8.75″) to earn her first ACC title. Having delivered consistently dominant performances all year, Mammel set a new meet record and a new school record and moved into No. 4 in the NCAA and No. 10 in the world this year. Additionally, Mammel became the first VT women’s weight thrower to pass the 23-meter mark.
In the men’s 60m, Cole Beck ran the second-fastest qualifying time of 6.64 seconds to move into the finals, then posted the top time in the prelims of the 200m, going 21.01 to advance.
The former Blacksburg High School standout was named the indoor event’s top men’s track performer after winning the 200-meter final and finishing third in the 60 meters.
Virginia Tech’s Victoria Gorlova, who won the triple jump, was named most valuable women’s field performer.
Ben Fleming, another BHS graduate, teamed with Patrick Forrest, Christian Jackson, and Antonio Lopez Segura to win the men’s distance medley relay with a time of 9:35.00.
