Feb. 21, 2004

Complete Results

Clemson, S.C. - The North Carolina women's track and field team won its 15th Atlantic Coast Conference indoor team championship on Saturday with 124 1/2 points. Laura Gerraughty won titles in the shot put and weight throw for the second consecutive year and Tatyana Kirichenko won the pole vault title to lead the women. On the men's side the team placed fourth with 83 points. Nick Owens highlighted the weekend for the men with a weight throw ACC title.

"It is funny how this kind of all wound down," said UNC head coach Dennis Craddock. "We probably had the fewest ACC Champions in eight or ten years. But we won it off of second and third-place finishes, a lot of people scored. We thought it would be a four-way race going into today, we knew Georgia Tech would be very tough. The ladies just did it."

"Our men did a good, they finished fourth. They just need to step up the intensity. I thought that we should have been third, but I think we will do better outdoors because we have more throws outdoors."

Gerraughty continued her strong ACC Indoor Championships performance as she won the weight throw title for the second year in a row. She won with a throw of 65-0 3/4, her best throw of the 2004 season. Gerraughty also won the shot put tile on day one with a throw of 59-11 3/4, breaking the ACC meet record that she established in 2003 of 59-0.

"No matter how many times you win it, it is always an honor," said Gerraughy. "I always come out and try to do my best and have the best performance I can possibly have. I was pretty excited to go out with some pretty solid marks."

Gerraughty has now won four indoor ACC titles, the shot put in back-to-back years and the weight throw in consecutive years. UNC's Amy Parulis placed fourth in the weight throw with a mark of 55-7 3/4.

"Laura Gerraughty is the crème of the crop in the nation, not just the ACC," said Craddock. "You still have to go out and do it on a day-to-day basis and she came back and did that today."

North Carolina freshman Nick Owens won the men's weight throw ACC title with a mark of 61-5 1/2. The throw is a new personal record for Owens as he gained ten points for the Tar Heel men.

"It's a huge thrill for me," said Owens. "I came out and didn't really expect to win. But I had a great performance with some great throws here."

"For Nick to win the weight throw as a freshman, that is pretty awesome," said Craddock.

In the women's pole vault, Tatyana Kirichenko won her first ACC Indoor title with a vault of 12-11 1/2. The mark tied her personal record, as she gained ten points for the UNC women. Rhian Jenks also medaled for North Carolina as she came in second with a vault of 12-5 1/2. Terri Matthews just missed a medal, as she came in fourth with a mark of 11-11 3/4 and Laura Risi also contributed points for the team with a sixth place finish (11-5 3/4).

"Tatyana has had a bad knee almost all the indoor season, but she has been great in the pole vault and very consistent all year," said Craddock.

With the Tar Heels performance they gained two points on Duke in the Carlyle Cup. The UNC men gained a point by finishing ahead of Duke, and the Tar Heel women also added a point with their higher finish than Duke.

In the women's 200-meter dash, Anissa Gainey garnered third-place for UNC as she ran 24.22. Gainey also picked up a point for UNC in the 60-meter dash as she placed eighth with a time of 7.65. Curtis Fraser placed fifth in the men's 60-meter dash with a time of 6.88.

Tiffany Flomo garnered fourth-place in the women's 400-meter with a time of 55.58. On the men's side, Ryan Therrien placed sixth with a time of 49.45.

In the 800-meter run, both the Carolina men and women took home runner-up titles. Alice Schmidt placed second for the women and Andy Craycraft finished second on the men's side. Schmidt had a time of 2:08.53 and Craycraft ran 1:53.89.

Porscha Dobson picked up a medal in the 60-meter hurdles for Carolina as she placed third with a time of 8.47. Kevin Watson finished fourth on the men's side and Rob Bates placed sixth. Watson ran 7.96 and Bates had a time of 8.13.

John Hubbard picked up third place in the high jump with a mark of 6-11. Hubbard gained six points for the Tar Heel men. Lazaris Evans also picked up a third place finish as he medaled in the triple jump with a mark of 50-4 3/4. Evans had to pick up some of the slack for UNC as Daniel Harris could not compete due to injury.

In the women's mile, Erin Donohue placed second with a time of 4:48.63. The mark was good enough to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championships and gave the women's team eight points. Tar Heel freshmen Megan Kaltenbach and Meghan Owen finished sixth and eighth respectively giving the women's team four more points. Kaltenbach ran 4:55.45 and Owen finished at 5:00.51. On the men's side, Pablo Durana placed fifth with a time of 4:13.31.

Rob Bates captured third place in the inaugural heptathlon event. Bates had a total of 5,270 points and picked up six points for the Tar Heel men. Kevin Patterson placed eighth with a point total of 4,463.

In the men's 3,000-meter run, Thomas Falvey placed sixth with a time of 8:25.21. Jennifer Nelms gained a point for the UNC women in the triple jump as she finished eighth with a jump of 39-5.

On day one on Friday, Kelly Fazekas also had a strong shot put performance as she took home third place (47-4 1/4) to give the Tar Heels six team points to go along with Gerraughty's ten points. Vikas Gowda placed second in the shot put event with a throw of 59-8 1/4. Gowda improved on his fifth-place ACC finish in 2003 and earned eight points for the Tar Heel men.

North Carolina's women's distance medley relay team of Jennie Sucher, Danielle Rodgers, Georgia Kloss and Alice Schmidt placed second with a time of 11:36.91. The men's team of Thomas Falvey, Richard Allen III, Jason Newman and Brian McGovern placed fifth with a time of 10:00.97

Noah Cosby earned a fourth-place finish for the UNC men in the pole vault as he cleared 15-11.00. Cosby gave the men's team five points. In the 5,000-meter run, Jesse Rappole placed seventh with a time of 14:53.40, earning two points for the North Carolina men.

Tatyana Kirichenko and Jennifer Nelms picked up three and two points respectively in the high jump as Kirichenko placed sixth and Nelms seventh. Kirichenko cleared 5-6 1/2 and Nelms had a jump of 5-4 1/2.

In the women's pentathlon, Desiree Jones placed eighth, earning a point for the UNC women. She finished with 3089 points. In the men's heptathlon, Rob Bates is second entering the second day of competition. After five events, Bates has 2987 points, trailing only Clemson's Brent Hobbs who has 3109 points.

The Tar Heels next will host the UNC Last Chance meet on Feb. 28 at the Eddie Smith Field House starting at 10 a.m.