Competing in the 2010 ACC Indoor Championship hosted in Blacksburg, Va., from Feb. 25th-27th, the Demon Deacon track and field program showcased strong performances from both the men, who received 10th place with a total of 21 points, and the women, who placed 11th with 32 points.

Photo courtesy of Media Relations

Most impressively on the opening day of the championship, senior Caroline Vaughn set three personal bests as well as the pentathlon school record with a total of 3,758 points.

The high score also surpassed the NCAA Provisional mark by 28 points. One of Vaughn’s strongest events was her personal record time of 2:19:11 in the 800m, which allowed her to place fourth overall in the pentathlon.

“Going into the championship the goal was to compete; emphasis was not placed on specific times or marks, but on beating the person in front of you,” Vaughn said. “It felt great to set the pentathlon record and was almost unexpected,” she said. “The first two events (hurdles and high jump) set a great tone for the rest of my pentathlon and I went into the 800 with an ambitious race plan and made sure to leave everything on the track!”

Competing in only her second pentathlon, senior Alex Gove excelled under the pressure by setting four personal records, most impressively in the 60m hurdles at 8.78, in the high jump with a mark of 4-9.50., and the 800m with a time of 2:15:00.

Gove finished ninth with 3, 602 points.

On the men’s side, senior Brent LaRue continued the momentum of his great season in the heptathlon particularly with a 7.04 in the 60m dash, a heptathlon-best 41-3.75 in the shot put and second place in the long jump with 6-7.50.

Sophomore Alex Hill started the day with a personal best 7.17 in the 60m and placed third overall in the event. In the finals of the men’s heptathlon, La Rue placed fifth with 4, 935 points and Hill took eighth with a personal-best of 4,846 points.

Among many strong performances by the Demon Deacons, the second day of the championship showcased junior Anna Nosenko, who won second place with an indoor-best time of 16:20. 19 in the 5,000m race and received all-ACC honors for the second year in a row.

The following day, Nosenko earned all-ACC honors in the 3,000m after achieving an NCAA Provisional time of 9:29.50.

On the final day of the championship, senior Jon Reid placed second in the men’s 400m dash for his second year in a row to earn All-ACC honors. Reid later competed in the 800m, and then joined teammates  LaRue, Tyler Dodds and Allan Lunkenheimer for the 4×400m relay and placed fourth.

Nicole Castronuova, Gwen Rico, Vaughn and Gove created a cohesive women’s 4×400m relay team, and placed sixth overall in the event and set the school-record with a time of 9:43.66.

With the indoor season coming to a conclusion, the Deacons will kick off the outdoor season by hosting the Wake Forest Open on March 19th.