April 21, 2008

Raleigh, NC (UWIRE) -- The track and field teams competed at the ACC Outdoor Championships in Atlanta this past weekend. At the meet, the men's team posted a third-place finish, while the women ended up in 11th.

"For the men to finish in third place is great," redshirt senior Kevin Hutton said. "Clemson and Florida State are two of the top track teams in the country, not just the ACC."

According to the USTFCCCA Men's Outdoor Rankings, Florida State is No. 4 nationally.

"Florida State is very, very tough," senior Stephen Furst said. "They've won a couple of national championships in the past few years, and Clemson has a really strong tradition as well. To finish behind them is not at all a disappointment."

Last season the Wolfpack men and women finished third and 10th, respectively. This season many of the athletes and coaches are focusing more on individual performances. Kevin Hutton, a 400-meter hurdler, was one of two State athletes to claim ACC crowns.

"Coming into the meet, I was fairly confident," Hutton said. "Just going by a time standpoint, I think I was leading the ACC."

Before pulling out the win, Hutton posted a third-place finish in the preliminary hurdles on Friday to qualify for the final meet, where he went on to win.

"In the preliminaries, I kind of had a bad lane," Hutton said. "I went out there trying to win the heat rather than running fast. In the finals I had a totally different mindset. I was more focused on my lane and more focused on running a personal best."

Hutton, who also won the 400-meter hurdles in 2007, said winning the title wasn't easy.

"I was probably the most nervous I've ever been as an athlete at N.C. State," Hutton said. "This year it was expected that I should be able to go out there and win. There was so much pressure."

"This has been the culmination of five years of work," Furst said. "Coach [Rollie] Geiger's training program is designed for long-term improvement. It seems like a huge breakthrough, but if you look at the numbers, it is really just the result of me developing into the solid runner that I am today."

Furst's finish in the 10,000 meters was the seventh-best time in school history. Fellow Pack runner and senior Wesley Smith recorded the eighth-best time in school history, turning in a second-place finish and earning All-ACC accolades.

"Wes and I had a plan to take the pace out pretty hard to try to get rid of all the competitors, and it worked," Furst said. "In the last three laps we were the only two guys left. We really worked together to break the field."

In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, redshirt senior Tibor Vegh led the team with a second-place finish. Sophomore A'Tolani Akinkuotu finished third in the 100-meter dash, and senior Dexter Adams finished second in the long jump to bring home All-ACC recognition.

"The steeplers all ran pretty solid," Furst said. "It's great that they went out there, won tough races and scored a lot of points."

On the women's side, senior DeMiracle Washington posted a fourth-place finish in the triple jump. Senior Mattie Bethea placed third in the high jump to earn All-ACC honors.

"I was pretty surprised by my jump," Bethea said.

Now many of the other Pack athletes are looking towards future meets to find even more success.

"Last year I kind of stopped running to take care of school and do a few things," Hutton said. "But this year I'm going to focus on track a lot. Some of us will be heading up to the Penn Relays next week. Hopefully some of us will be going to nationals and hit some Olympic trial marks."

(C) 2008 Technician via UWIRE