Greene, Men's 4x400 Earn ACC Titles

Saturday, May 11

Charlottesville, Va.

All Day

North Carolina

ACC Outdoor Track & Field Championships

Nicole Greene

May 11, 2019 | Track & Field

Complete Results

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - North Carolina's Nicole Greene and the men's 4x400 relay claimed two more ACC titles for the Tar Heels on Saturday to wrap up the ACC Outdoor Championships at Virginia's Lannigan Field. Overall, the Tar Heel men's team finished the three-day meet with 50 points for seventh place and the women totaled 44 points for 10th.

Nicole Greene, a redshirt junior from Ponte Vedra, Fla., matched her lifetime-best height of 6-2 (1.88 meters) to win the women's high jump competition by seven inches. In her first championship meet since the 2018 indoor season, Greene set a new facility record at Lannigan Field and cleared the third-best height in UNC history. The 2018 indoor national champion entered the weekend with the third-best height in NCAA Division I competition but now stands alone with the No. 2 performance this season.

Freshman Onyedikachi Ohia-Enyia, sophomore Isaiah Palmer, junior Ari Cogdell and sophomore Ryan Saint-Germain teamed up in the final championship event to win Carolina's second-consecutive men's outdoor 4x400 title. Battling against the rain, the Tar Heel relay appeared to lock down the race with a strong third leg by Cogdell while Saint-Germain held the lead to secure the win.

Both Palmer (Plano, Texas) and Saint-Germain (Jacksonville, Fla.) competed in the men's 400-meter final prior to their championship relay performances. Palmer broke 46 seconds for the first time in his career to finish second in 45.92 seconds, earning UNC's only men's individual first-team All-ACC accolade. In his first-ever ACC final as an individual competitor, Saint-Germain ran 47.47 to place seventh in the 400.

"The men's team and their seventh-place finish was an amazing job for this group of athletes," head coach Harlis Meaders said. "I think fifth place scored 52 points and we scored 50 which shows you how competitive the conference really is. I was impressed by the fact that our kids were able to have such high-level performances at the championship meet. If you go back and look at our season as a whole, our athletes were getting better week after week and those same student-athletes continued to excel in our first true test of how good we are as a unit. I think everybody who scored those points for the men's team — including the men's championship 4x400 relay — is coming back next year. That's a really good sign for the future. On the women's side, we had three individual ACC champions each performing at the NCAA level. Those performances by Nicole Greene, Jill Shippee and Madison Wiltrout were amazing to watch, and I think by the end of the week those performances will probably be in the top 10 if not the top five in the country. I was really proud to see our women step up and answer the challenge — Maiah Walker finishing All-ACC in the women's 400, Madeline Kraft stepping up and running the anchor leg of our women's 4x400 when we were one person short. I think it was a pretty impressive performance for our group."

Both Tar Heel qualifiers in the men's 1,500 meters — Brandon Tubby and Alex Milligan — earned second-team All-ACC accolades for the first time in their careers. Tubby, a junior from Hillsborough, N.J., ran a personal-best 3:44.42 to finish fourth in his first-ever championship final and Milligan, a junior from State College, Pa., followed right behind in fifth with his own season-best performance (3:44.98).

Cameron Douglas, a junior from Loganville, Ga., also finished second-team All-ACC in his first ever ACC Championship final, clocking 21.25 seconds for fifth place.

Just one day after his All-ACC shot put performance, Daniel McArthur, a junior from Mooresville, N.C., earned his first All-ACC accolade in the men's discus and the sixth of his career. McArthur finished fifth in Saturday's discus final with a mark of 168-5 (51.35 meters).

Maiah Walker, a freshman from Lake Wales, Fla., crossed the women's 400-meter finish line in 53.87 seconds to place sixth for second-team All-ACC honors.

Over the course of the entire championship meet, the Tar Heels combined for four ACC titles, 12 All-ACC performances, 13 lifetime bests and 14 collegiate bests.

The last time Carolina claimed four ACC titles in one season was during 2013 outdoors when Lianne Farber (women's 1,500m), Joe Hutchinson (decathlon), RJ Alowonle (men's 400m hurdles) and the men's 4x400 (Alowonle, Radlin, Sutton, Parros) brought home gold medals.

While sophomore Jill Shippee was Carolina's first outdoor women's ACC champion since 2015, the trio of titles won by Greene, Shippee and Wiltrout on Thursday and Saturday marks the first time the Tar Heels have had three ACC champions since the 2014 indoor conference meet. Carolina tied Virginia for the second-most women's ACC champions (3) behind women's team champion Florida State (5) and the last time three Carolina women won individual event titles was in 2009 at the ACC Outdoor Championships.

"Even though she wasn't the first champion of the weekend, I think our success goes back and starts with Nicole Greene," Meaders said. "Her national championship from the 2018 indoor season really set the tone and showed our women that you can compete at the highest level here at the University of North Carolina. Now you have a sophomore, Jill Shippee, competing at an elite level — ACC champion, ACC record holder and again might still be one of the top competitors in the country by the end of the season. I think it took Nicole Greene winning the title to show them that it was possible and now we're seeing people like Madison Wiltrout, who is just a redshirt freshman, perform at incredible levels, too. I think the assistant coaches did a tremendous job getting them ready. Coach Hudson and Coach Gorski have got a plan for those athletes to be ready at the national championships and I was really proud to see those kids come in level-headed and prepared.

"It's really exciting because we know that it doesn't take a lot of people to have a strong presence at the NCAA Championship level if those individuals are really good. I think we have to get through the preliminary rounds in a couple weeks, but I think if we can get those young women to Austin, Texas for the NCAA Championships, it gives us a realistic chance of breaking into the top-25 teams in the country. We have a ton of freshman who are coming in next year who are going to add to the program so I think we've got a really solid foundation and I'm looking forward to the rest of the postseason."

OTHER TAR HEEL HIGHLIGHTS
Men
• The men's 4x100 lineup of Qhiyal Towns, Isaiah Palmer, Jadon Johnson and Ryan Saint-Germain placed fifth with the Tar Heels' best time of the season — 40.35 seconds.
• Nick Golebiowski, a graduate student from St. Cloud, Minn., finished 14th in the men's 5,000 meters just one second off his outdoor personal best (14:23.70).

Women
• Peighton Simmons, a sophomore form High Point, NC.., came back from a six-week hiatus to finish 12th in the women's triple jump with a mark of 40-4 (12.29 meters).
• Anna Keefer, a sophomore from St. Michael Albertville, Minn., contributed to Carolina's team score with her seventh-place finish (11.56) in the women's 100 meters.
• Mady Clahane, a redshirt sophomore from Mechanicsburg, Pa., shaved over 30 seconds off her career-best 5,000-meter time and ran 16:37.23 to finish 16th in the women's final.
• Lindsey Lanier, a sophomore from Charlotte, N.C., also ran an outdoor personal best in the women's 5,000 meters, clocking 17:12.19.

MEN'S ALL-ACC HONOREES
ACC Champions
• Ohia-Enyia, Palmer, Cogdell, Saint-Germain – 4x400, 3:11.50

First-Team
• Ohia-Enyia, Palmer, Cogdell, Saint-Germain – 4x400, 1st, 3:11.50
• Isaiah Palmer – 400m, 2nd, 45.92

Second-Team
• Brandon Tubby — 1,500m, 4th, 3:44.42
• Cameron Douglas — 200m, 5th, 21.25
• Daniel McArthur – Discus, 5th, 56-9 ¼ (17.30 meters)
• Alex Milligan — 1,500m, 5th, 3:44.98
• Liam Dixon — Pole Vault, T-6th, 15-7 3/4 (4.77 meters)
• Drew Pedersen — Pole Vault, T-6th, 15-7 3/4 (4.77 meters)
• Daniel McArthur – Shot Put, 6th, 59-10 ½ (18.25 meters)

WOMEN'S ALL-ACC HONOREES
ACC Champions
• Nicole Greene — High Jump, 6-2 (1.88 meters)
• Jill Shippee — Hammer, 224-3 (68.36 meters)
• Madison Wiltrout — Javelin, 182-5 (55.60 meters)

First-Team
• Nicole Greene — High Jump, 1st, 6-2 (1.88 meters)
• Jill Shippee — Hammer, 1st, 224-3 (68.36 meters)
• Madison Wiltrout — Javelin, 1st, 182-5 (55.60 meters)

Second-Team
• Maiah Walker – 400m, 6th, 53.87
• Anna Keefer – Long Jump, 6th, 20-3 1/2 (6.18 meters)

MEN'S FINAL STANDINGS
1) Virginia Tech 123
2) Virginia 117
3) Florida State 102.5
4) Pittsburgh 62
5) Clemson 52.5
6) Louisville 52
7) North Carolina 50
8) Miami 48
9) Notre Dame 40
10) Georgia Tech 38
10) Duke 38
12) Syracuse 33
13) NC State 27
14) Boston College 16
15) Wake Forest 15

WOMEN'S FINAL STANDINGS
1. Florida State 134
2. Miami 92.5
3. Virginia 84
4. Virginia Tech 77
5. Clemson 66
6. NC State 56
7. Notre Dame 55
8. Duke 51
9. Louisville 45
10. North Carolina 44
11. Syracuse 38
12. Wake Forest 29.5
13. Georgia Tech 27
14. Pittsburgh 12
15. Boston College 6

UP NEXT: Tar Heels ranked in the top 48 in the NCAA east region will head to the NCAA East Preliminary Round May 23-25 in Jacksonville, Fla. on the campus of North Florida aiming to finish in the top 12 and punch their tickets to the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The NCAA Championships will be held at Mike A. Meyers Stadium in Austin, Texas from June 5-8.