Cards Finish 6th in ACC Championships
There is one sport remaining in action for Louisville women's athletics, and that's track and field. The ACC Championships were here in Louisville over the weekend, but the news was (perhaps understandably) overshadowed by Louisville softball in the NCAA tournament. The Cards demanded attention, though, so let's take a look at some of the success from the weekend. Louisville athletes will be idle (in competition anyway) for a week before the NCAA East Regional begins on Wednesday, May 27th.
Day one saw the Cards continue their recent pole vaulting success, with KJ Byrd defending his title on the men's side. On the women's side, Ashley Callahan finished with a silver medal. It is the seventh straight season that Louisville women have scored a podium in pole vault at the outdoor conference championships. Nancy Chepleting finished just fifth in the women's 10000m, but her mark was the fourth-fastest in school history and earned her Second Team All-ACC.
Friday saw a couple of additional gold medals for the Cards. Roman Kuleshov took the top spot in men's long jump, while Lucy Fellows earned the women their first individual title of the weekend. Fellows took home the gold medal in the women's heptathlon. She's the first woman in program history to win the event in the ACC Championships. Just like their recent jumping success, Louisville continued their program tradition of throwing. Kaia Tupu-South finished second in the shot put with a throw of 17.56m, improving her position of third in program history and maintaining a spot among the top-ten in the NCAA this year.
Louisville's team lead unfortunately unraveled in the final day of competition, as the sprints are not a program strength. While the men added three more golds, the women were unable to reach the top spot on the podium on Saturday. The Cards did earn three podium finishes on the women's side, though, with Alba Cuns Iglesias finishing second in the triple jump, posting the third-best wind-legal jump in school history. Sharvari Parulekar improved from ninth to third in her final jump, giving Louisville two on the podium in the event. Kaia Tupu-South added another silver medal to her collection, when she finished second in the discus throw.
Louisville's final list of NCAA qualifiers isn't known just yet, but they won't have to travel far for the event regardless. UK hosts the East Region this year, so a quick trip over to Lexington is what awaits the qualifying Cards.
Until next time, Go Cards!
Case
