Two Canes Medal on Day 1 at ACC Indoor Championships
CLEMSON, S.C. – The University of Miami women’s track team kicked off the 2018 ACC Indoor Championships with a pair of podium-worthy performances.
Michelle Atherley and Amy Taintor finished second and third, respectively, in the women’s pentathlon, scoring 14 total points for the Miami women’s team score. Atherley fell just short of defending her 2017 ACC championship in the pentathlon, finishing 16 points behind Louisville’s Holly Hankenson.
“It was a great start,” Miami director of track and field/cross country Amy Deem said. “I know Michelle is a little bit disappointed, but she has a season-best and it took a lifetime-best from Holly to win. It was a great competition and Holly had the meet of her life. It was a fun competition to watch and I’m proud of Amy, too. They both had really gusty performances and I hope the team builds off of it. They saw a really great, competitive 800 meters to end it. I know it fired me up, so I hope it fires them up, as well.”
Atherley began the day with a win in the 60m hurdles, posting a season-best time of 8.37 seconds. The junior cleared 1.60m in the high jump before winning the shot put with a season-best throw of 12.18m. Atherley turned in a season-best mark of 5.84m to finish second in the long jump and won the 800m with a personal-best time of 2:14.26 to close out her silver medal performance with a season-best total score of 4,159 points.
“I knew that this wasn’t my meet after I didn’t do what I wanted in the high jump,” Atherley said. “But I didn’t quit. It was about doing my best in my other events to get points for my team and that is what pushed me until the end, as well as my teammate’s performance today and having her by my side. I knew what I needed to do heading into the 800 and I knew it was possible, but she ran a great race.”
Taintor opened the women’s heptathlon with a personal-best time of 8.93 seconds in the 60m hurdles. The senior tied her career-best in the women’s high jump with a winning mark of 1.69m and posted a season-best in the shot put of 10.84m.
“Going into a pentathlon, you have to be really mentally strong,” Taintor said. “I think me being able to go into the hurdles and the high jump right at the beginning, knowing those are not my strongest events, and being able to push through that and get PRs in each of them was huge for me. It really gave me a boost. It was really exciting and I knew I was trained well and Coach [Rob] Jarvis had pumped me up really well for it. I knew that they didn’t have to be my weakest events and that I could make them strong and that’s exactly what I did today and I think that carried me through the day. It was really exciting.”
Taintor continued her career-best day by finishing third in the long jump with a mark of 5.78m and was fourth in the 800m with a time of 2:19.39 to wrap up a bronze medal in the pentathlon with a personal-best score of 3,967 points that ranks third in UM history.
“She is a piece of my heart,” Taintor said of Atherley. “Being on that podium without her would not have meant as much to me because we train every day together and she is the one who pushes me and pushed me to be able to get on that podium. To be up there with her meant the world to me.”
“It was amazing,” Atherley said of sharing success with her training partner. “All year we have been working for this very moment and pushing each other. I was really, really happy for her and how she was performing throughout the meet. I was really excited as she continued to PR throughout the meet and that kind of kept me motivated, especially after my performance in the high jump. Seeing her PR in almost every event was amazing. It really kept me going and made sure I didn’t focus on one bad event and instead pushed to try and do well in all my other events.”
Competition kicks off Friday at 10:30 a.m., with the men’s high jump and the running events start at 1 p.m. with the women’s unseeded 5000m. Championship Saturday begins at 10:30 a.m. with the men’s triple jump and women’s shot put, while the women’s 60m hurdles final begins the running events at noon.
Click HERE for live results of all the action at the ACC Indoor Championships. The complete meet schedule is available HERE.
ACC Network Extra will live stream action the final two days, with former Olympic decathlon gold medalist Dan O’Brien serving as color analyst and working with veteran ESPN play-by-play announcer Shawn Kenney and sideline reporter Hanna Yates. Coverage will air from 3:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Friday and from noon until the meet’s conclusion on Saturday.
Following this weekend’s action at Clemson, qualifying Hurricanes that rank in the top 16 in the NCAA in their events will travel to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships in College Station, Texas, on March 9-10. To view the complete Miami Track and Field schedule for the 2018 season, click here.
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