Underdog Eagles On The Hunt At The ACC's

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- The past year made an indoor season feel adrift for the Boston College men's track program. COVID-19 made it impossible to host a normal season, and the lack of indoor facilities made training either strange or impossible for runners accustomed to routines. They couldn't transition out of their cross country schedule with the same flow, and their indoor season denied them the opportunity to compete through critical months before the outdoor spring season.

But all of that has changed with the 2021-22 regular season - one that saw dozens of personal-best times and top 10 all-time school marks registered, and long-standing Boston College records fall. Returning to their courses this season therefore meant more than simply training and competing for a team bent on making a statement within the ACC. The Eagles were back, but they had a renewed sense of purpose - one that carried them through their season straight into this weekend's ACC Championship, where already two school records were re-established by their current holder, and two other BC athletes advanced into Saturday's championship finals.

"I think having a regular schedule helped immensely this year," head coach Matt Kerr said. "Just in terms of having regular access to a track, it sounds funny, but we looked at competing every week as an opportunity that we didn't have in previous seasons. We would have access to runways for long jumps, pads for sprinting, hurdles, and everything that we wanted to do. We just didn't have that in any sense last year during the indoor season, and with a lack of competition, we just didn't have the access. We were still challenged this year, but every Saturday, we were on a track, and those races were our best workouts, our best quality, and our best opportunity of the week."

Boiling competition down to that simplest component part boosted BC, and this season became about taking chances and gambling in ways that would benefit both the individual and the program. The athletes all enjoyed the experience more, and the inherent relaxed attitude enabled them to reach their fullest potential by enjoying the little things about training.

It started almost immediately when Jalon Williams, a cornerback on the Boston College football team, joined the indoor track program and shattered the school record in the 60-meter dash when he ran a 6.91 in his preliminary heat before a 6.85 second final heat earned him a fourth place finish at the Battle of Beantown. One week later, he ran the fourth-fastest 200-meter spring in BC history when he finished 21st at the John Thomas Terrier Classic with a time of 22.13 seconds. That time was faster than Marcus Manson, a team captain who won the 400-meter run at the event.

The success became infectious and summarily spread through some of the distance events as runners worked into form throughout January. After Denis Gallagher ran a personal best in the 500-meter at the Beantown Challenge in early January, he rattled off a number of personal bests in both the 1,000-meter and the half-mile before shattering a nearly 50-year record in the 800-meter at the David Hemery Valentine's Invitational.

"Everyone's had the same mentality," Kerr said. "Marcus is the school record holder in the 400 and is just running into shape, and both he and Denis were ready to go. David Scherrer is a transfer from Brown and was named a team captain, which speaks a lot to his leadership in terms of jumping into the program to lead the guys in his first year."

In Blacksburg, Boston College was more than prepared to battle some of the ACC's best runners. On Thursday, the Distance Medley Relay finished seventh in a time of 9:46.41 - the third-fastest time by a BC DMR. It set a clear tone for Friday's preliminary performances, seeing Gallagher advance to the final of the 800m and Steven Jackson advance to the final of the mile. Williams set a new 60m mark and Manson did the same in the 400m. Several other Eagles narrowly missed on advancing, yet still posted some of the fastest times of the indoor season.

"They're all fearless leaders," he continued. "They're great citizens and great teammates, and they lead by example. They're vocal and hold everybody to account, so we have that team attitude. We know we're underdogs in this conference, but we're not going to fear any opponent. We can get out there and beat anybody on any given day. We have events that we really focus on, but whenever we're competing, we're going to take our chances. That's where we see our big performances - that willingness to risk it. That's the first lesson we want our athletes to learn: they can take risks and take charge."

The 2022 ACC Indoor Track and Field Championship wraps up on Saturday with coverage beginning at 12:55 p.m.. The ACC Network will also air a highlight and recap show of the championship on Sunday beginning at 7 a.m.

Boston College Entrants/Results
Thursday
7. Distance Medley Relay - 9:46.41

Friday
Mile prelim - 5. Steven Jackson - 4:05.31 q; 15. David Scherrer - 4:06.91; 21. Erik Linden - 4:11.64; 33. Edward Tristine - 4:23.48
400m prelim - 15. Marcus Manson - 47.97; 29. Jackson Sigalove - 50.32; 33. Taylor Henry - 52.79
60m prelim - Jalon Williams - 6.83
800m prelim - 5. Denis Gallagher - 1:49.85 q; 32. Adriano Barilla - 1:54.12; 33. Eddie Kelly - 1:54.14; 39. John Wacker - 1:56.69
200m prelim - 22. Jalon Willians - 22.11

Saturday
1:10 p.m. - Mile - Steven Jackson
2:50 p.m. - 800m - Denis Gallagher
3:55 p.m. - 3,000m - Steven Jackson, Andrew Healey, Peter Fox, David Scherrer (section 1)

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Players Mentioned

Adriano Barilla

Peter Fox

Denis Gallagher

Andrew Healey

Taylor Henry

Steven Jackson

Eddie Kelly

Erik Linden

Marcus Manson

David Scherrer

Jackson Sigalove

Edward Tristine

John Wacker

Jalon Williams

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