The men’s and women’s track and field teams will head to Blacksburg, Va., this weekend for the ACC Indoor Championships.
Both squads have been off for two weeks, when the men competed in the St. Valentine’s Invite in Boston, and the women went to the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark.
The men’s team is led by sophomore Tim Harris, who is top-ranked in the 800-meter race. Harris broke the school record two weeks ago in the event by finishing with a time of 1:47:99. The mark broke an 11-year school record.
Harris has provisionally qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships, after turning in the seventh-fastest indoor time of the season in the country.
Miami football wide receiver Lance Leggett is top-ranked in the 55-meter hurdles race as well. Leggett had the fastest time in the ACC (7.48) during week five
The 16th-ranked women’s track and field team is the defending ACC indoor champions. Three individual champions return as well. One team that may give the Hurricanes some trouble is North Carolina, who is the only ACC team ranked higher than Miami, sitting at seventh.
Miami is led by Tabia Charles in the triple jump, who automatically qualified to the NCAA Indoor Championships by recording a jump of 44-03.25.
The other automatic bid so far for the Hurricanes has been the 4 x 400 meter relay team, which ran a 3:33:47 to make it. Both are also at the top of the ACC in each event as well.
The NCAA Indoor Championships will be held in two weeks at the University of Arkansas.
Douglas C. Kroll can be contacted at d.kroll@umiami.edu