Virginia's Claudio Romero Wins NCAA Discus National Title
On the final night of men's competition at the 2022 NCAA Track & Field Championships, UVA junior Claudio Romero made sure the Cavaliers weren't going home empty-handed as he won the NCAA Discus Championship on Friday night at Hayward Field.
Romero had battled with California's Mykolas Alekna as the top two discus throwers in the country for the entire spring, but they had never faced each other in person until the NCAA Championships. The ultimate showdown lived up to the billing, as Romero and Alekna went back-and-forth throughout the event.
It was one of the earlier throws of the night from Romero that ended up carrying the winning distance. Romero's second attempt of the day went 66.17 meters (217 feet and one inch), a distance neither Romero nor Alekna (nor the rest of the field) could match in the event.
Ultimately, Romero's mark of 66.17 meters edged Alekna's best by just two centimeters (66.15m) and Romero took home the gold.
Claudio Romero becomes just the second Cavalier to ever win the NCAA Discus title, joining Philip Mihaljevic, who won gold in 2017. Romero is also just the fourth UVA athlete in history to earn First-Team All-American honors in the discus event in multiple seasons.
Two other UVA athletes competed on Friday's final day of men's events. Junior Jacob Lemmon also competed in the discus, finishing 15th with a mark of 56.77 meters and earning All-American honors for the second-straight season. Senior Owayne Owens finished 19th in the men's triple jump with a leap of 15.80 meters.
Virginia's men's team finished the NCAA Championships 14th overall on the team leaderboard with 18 points, the program's best finish since 2017 and third-best all-time.
“Congratulations to our throwers on their outstanding performances and to Claudio for capturing an NCAA Championship," said UVA Director of Track & Field Vin Lananna. "We are laying the foundation to build a special program at the University of Virginia, and we will keep chipping away at it step by step.”
One more athlete is set to compete in the 2022 Track & Field Championships as the competition concludes with the final women's events on Saturday. Ashley Anumba will compete in the women's discus at 5:05pm.
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