Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – Patrick Joseph stood off to the side of the track inside Gilliam Indoor Stadium on the campus of Texas A&M, with sports medical personnel, NCAA ushers and others scurrying about him.
Having just run his portion of the distance medley relay at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships held March 9-10, he anxiously watched as teammate Neil Gourley emerged in the lead at the final turn.
"LET'S GO," he bellowed, startling those around him in the process.
"I think I scared them to death," he said, still smiling two weeks later, as the crew gathered last Wednesday afternoon for a photoshoot and video interviews. "I don't think they were expecting it."
His excitement was certainly justified, and Gourley, perhaps listening to Joseph's astute advice or perhaps sensing the magnitude of the moment, easily crossed the finish line in first place, handing the quartet of himself, fellow seniors Joseph, Greg Chiles and Vincent Ciattei the national championship in the event.
For the first time in the illustrious history of Virginia Tech's track and field program – and it has been an illustrious one, especially over the past two decades – the Hokies won a national title in a distance running event. In fact, these four became the first men's runners to win a national championship and joined Queen Harrison, a female sprinter/hurdler, as the only runners to do so at Tech. Harrison won three crowns in 2010.
Those who looked at only the Hokies' finish and time, whether in the newspaper or online, missed out on some rather interesting tidbits to this rather large story. In most sports, athletes practice for their events and compete, but track and field tends to be a little quirky from time to time.
And the DMR itself is a little unique. Individual runners run four different distances, starting at 1,200 meters and continuing through 400, 800 and 1,600 meters. In track, runners practice for their individual events, but for the most part, they rarely practice together for a relay and rarely compete in one during regular-season meets.
"We only ran it once during the regular [indoor] season," Chiles admitted.
The four of them ran the DMR at the Roanoke Tune-Up at nearby Roanoke College on Feb. 16 just to get an NCAA qualifying time. But at the ACC meet, coaches Ben Thomas and Tim Vaught wanted to rest certain runners as much as possible, so only Gourley competed in the DMR, teaming with Daniel Jaskowak, Brandon Thomas and Thierry Siewe Yanga. They ran perfectly, winning the gold medal.
Though only having run together once, Ciattei, Chiles, Joseph and Gourley went to the NCAA meet entered with a confident air – and for good reason. After all, Ciattei, Chiles and Gourley ran the DMR at the NCAA indoor meet a year ago and finished second – and though he wasn't a part of that DMR, Joseph holds the school's indoor record in the 800.
But Ciattei, who holds the school's indoor record in the mile, found himself in traffic after the gun cracked and spent much of his opening leg there. He was in seventh place when he handed the baton to Chiles amidst a mass of humanity. Chiles, running the 400, didn't have time to make up the difference, and he, too, wound up handing off the baton in traffic to Joseph.
"My personal expectation was to get to the front," Ciattei said. "We knew we had the four strongest legs, and I didn't do my job of showing that. I handed off in a bunch [of people], and Greg handed off in a bunch. Luckily, we had the two strongest second legs."
"I was nervous," Chiles said. "The night before, Vince told me I was going to get the stick [the baton] in first. I was focused on that, but then there were 12 teams at the line at once. There was a small crack, and I could see Vince. I just wanted to stay clean and run the race."
When Joseph received the baton from Chiles, he found himself in seventh place. He also found himself in an extreme state of anxiety.
He wanted to get to the front, but being a veteran of running 800-meter races, he knew he ran the risk of becoming gassed on the final lap if he motored too quickly into the lead. Plus, Tech assistant coach Eric Johannigmeier stood next to the track and kept yelling at him to be patient.
"I had Eric on the corner of the track, and I was nervous," Joseph said. "I was getting impatient because no one wants to be that far back. The second lap, I was in the same spot, and I wanted to move, but Eric was in my ear, yelling, 'Wait one more lap.'
"So I waited, and the guys [in the field] looked like they were stagnant. You could tell in the video [of the race] that no one was making any sort of positioning except for Oregon – and that wasn't enough."
On the final lap, Thomas and Johannigmeier unleashed Joseph to make his move. Perhaps sensing a national title slipping away, he took off with a sense of urgency, bursting forth and incredibly passing all six runners ahead of him – and more impressively, putting some distance between himself and the rest of the field.
"I knew it was all there," Joseph said.
With no one around, Joseph made a clean handoff to Gourley, who found himself performing a balancing act. The redshirt senior from Glasgow, Scotland wanted to increase the lead, but he had to run the longest distance, so he knew he needed to keep plenty of fuel in the tank for the kick at the end.
"It's really just a case of keeping calm," Gourley said. "There are a lot of younger guys in the meet who would have tried to take off and get a little more distance, but I've been to the NCAAs quite a few times now. The biggest thing I've learned is that you've got to keep your head when the crowd is going wild. It was nerve-racking."
With no one to pace him, Gourley kept peeking at the video scoreboard on each lap just to see what the field was doing behind him. He wound up opening a nearly three-second lead.
"Just hang on," Chiles said when asked what he was thinking as he watched.
"He's got to keep his head. You've got to trust him," Joseph said. "That's the hardest part."
With two laps to go – 400 meters – Gourley picked up his pace. He took one last look at the video scoreboard at the start-finish line on the final lap, and with a determined look on his own face, took off.
A runner from Notre Dame and one from Oregon tried to dent the lead, but to no avail. Smiling, Gourley crossed the finish line, as the Hokies ran the event in 9 minutes, 30.76 seconds – the best time in college indoor track this season.
"It's been 4.5 years to get to this point, and I told Coach [Thomas] in January that this group wasn't going to leave here without a national title," Gourley said. "It was the plan, and it's always easier said than done, but we were … just so much relief and so much excitement from my teammates that wanted the exact same thing."
The national title marked the first for Thomas as the Hokies' distance coach. Alexis Sharangabo won a national title under him at NAIA Brevard College, and Mary Jane Harrelson won two national titles under Thomas when he coached at Appalachian State in the late 1990s.
But that last one occurred nearly 20 years ago. This Tech quartet wanted to give him his first as the Hokies' head man.
"To be the first to reach the mountaintop, to do it for the program is obviously a huge honor," Ciattei said. "There is so much history, and for us to be part of that big of a component is amazing.
"But to do it for each other and Coach Thomas, who is so deserving of a distance runners' national championships … he's one of the best, if not the best, and now he has that first trophy hopefully of many to show that."
The NCAA Indoor Championships marked the final meet for Gourley and Joseph, as neither has any eligibility remaining in outdoor track. They plan on continuing to train with the team in hopes of professional futures, but they're finished as collegians. They thus concluded their careers by combining for 12 All-America honors, five individual ACC championships and two ACC DMR championships (both by Gourley). That alone puts them both in rare company in the annals of Virginia Tech track and field.
But nothing compares to winning a national championship, especially in one's final meet.
"It's bittersweet, obviously," Joseph said. "But I think it was a nice cap to the five years that we had here."
"We said we didn't want to go out any other way," Gourley said. "I think individually winning a title would be fantastic. It would be an incredible honor, but doing it with your teammates has this special thing that I don't think you can replicate, and we might not get to replicate in this sport for quite a while.
"The DMR is a special event. It's something you really bond over. Celebrating with people is so much better than celebrating by yourself. Special doesn't begin to cover it."