Carolina Alumni Review - July/August 2007

Track,Tennis Athletes Land

NCAA Titles, All-America Honors

the highest win total in Carolina history and the most wins in college baseball this year. Over the past two seasons, Carolina has posted 111 wins, second in the country only to Rice’s 113.

“My freshman year, our team goals were ‘get 40 wins’ and ‘finish second or third in the ACC,’” said Robert Woodard, the win-ningest pitcher in Carolina history. “My senior year, across the board our expectations were raised.”

And expectations will continue to rise, as the Heels return next year with ACC Freshman of the Year Ackley, righty Adam Warren (12-0 this season), Adam White and Chad Flack. The possibility loomed in late June that juniors Reid Fronk, Josh Horton and Andrew Carignan could jump to the big leagues.

Carolina has more to look forward to: The team will play most or all of next season in nearby Cary while Boshamer Stadium undergoes a $14 million facelift.

“This team has worked so hard since August to make another run at it,” Woodard said. “We are very proud of what we’ve accomplished.”

As the players
lumbered off the bus
back into the Car-
olina summer heat,
roughly two weeks
since their last home
game, they discov-
ered just how many
people are proud of
what they did and how they represented
their school. Many youngsters in the crowd
called to “Reid” and “Chad” and “Robert”
for autographs and pictures, and so did
some adults.

“Great job, guys,” someone in the crowd shouted. “You did the school proud.”

While Carolina’s baseball team was the center of nationally televised attention, six Olympic-sport athletes made big headlines of their own this summer — including NCAA championships in the 1,500 meters, javelin and tennis doubles.

Sophomore Brie Felnagle won the title in the women’s 1,500 meters at the NCAA outdoor championships with a scorching time of 4 minutes, 9. 93 seconds. Felnagle’s time set a new school record, topping the 4: 11. 60 mark set by Shalane Flanagan ’05 in 2003. Felnagle also recorded this year’s fastest clocking in the nation at the event held at Sacramento State.

Felnagle, a native of Tacoma,Wash., finished ahead of Florida State’s Susan Kuijken (4: 11. 34) and Stanford’s Ari-anna Lambie (4: 12. 29). Felnagle trailed Lambie until the final 400 meters, when she made her move and blew past Stanford’s six-time All-America senior. Felnagle used a strong finishing kick to seal the victory.

Record-setting wins are familiar to Felnagle, who already was part of a national championship and American record-setting performance in the distance medley relay during the indoor season. Felnagle joins Flanagan as the only women in UNC history to earn All-America honors in cross country, indoor 3,000 meters and outdoor 1,500 meters in the same school year.

Sara Anundsen and Jenn Long captured the NCAA tennis doubles crown in Athens, Ga., in May. The pair came from behind to upset William and Mary’s top-seeded tandem in three sets. It is the first women’s tennis title in Tar Heel history.

Anundsen and Long, seniors from Col-

orado and California, respectively, were named 2007 Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Doubles Team of the Year. They are the second duo not from a PAC- 10 school to win the award, and both have been ITA All-Americans in doubles the past two years. They were 29- 6 for the season and finished No. 1 in the Fila rankings.

The Carolina men also made some noise in June, as three members of the

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS

Brie Felnagle added to her All-America honors with a record-setting 1,500 meters, and Justin Ryncavage won his second consecutive NCAA javelin title — a first for a Carolina track and field athlete.

— Daniel David ’07

men’s track team earned All-America honors in Sacramento. Justin Ryncavage won his second straight national championship in javelin and became the first male athlete in the program’s history to win two national titles in the same event.

Ryncavage threw a season-best 241 feet, 5 inches ( 73. 58 meters) on his first attempt to best the field, becoming just the sixth man in UNC track and field history to win two national championships.

Ryncavage’s teammate, Adam Mon-tague, was runner-up in the javelin, and Nick Owens placed second in the hammer throw. The three high finishes helped the Heels place sixth overall, their best mark at the championships in more than a decade.