BLACKSBURG, VIRGINIA, January 17—For the second year in a row Jacory Patterson had a recordbreaking season 300m opener at home at the Virginia Tech Invitational. Last year, as a frosh, the South Carolina native cranked out a 32.49 that gave him the World Junior (U20) Record, moving to No. 2 on the all-time collegiate list in the process. After this year’s meet, with a winning time of 32.28, he’s No. 1. “Last year, I found out the Collegiate Record was 32.32, and of course, that was my goal this year,” Patterson said. “I don’t like putting limits on myself. I just told myself to go out there and run.” (Continued below)
“Jacory is one that has big goals for himself,” Tech sprint coach Tim Vaught said. “Ever since I recruited this guy, he’s said that he wanted to break records and be a national champion. At practice, he’s one of those athletes that every coach wants. He’s always asking what he needs to do and wants to do more than somebody else to get better. For him to break this NCAA record formerly held by Torrin Lawrence of Georgia, it’s amazing. It just speaks volumes about the amount of work he puts in.”
Outdoors last year, Patterson lowered his long-dash PRs to 20.57 and 45.46. He was formcharted No. 6 in our 400 predictions going into the NCAA, but tweaked a hamstring a few days before the meet and had to withdraw. ◻︎
