Hokies’ Patterson is setting blazing pace in his first season
When Jacory Patterson was in the ninth grade at Dreher High in Columbia, S.C., he was certain basketball was going to be his path to stardom. Running around on a track was nothing more than a hobby. himself sharing a court one day with Stephen Curry.
“I could’ve sworn I was going to the NBA,” said Patterson, who is now a freshman at Virginia Tech.
But it didn’t take Patterson long to discover track and field was indeed his athletic calling. Focused on cultivating his running skills the past three years, he’s in the closing stages of a record-shattering first year at Tech and has emerged as one of the most promising young runners in the coun-try “After 10th grade, that’s when I realized that I had potential in track,” Patterson said. “I dropped
basketball and just focused on track. That's the best decision I ever made.”
This week, he'll participate in Austin, Texas, in the 400-meter run and 4x100meter relay at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which begin Wednesday and continue through Saturday. It will be the culmination of a torrid six-month stretch for Patterson.
Coming out of high school, Patterson had developed a reputation as a strong sprinter, but he gravitated to the long jump. A school record-holder at Dreher in the long jump, he and his mother, Charlene Bolton, thought the field event had the potential to end up being his strongest skill.
Tech sprints, hurdles and relays coach Tim Vaught wasn't as sold on the long jump for Patterson.
Vaught made a deal with Patterson. If Patterson came to Tech and focused on sprinting for his freshman season, Vaught said Tech's coaches would keep long jump on the back burner as a possibility for Patterson's sophomore year if sprint events didn't work out.
On the second weekend of January in his first college meet — the Virginia Tech Invitational in Blacksburg — all of the long-jump discussion ended. Patterson ran the 300-meter run on Tech's indoor track in 32.49 seconds. It was not only a school record, but also an u n d e r-2 0 -ye a r s - o f- a g e world indoor record.
“I kind of looked at him after that run,” Vaught said. “He knew that his jumping career was over.”
Patterson went on in the indoor season to finish with the nation's No. 1 U20 times this year in the 200 (20.84 seconds), 300 (32.49) and 400 (46.04) — all school indoor records.
His 46.04 in the 400 earned him a victory at the ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships. He competed in the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 400, but he made contact with another runner and couldn't finish the race.
During the outdoor season, he set a school record in the 400 in his first meet in March, finishing in 45.76 seconds. He went on this spring to log the fastest U20 time in the world this year in 45.46 seconds.
At the ACC Outdoor Championships, he finished first in the 400 (45.60), second in the 200 (20.57) and ran on the second-place 4x100-meter relay. Patterson and the relay team of juniors Michael Davenport and Joseph Tay and freshman Cole Beck, who also plays football at Tech, set a school record in 39.46 seconds.
Vaught is the first to say Patterson possesses talent at his age unlike just about