The 2023 NCAA track season is over, and the championship meet did not disappoint. The Florida Gators continued their dominance on the men’s side winning yet another national title. And the four points that they won by came from the main event, the 100 meter dash. But if you were paying attention there was a sprinter in the 100 meter final whom nobody expected to be there. Cole Beck of Virginia Tech was there, representing as one of the fastest men in Division 1. And he wasn’t even supposed to be on the track team, to begin with. The truth is that Cole Beck has always been one of the greatest talents on the track at the high school level, but he’s been splitting his attention away from it, onto the football field. But with one more season of college eligibility and his focus now entirely dedicated to the finish line, there is no reason to believe that he won’t be back competing for a medal in 2024.

How good is Cole Beck?

Cole Beck is not a name that you hear when anybody talks about the greatest sprinters in college. That’s probably because nobody really knows who he is. Sprinting was basically a side hustle for him, most of his athletic career. But the funny thing is that he was always perhaps a little bit better at his side hustle, than he was at his main one playing football. At the high school level Cole Beck was a two sport star in the state of Virginia. He was a 3 star football recruit who scored 81 touchdowns in total across his career. That was good enough to get Virginia Tech to offer him a spot on their football team, but keep in mind he was already a legitimate sprinter. If Cole was good in football, he was great on the track. He actually won 3 state championships in the 100 and the 200, but that doesn’t really do it justice. As a junior in high school he made the New Balance Outdoor National meet, and finished second in the 100 meter dash to only Anthony Schwartz. At that time Anthony was the national track athlete of the year and coincidentally also a good football player. So track fans should have seen Cole Beck coming since all the way back then.

At Virginia Tech he played football, but to clarify it is really hard to get on the field for any D1 team. He left the football team at one point and later rejoined it. But he’s always been running track for the Hokies in the ACC sine he got on campus. As a freshman he finished 4th and 5th in the conference for both the 100 and the 200 meter dashes. As a sophomore he finished 4th again, this time in both the 60 and the 200 indoors. In 2021 he won the ACC championship outright in the 100 meter dash, and climbed his way up to 12th at the NCAA championship meet! So in 2022 he came back to the track again, winning his first 200 meter title indoors in the ACC, and going second outdoors in the 100 and 200 both. The only reason we likely didn’t see him at the NCAAs is because he false started in the 100 meter dash which is his best event.

Can Cole Beck win an NCAA championship?

The year 2022 was a big year for Cole because he finally saw action on the football field. That is an accomplishment he had to work incredibly hard to achieve. After his season as a kick returner ended, he was back on the track and this time better than ever. He made the NCAA indoor championships in the 60 meter dash, which is extremely hard to do. To put it in perspective Noah Lyles who is the 100 meter dash world champion right now, likely would have struggled to ever qualify for that event in college if he actually chose to run there in the first place. Which is why it should not be surprising that when the outdoor season came around, that Cole Beck not only made it to the NCAAs but qualified for the final, the only man from Virginia Tech to do it.

The Bottom Line

The future of Cole Beck’s career is uncertain, but we do know everything he has already done to this point. Cole Beck left high school as one of the nation’s best sprinters, while committing himself to competing on the football field. Even though he never gave up football entirely, it should be clear to him and everyone else watching that where he truly shines is between the lines of a track. He has steadily improved every single year on the track and now he is a national championship finalist. He is even back on the football field in 2023 competing for the Hokies, and although he isn’t a star player, that is extremely hard to do. But Cole Beck has one more track and field season in the outdoor campaign remaining, and I’m willing to bet nobody will be overlooking him in any race that he enters. Because with football soon to be a thing of the past for him, there is no reason for him not to get back to the one race that he needs to run, in order to finish the business that he started. Only this time track fans will actually be expecting him.

LOOK GOOD, FEEL GOOD, RUN GOOD.

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