December 20, 2006

BLACKSBURG, Va. - The 2006-07 Virginia Tech men's track and field recruiting class, which will begin its season in full force at the Virginia Tech Invitational on January 12, was tabbed as the ninth-best recruiting class in the nation by Track and Field News.

The December issue of the publication ranked just one ACC class higher than the Hokies - the defending national champion Florida State Seminoles.

"My staff and I are very excited that Track and Field News has recognized our men's recruiting class with the best in the nation," Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Dave Cianelli said. "The true measure of these student-athletes will be determined in the future, but I definitely like where they are starting off at."

The strength of the newcomers is in the throwers and the pole vaulters. The trio of throwers includes two transfers - Justin Clickett from Pittsburgh, and Kevin Moore from LaSalle - and true freshman Igor Misljenovic from Croatia. Clickett was an All-American in the shot put in 2005 and owns a personal best of 19.18m (62'11.25"), while in 2006, Moore won the Atlantic 10 javelin title and has thrown as far as 66.82m (219'3"). Misljenovic was the Junior Indoor Champion of Croatia for two years in the shot put and has tossed 17.28m (56'8.5").

The three pole vaulters also weighed heavily into the No. 9 ranking. Jared Jodon is a freshman from Uniontown, Pa., and won the Golden West meet with a personal-best vault of 4.95m (16'2.5"). Thorsten Mueller comes from Germany with two German Junior Championships and a personal best of 5.31m (17'5"). Yavgeniy Olhovsky of Israel finished 11^th at the World Junior Championships in 2002 and has scaled a height of 5.30m (17'4.75").