February 9, 2007

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Virginia Tech women's track and field team dominated the competition during day one of the Sykes-Sabok Challenge at Penn State Friday night, accumulating a first-place total of 75.50 points through seven events. Penn State was the next closest team to the Hokies, a full 26 points behind. The men's team only had four entries compete, and sit in 10^th place with seven points.

The women recorded a slew of NCAA provisional marks - eight in all - while winning four events and setting three school records at the Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track.

Senior Gunild Kreb got it all started with a second-place performance in the pentathlon, tallying 3,908 points - which is just 101 points shy of her personal best - to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championships. She placed in the top five of each event, including a win in the shot put and a second-place mark in the long jump.

Erin Mahony scaled 4.00m (13'1.5") to win the pole vault with the second NCAA provisional mark, which was just one centimeter short of her own school record. Rounding out the Tech performers were Abbey McGrath in sixth, Caitlin Thornley in eighth and Ashley Early in 11^th.

In the other field event - the women's weight throw - Kristen Callan and Brittany Pryor each tossed NCAA provisional qualifying distances to take second and fourth place, respectively. Callan's 19.86m (65'2") was good for a personal-best, while Pryor's 19.08m (62'7.25") was a season-best.

Patrice Potts and Kristi Castlin continued their record-breaking seasons with wins in the 60m and 55m hurdles, respectively. Potts claimed the 60m dash in a school-record 7.35 seconds, which is also an NCAA provisional mark and .09 seconds better than her previous record. Castlin, meanwhile, captured the 55m hurdles in a school and facility-record 7.68 seconds to add her name to list of NCAA provisional qualifiers. Queen Harrison was not far behind, recording a provisional mark of her own after running a second-place and personal-best 7.81.

In distance action, the distance medley relay team of Jessica Fanning, Shakirra Pinnock, Natalie Sherbak and Tasmin Fanning shattered the school record while recording the final NCAA provisional mark of the day. Their first-place time of 11:20.41 is more than 14 seconds better than the mark set back in 2001. Additionally, Erin Reddan turned in a second-place 5000m time of 17:28.92, which stands as the second-best time in that event in school history.

In men's action, Matej Muza recorded a sixth-place weight throw of 18.95m (62'2.25"), Zach Thomas finished eighth in the 5000m in a time of 14:50.68, and Joe Gates long-jumped 6.03m (19'9.5") for 22^nd place. The distance medley relay team of James Scheiner, Mike Fitzgerald, Kyle Guglielmo and Rider Clauss finished sixth in 10:01.32.

Full results from day one are available at http://www.gopsusports.com/docs/track07/020907sykessabock.htm. The second and final day of competition begins Saturday at 11 a.m.