March 9, 2007

Results

NCAA Indoor Championships

 

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Of the eight Hokies to compete on Friday at the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships, seven turned in All-America performances as Virginia Tech concluded an outstanding day in Fayetteville, Ark.

"It was amazing, it was awesome, it was incredible," Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Dave Cianelli said following the women's distance medley relay team's fourth-place finish. "It was a fantastic day for Virginia Tech track. We couldn't have done any better, and we exceeded all of our expectations. Our goal was to finish in the top eight of each event, and all but one of our athletes did that."

The Hokies' day started off with the women's shot put, where ACC champion Brittany Pryor (R-So., Niagara Falls, N.Y.) placed seventh with a toss of 16.35m (53'7.75") to earn Tech's first All-America nod of the meet. Tech's seven All-Americans already surpasses last year's mark of four, and four more athletes could add to that on Saturday. Junior Ciera Ayangbile (Fulton, Ill.) was also in the shot put, throwing a 14^th-place distance of 15.08m (49'5.75").

In the women's 60m hurdles, freshman Kristi Castlin (Douglasville, Ga.) earned All-America honors with her ninth-place finish in the preliminaries. Despite running a school-record 8.20 (8.198) she missed out on qualifying for the finals by just seven one-thousandths of a second.

ACC champion Thorsten Mueller (So., Stuttgart, Germany) was the lone male competing on Friday, and he also earned All-America status with his ranking in the pole vault. He cleared 5.30m (17'4.5) to tie for seventh.

Finally, the women's distance medley relay team capped off the evening in exceptional fashion, finishing fourth to give the quartet All-America honors of their own. One week after shattering the school record at the VT Last Chance to qualify for nationals, Jessica Fanning (So., Charlottesville, Va.), Sherlenia Green (Jr., Vernon Hills, Ill.), Asia Washington (Fr., Piscataway, N.J.) and Tasmin Fanning (So., Charlottesville, Va.) combined to break the record again, this time in 11:10.84.

The women's team sits in 13^th place with seven points, and Arizona State leads with 21. The men's team is in 37^th with 1.5 points, with Wisconsin leading with 20.

The national championships will conclude tomorrow with four Hokies in action. Gunild Kreb will kick things off in the women's pentathlon, while Kristen Callan will participate in the women's weight throw. On the men's side, Justin Clickett has qualified for the shot put, and Idikoro Eradiri will compete in the triple jump.