VT Elite

Day 1

 

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Sophomore sprinter/hurdler Queen Harrison registered a personal-record performance in the 60-meter hurdles to qualify for the national championships and lead the Virginia Tech Track & field team during the first night of the VT Elite on Friday at Rector Field House.

The Hokies also set a school record and registered four national qualifying performances on the evening.

Harrison led the ninth-ranked women's team by winning the 60-meter hurdles with a personal-record time of 8.13 seconds to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships. The Richmond, Va., native also ran a then-personal-best time of 8.26 seconds in the preliminaries. Tech senior Sherlenia Green competed unattached and ran a personal-best time of 8.18 to finish as the runner-up after running in 8.23 seconds during the preliminary heat.

Patrice Potts established a school record in the 60-meter dash and moved to 16^th on the NCAA's Descending Order list with a personal-record time of 7.37 seconds, which again provisionally qualified for the national meet. Kristi Castlin established a new personal record as well with a 7.48 second time, while Britni Spruill finished fifth with a 7.53 second performance.

In the preliminaries of the event, the Hokies took first place in three of four heats. Castlin won the first heat with a then-personal-best time of 7.50 seconds, Potts took the second (7.43), while Spruill tied her personal best by running the race in 7.48 for third.

For Tech's first distance medley relay of the season, Natalie Sherbak, Harrison, Asia Washington and Tasmin Fanning finished second against the very competitive field of the invitational section which featured four teams that qualified for last season's NCAA Championships. The team earned their runner-up finish with a time of 11:14.67, highlighted by Fanning running a 4:39 split in the anchor leg, and is now ranked fifth on the NCAA's Descending Order List. The Hokies' team of Kelly Clark, Jackie Merrick, Kristy Tobin, and Erin Reddan won the open section of the distance medley relay with a time of 12:00.95.

In the longer distances, Shakirra Pinnock took fourth place in the second section with a 55.71 second effort in the 400-meter dash, which only missed her personal best by .60 seconds.

For the field events, Diana Sciambi competed for Tech in the women's open pole vault and took third place with a season-best height of 11"3.75" (3.45m).

Tech took the top two spots in the women's weight throw. Junior Brittany Pryor won the event with a 63'7.75" (19.40m) mark, while Kristen Callan followed in the runner-up position with a. season-best performance of 63'5" (19.33m).

On the men's side, Tech's distance medley relays took the first two spots. The team of Ryan Witt, Chris Walizer, Phillip Padilla, and Eddie Judge completed the race in 10:12.58 for third place, while the quartet of James Scheiner, Kyle Guglielmo, Nick McLaughlin and Devin Cornwall finished in 10:14.20 to follow in fourth.

Cedric Hudson finished second in his heat of the 60-meter with a 7.07 time in the second preliminary race, but Hudson just missed qualifying for the finals with a ninth-place finish. The Stafford, Va., native was just .01 seconds shy of making the finals. In the 200-meter event, Nobel Iyebote made his Hokie debut with a 22.54 second performance for seventh place, while Ebenezer Amegashle finished 10^th with a time of 22.70.

Matej Muza won the men's weight throw as an unattached competitor with a personal-best 67'1.25"(20.45m) effort, which topped the NCAA's provisional qualifying mark. In the pole vault, freshman Mike Miller took third place in the open section by clearing a height of 15'7" (4.75m).

The second and final day of the VT Elite begins with the tomorrow with the men's high jump at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow, followed by the men's mile run at 1 p.m.