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Tech women finish tied for 10th at NCAA Championships
Hokies total 16 points
March 15, 2008
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Thrower Brittany Pryor and Kelly Phillips helped the 17th-ranked Virginia Tech women's track & field team clinch a 10th-place tie at the NCAA Indoor Championships on Saturday in Randal Tyson Track Center.
Tech earned its highest finish in school history by compiling 16 points during the two-day meet to earn a tie for 10th place in the nation with Big 12 Conference schools, Kansas and Texas Tech. Virginia Tech made a 20-place improvement from last season, where it took 30th place with seven points.
"I'm really excited about how our entire team performed," Director of Track & Field Dave Cianelli said. "We achieved both team goals that we set at the beginning of the season. We won the ACC's and earned a top-10 finish at nationals, so I'm ecstatic about what we were able to do."
Pryor, a redshirt junior from Niagara Falls, N.Y., scored two points in the meet, which proved to be necessary for the Hokies to stay among the top 10. Pryor turned in a seventh-place finish in the women's shot put with a 54'7.25" (16.64m) mark on her third attempt. Pryor edged out the eighth-place competitor by 2.5 inches. The defending Atlantic Coast Conference champion earned All-American honors for the third time in her career.
"Coming into the meet, she was ranked near the top 10 in the nation," Cianelli said. "Anytime you can get a mark near your season-best in such a pressure-packed meet, such as nationals, there is a good chance that you'll end up in the top eight. The two points [Pryor] were critical as the meet played out."
Phillips, the reigning ACC champion, took 16th place in the women's pole vault with an effort of 13'1.5" (4.00m). The redshirt freshman from Blacksburg, Va., needed one more attempt to clear an identical height that was matched by two others.
"It was [Phillips'] first time at the national meet," Cianelli said. "Being a freshman, I thought she did a very good job. She will benefit greatly from the experience, and obviously I am very proud."
The Hokies begin their outdoor season at the Wake Forest Open on Friday in Winston-Salem, N.C.
