Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG, Va. – The Virginia Tech track & field teams took the top two spots in both the men’s and women’s distance medley relays to finish off the final day of the VT Challenge at Rector Field House as the Hokies came away with 11 top-five finishes to give them 30 for the weekend.
The DMRs saw a pair of Tech teams in each race. The women’s race saw the team of Sarah Rapp, Katarina Smiljanec, Shalonda Mitchell and Madalyn Nuckols take first after clocking in at 11:58.64, while Paige Kvartunas, Leigh Ann Soistmann, Ashley Hayes, Taylor Crosson were just over five seconds back.
The men’s race was even closer as Tech’s team of Jason Cusack, Travis Correa, Juan Campos and George Carter were able to finish in 9:58.24, edging out the team of Leoule Degfae, Michael McNamee, Will Mulherin and Thomas Curtin by less than three seconds.
The Hokie men opened up the day in the running events as the quintet of Ryan Hagen, Tihut Degfae, Kevin DeWillie, Martin Dally and Michael Hammond took to the track for the 800 meters. Despite finishing 1-5 in their heat, Marcelis Lynch of St. Augustine’s had the top overall time after running in the second heat. Hagen had the top time for the Tech group at 1:51.64, with Degfae and DeWillie within three-tenths of a second behind him.
In the 1000 meters, Sammy Dow captured a second-place finish, clocking in at a time of 2:52.17, while Grant Pollock finished off his race in 2:26.87 finishing fourth.
In the final race of the afternoon for the Hokies, the women’s 4x400 relay team of Shannon Morton, Frances Dowd, Britani Myers and Amanda Smith came in second place with a time of 3:48.06, under three seconds behind St. Augustine’s.
This was the final tune-up for Tech before hosting the ACC Championships at Rector Field House on Feb. 21-23. The championships will start on Thursday at noon with the heptathlon and pentathlon before all other athletes begin competing on Friday.