Hokie ClubA look at the meets
• With the ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championships on the horizon, it will be a relatively quiet weekend for the Hokies. As is usual for this weekend, the pole vault crew will be headed to Knoxville, Tenn., this weekend for the 46th annual Sea Ray Relays.
• Competing in the women’s pole vault at 1 p.m., on Friday will be Leigh Allin, Lyndsey Saunders and Erinn Schall. The men’s competition which starts at 4:30 p.m., Friday features Matt Hoogland and Chris Uhle.
• Also, competing Friday afternoon in the women’s high jump at 1 p.m., is freshman Johnna Dominick.
Last time out
• With less than two weeks until the ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championships the Hokies looked to be ready after strong performances last weekend at the Pepsi Florida Relays and Colonial Relays.
• In all, the Hokies hauled four victories and 16 top-three finishes .
• The mid-distance crews showed off their depth in Williamsburg, Va., as the Hokies went 2-3-5 in men’s 1500 meters and the women’s 800 meters. Grant Pollock led the way on the men’s side while it was Amanda Smith paced the women’s trio.
• With a time of 4:20.58 in the women’s 1500 meters, freshman Shannon Morton was the lone winner on day one for the Hokies as she moved inside the NCAA’s top 15 this season. Day two saw a Tech sweep in the 4x800-meter relay teams which had a mix of 800 and 1500-meter runners.
• In Florida, a pair of Hokies tied their school records while another broke their record.
• In a loaded 100-meter field that included professional and top collegiate talent, Darrell Wesh nearly grabbed the win at the line after a strong close to the race clocking in at a wind-aided 10.15, three-thousandths of a second back of first.
• Jeff Arits-Gray slightly upped his previous record in the long jump with a leap of 24-11.75 (7.61m) on his second attempt as he finished second in the event, a quarter of an inch outside of first.
• Ronnie Black’s third consecutive outdoor win in the high jump closed out the weekend as he cleared his record height of 7-3 (2.21m) on his third attempt to secure the victory. The senior attempted to shatter his record by clearing 7-6 (2.29m) but was on successful on his three attempts.
Firing on all cylinders
• Despite a slow start to his first 100-meter race of the season, Darrell Wesh found another gear half way through as he produced a school record tying time of 10.15. In a heat that featured Southern Cal’s Canadian Olympian Aaron Brown in lane four, Florida State freshman phenom Marvin Bracy in lane five and former U.S. champion Mike Rodgers in lane six, Wesh found himself on the outside in lane eight. With all of the focus in middle lanes, the junior hit his stride in the latter half of the race and nearly grabbed the win from outside. Wesh (10.146) was just barely edged out at the line by Brown (10.143).
Another get from Nitra
• In his first hammer throw competition as a Hokie, Tomas Kruzliak displayed why Associate Head Coach Greg Jack went back to Nitra, Slovakia to pluck his latest thrower. On his second attempt at the Pepsi Florida Relays, the freshman hit a mark of 227-0 (69.18m) best for second in the NCAA this season.
• Kruzliak also finished second in the event to former Tech two-time NCAA champion and 2012 Olympian Marcel Lomnicky, also of Nitra.
One jump at a time
• Coming off of a school record setting performance at the NCAA Indoor Championship to finish fourth, high jumper Ronnie Black has continued his string of success in the outdoor season. The senior is three-for-three on the season after winning the event at the 69th Pepsi Florida Relays by tying his school record of 7-3 (2.21m).
Another record falls
• At the Pepsi Florida Relays, Jeff Artis-Gray narrowly broke his school record in the long jump, topping his previous mark by a half an inch with his jump of 24-11.75 (7.61m). He previously set the school mark at last year’s NCAA East Prelims.
• This was the third school record that Artis-Gray has broken this year after previously topping his indoor 60-meter hurdle mark and Ken Stewart’s indoor long jump record which stood since 1984.
Freshman statement
• After winning her section a week earlier, Shannon Morton turned in one of the top 1500-meter times in the region. Her time of 4:20. 58 is both second all-time at Virginia Tech and is currently the second-fastest mark in the ACC.
• A day later, Morton helped the 800-meter trio of Amanda Smith, Frances Dowd and Katarina Smiljanec to a win in the 4x800 relay.
Successful first impression
• In her first competition as a Hokie since joining the squad in January, Sarah Kadelka showed a glimpse of what she is capable of. The sophomore captured her first win at the Florida State Relays with a mark of 152-7 (46.50m) which ranks as the second-best throw in school history.
Different season, same results
• Week one of the outdoor season proved to be much of the same for Ronnie Black and Martina Schultze. After finishing fourth and third respectively in their events at the indoor championships, Black started off the outdoor season with the second-best jump nationally after the first week while Schultze was tied for first in the pole vault after the first weekend.
• In the win, Schultze tied her school record with a vault of 14-1.25 (4.30m) while Black came up a half an inch shy of his school record with his clearance of 7-2.5 (2.20m).
Next man up
• Under Associate Head Coach and Throws Coach, Greg Jack, the Virginia Tech track & field program has built a reputation of being one of the top school’s for throwers, with his group accounting for 10 of the university’s 13 NCAA championships. With the departure of Alexander Ziegler, this will be the first season since 2009 that the Hokies will go into the season without a national champion on its roster as Marcel Lomnicky won his first NCAA crown in the hammer throw at the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
• In the fold for the men this season is freshman Denis Mahmic and freshman Tomas Kruzliak in the hammer throw. In the javelin, senior Matthias Treff will be joined by Jaka Muhar and Jens Merseburg.
• In his previous trips to the NCAA Championships, Treff has never finished outside the top three.
Throwing is throwing
• As a former javelin thrower in college, most would assume that Greg Jack would be known for producing top-flight javelin throwers, but since Spyridon Jullien came to Blacksburg, Jack’s athletes have amassed 10 national championships in the weight and hammer throws. With the departure of three-time national champion Alexander Ziegler, and an influx of javelin throwers this year, Jack is getting back to his roots as he now has five javelin throwers in a stable that includes school record holder Matthias Treff.
We own them all
• By capturing the ACC indoor crown in the winter in Blacksburg, the Hokie men are only the second school since 1989 to simultaneously hold all three conference championships. Last spring, the squad captured its first ACC outdoor conference championship in program history by topping perennial power Florida State and followed that up by winning its first conference cross country crown in the fall on its home course.
• Clemson and Florida State are the only other schools in the ACC to perform this feat since the ACC indoor championships resumed in 1987.
• The Hokies will be looking to join Clemson (1) and Maryland (8) as the only men’s programs in ACC history to win all three championships during the same year.
Contenders
• Since 2009, the men have not finished outside of the top three at the ACC Championships, scoring 95-plus points in each meet.
• The Hokie men captured their first ACC outdoor championship last year in Charlottesville, snapping Florida State’s dominant run that began in 2002. The Hokies won the meet running away, putting up 140 points, 42 ahead of second place Florida State.
Record Breakers
• Combined, the men’s and women’s teams have broken eight school records this season, some multiple times.
• Jeff Artis-Gray (60m hurdles) and Jonathan McCants (300m) each reset their school records on the first weekend of action at the VT Invitational.
• A week later, Ronnie Black topped his previous record in the high jump.
• On Feb. 9, Will Mulherin reset his 3000-meter record, while Martina Schultze broke Victoria von Eynatten’s record in the pole vault which was set last year.
• At the ACC Indoor Championships, Schultze reset her record in the pole vault, while Artis-Gray (long jump), McCants (200 meters) and Thomas Curtin (5,000 meters) stamped their names in the Tech record book.
• To book his ticket to the NCAA Indoor Championships, Mulherin reset his record in the 3,000 meters at the Alex Wilson Invitational on last chance weekend.
• At the NCAA Indoor Championships, Black once again topped his mark en route to a fourth-place finish, the highest result of his career at nationals.
Separating from the pack
• Jeff Artis-Gray is now in possession of five Virginia Tech records, which is currently the most of anyone. Before breaking a near 30-year old record in the long jump at the 2013 ACC Indoor Championship, he was previously tied at four with teammate Michael Hammond and former Hokies Gary Cobb, Keith Ricks and Ryan Witt.
• With outdoor eligibility still remaining this year, Artis-Gray will have the opportunity to add to his legacy in Blacksburg this spring.
Say goodbye
• The Hokie men took a huge hit after the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships as the eligibility had run out for Michael Hammond, Will Mulherin and Alexander Ziegler. Including cross country, the trio had amassed 11 All-America honors, 20 All-ACC accolades, 12 ACC championships and three nationals championships. The three were also part of each of the program’s three track & field conference championships and Hammond and Mulherin were both on this year’s cross country ACC championship squad.
• The squad will also lose the services of Jason Cusack and Eric Hoepker. Cusack won the 3,000 meter steeplechase at the 2012 ACC Outdoor Championships and Hoepker was a part of the distance medley relay team that won the program’s first ACC crown in the event at the indoor championships.
Going out on top
• In the last competition of his career, Alexander Ziegler captured the NCAA weight throw title, the third NCAA championship of his career and first in the weight throw. On his third attempt in the second flight, Ziegler moved into the lead with a throw of 73-8.25 (22.46m), a mark that would not be passed during the finals. It ranked as the third-best throw in the NCAA this season and the second-best of his season. Only one other competitor eclipsed the 22-meter mark during the event.
Lucky number three
• In his last ACC championship, Alexander Ziegler won his third individual ACC Indoor Championship this weekend in the weight throw. Ziegler had previously won the event in 2010 and 2011.
• This was his last chance at earning an ACC crown as his eligibility is up after the indoor season.
Record-breaking start to 2013
• Seniors Jeff Artis-Gray and Jonathan McCants opened up their seasons at VT Invitational by topping their already school record marks in the 60m hurdles and 300m.
• After finishing his prelim in the 60m hurdles in 7.87, Artis-Gray shaved a tenth of a second off of his time in the finals to come in at 7.77, 0.04 seconds faster than the school record he set at the VT Elite Meet in 2012.
• Jonathan McCants capped off night one of the VT Invitational by clocking a time of 33.58 in the 300m, nearly five tenths of second faster than his previous school record of 34.05 which he set at the Hokie Invitational in 2012.
German connection
• Currently, the Hokies have eight athletes from Germany competing in four different events. Matthias Treff and transfer Sabine Kopplin in the javelin, Annjulie Vester in the weight throw/hammer throw, Stephan Munz and Martina Schultze in the pole vault, and Benny Unger in the hurdles.
• The Hokies added two, Jens Merseburg and Sarah Kadelka to the roster during January. Both are javelin throwers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
Back in Blacksburg
• After winning the pole vault at the 2011 ACC Indoor Championships in his first-ever event for the Hokies, Stephan Munz was back in Germany last year to complete his undergraduate degree. The Goeppingen native is now back at Tech as a graduate student this year while he continues his Hokie career.
High-flying German
• In her first year at Tech, pole vaulter Martina Schultze made an immediate impact as she earned All-America honors during both seasons and went one-two at the indoor and outdoor ACC Championships with teammate Victoria von Eynatten. Schultze claimed gold at outdoors with von Eynatten coming out on top at indoors.
A small world
• Associate head coach and throws coach Greg Jack is looking to strike gold for a second time in Nitra, a city 4,700 miles away from Blacksburg, this time in hammer thrower Tomas Kruzliak. The Slovakian hails from the same city as former Hokie and two-time national champion Marcel Lomnicky.
Two for one
•Adding to his group of throwers halfway through the year, Associate Head Coach Greg Jack managed to sign a pair of javelin throwers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany. Jens Merseburg will have two years of eligibility while Sarah Kadelka will have three.
Summer success in Mexico
• Junior sprinter Darrell Wesh earned a gold medal last summer at the NACAC Under-23 Championships in Guanajuato, Mexico as he teamed with Charles Silmon, Marcus Rowland and Keenan Brock in the 4x100m relay. Wesh ran the lead leg for the group that ran a time of 38.94, besting teams from the Bahamas (39.65) and Jamaica (39.67).
Seeing double
• When you hear or see the name Degfae, know that it could be either Leoule or Tihut. Since Leoule joined his brother at Tech after transferring from Tennessee after one year, the two have competed together during only two seasons at Tech, once on the cross country team in 2011 and the other was the 2012 outdoor season.
• Leoule redshirted the entire 2011 season after joining the Hokies and Tihut redshirted the 2011 indoor season.
All-American siblings
• By finishing fourth in the 100 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, Darrell Wesh joined his older sister Marlena as an All-American in the Wesh family.
• A senior at Clemson, Marlena is a five-time All-American and competed for Haiti in the 2012 Olympic Games.
• Darrell is a three-time All-American, earning honors at the 2012 NCAA Outdoor Championships and the 2013 NCAA Indoor Championships.
Sticking to the East
• With only two trips to the West Coast on their travel schedule this year, the makeup of this year’s Hokies show that the team tends to remain east of the Mississippi. The furthest athlete west of Blacksburg is from Huntsville, Ala., and 54 of the team’s 87 athletes are from the state of Virginia.