Hokie ClubA look at the meets
• With declarations for the NCAA Preliminary Rounds fast approaching, this will be the last week for the Hokies to increase its list of qualifiers. Tech is currently in line for 29 individual entries from 26 athletes and one relay entry.
• In Salem, a large group of distance runners will be joined by the pole vaulters and a few sprinters. For the pole vaulters and sprinters, it will be their final competition before declarations are due.
• For the distance team, the group will head to Charlottesville to compete against an elite field in their last meet before the NCAA prelims.
A look back at last weekend
• On a week in which the Hokies grabbed nine individual wins, it was pole vaulter Martina Schultze who came away with two wins in four days, including a new school record. Less than a week after breaking her school record, the sophomore broke it again on her first attempt at 14-3.25 (4.35m) at the Liberty Twilight on Wednesday evening. The new record brought her into a tie for fourth place nationally this season. Saturday saw Schultze win her fourth straight competition, a streak that extends back to the ACC Outdoor Championships, at the Bob Pollock Invitational, coming up just over an inch shy of her record mark.
• On Tuesday, Schultze earned her second ACC Performer of the Week nod of the outdoor season.
• Also grabbing wins at Clemson were Chris Uhle, who topped 17 feet for the first time in the pole vault, Tadashi Pinder in the 100 meters and Shalonda Mitchell in the 800 meters.
• Out on the West Coast, it was a record night on Saturday for five Hokie runners on the campus at the Oxy Invite on the campus of Occidental College. Alongside fellow collegians, amateurs and professionals, Grant Pollock (first) and Tihut Degfae (third) walked away with new personal bests in the 1,500 meters and 800 meters, respectively, but it was it was the women’s 800-meter trio that had the banner night as all three (Amanda Smith, Frances Dowd, Katarina Smiljanec) in the first heat set new personal marks, including Smith who broke Marlies Overbeeke’s nine-year-old record with a time of 2:05.59, finishing just ahead of Mizuno’s Akari Kishikawa.
• Aside from Pollock and Smith, Jared Berman was the final Hokie to walk away with a win, as he came up just shy of his PR in the in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Plenty of gold to go around
• After the Hokies claimed eight ACC gold medals at the indoor championships, they repeated the same feat at the outdoor championships. Instead of picking up only one, the women’s team came away with two this time around while the men grabbed six.
Etching his name in ACC history
• With one big throw, redshirt senior Matthias Treff put his name in the conference record books as the only man to win four ACC titles in the javelin. To make the win that much sweeter, Treff’s first throw of 249-1 (75.92m) broke his ACC meet record that he set a season ago. It was his third straight ACC gold medal.
Defending their crowns
• Matthias Treff wasn’t the only Hokie to defend his ACC crown. All three returning Hokie champions successfully defended their titles at this year’s outdoor championships.
• On the first day of the ACC Championships, sophomore Martina Schultze successfully defended her outdoor pole vault title by clearing 13-5.25 (4.10m) on her first attempt. It was her third-straight ACC gold after wining the 2012 indoor title as well.
• Day three saw Annjulie Vester perform the same feat. Vester made quick work of her defense as she topped the 60-meter mark for the first time in her career on her first throw which came in at 202-1 (61.61m). The sophomore was so excited after the throw that she immediately hopped over a waist-fence.
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).
• Wesh was on his game at the ACC championships, winning his first gold medal and Tech’s first ever ACC gold in the 200 meters by clocking a time of 20.70, topping Florida State’s Dentarius Locke by three hundredths of a second. Just hours ealier, Wesh broke his school record in the 100-meter final, but finished two hundredths of a second behind Locke for the top spot. As a member of the 4x100 relay team, Wesh took silver his first event of the final day as his team clocked a season-best time of 40.07.
Striking gold in Nitra, again
• 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). He finished second in the event to former Tech two-time NCAA champion and 2012 Olympian Marcel Lomnicky, also of Nitra.
• Two weeks after putting NCAA competitors on notice, Kruzliak became the first hammer thrower to pass the 70-meter mark at the ACC Championships. With the gold medal already locked up, the freshman hit a mark of 232-5 (70.84m) on his final throw.
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).
• Black continued his winning streak at the ACC Championships where he delivered Tech its first ACC gold medal. After breaking his school record at 7-3.75 (2.23m), the senior was forced into a jump off against Maryland’s Jon Hill. Black would win the event by clearing 7-2.5 (2.20m).
Soaring past records
• 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.
• Artis-Gray shattered his long jump record by more than a foot at the ACC Championships as he landed at mark of 26-0.75 (7.94m).
Adding to the Tech milers tradition
• Despite the success of Tech’s milers during the past half decade, only once have the Hokies laid claim to men’s 1500-meter at the ACC meet. Grant Pollock changed that after he used a late surged down the final stretch clock in with a new personal best at 3:44.18 to earn Tech its first gold in the event since Billy Berlin in 2009.
Déjà vu
• During the 5,000 meters at the outdoor championship, Thomas Curtin gave people flashbacks of the 5,000 meters at the indoor championship. Leading much of the race, the sophomore was passed with only a few laps remaining. Like he did at indoors, Curtin managed to pull off another miraculous comeback over the final 100 meters, arms flailing and all, as he wasn’t going to be denied his second individual gold medal of the year. To add to the achievement, he clocked in at 13:58.77, the first sub-14-minute mark of his young career.
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.
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.
Historical feat
• By capturing the ACC indoor crown in the winter in Blacksburg, the Hokie men are only the third 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.
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.
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.
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.