Hokie ClubNCAA Outdoor Championships
June 5-8
Hayward Field
Eugene, Ore.
Live Results: flashresults.com
NCAA Championships Broadcast Schedule (All times Eastern)
Wednesday, June 5
3-11 p.m. Pac-12 Live Stream
Thursday, June 6
2-6:50 p.m. Pac-12 Live Stream
6:50 -11 p.m. ESPN3.com
Friday, June 7
3:30-7:30 p.m. Pac-12 Live Stream
7:30-10 p.m. ESPNU
Saturday, June 8
3:30.-5 p.m. Pac-12 Live Stream
5.-7 p.m. ESPNU
Virginia Tech athletes competing at the championships (All times Eastern)
Wednesday: Annjulie Vester, women’s hammer, 4:30 p.m.; Chris Uhle, men’s pole vault, 7 p.m.; Darrell Wesh, men’s 100m, 8:45 p.m.
Thursday: Tomas Kruzliak & Denis Mahmic, men’s hammer, 4:30 p.m.; Jeff Artis-Gray, men’s long jump, 7:30 p.m.; Grant Pollock, men’s 1500m, 7:45 p.m.
Friday: Martina Schultze, women’s pole vault, 6:15 p.m.; Ronnie Black, men’s high jump, 6:20 p.m.; Darrell Wesh if advances, men’s 100m finals, 8:10 p.m.
Saturday: Matthias Treff, men’s javelin, 3:30 p.m.; Grant Pollock if advances, 1500m finals, 5:31 p.m.
A look at the meet
• Ten Hokies are set to compete in this week’s NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore., on June 5-8.
• Seven members of the group enter the outdoor season’s final meet with championship experience under their belts. Six have competed previously in the outdoor championships, while freshman Tomas Kruzliak competed at the indoor championships in March. Grant Pollock, Chris Uhle and Annjulie Vester will be making their nationals appearance.
• Darrell Wesh is the Hokies’ lone returner with a top-four finish at the outdoor championship as he took fourth in the 100 meters in Des Moines, Iowa a season ago. During the indoor championships earlier this year, Martina Schultze and Ronnie Black would join Wesh as with top four finishes at the national meet.
• Three Hokies enter the championships seeded inside the top three. For the entire season, Jeff Artis-Gray is the top-seeded Hokie. He will enter the meet as the No. 2 seed after winning the East prelims. Tomas Kruzliak owned the nation’s top mark in the hammer throw and he will enter the meet as the three seed. Grant Pollock will also head to the championships as a three seed in the 1500 meters .
Close calls
• On an up-and-down weekend at the regonals, the Hokies nearly had two ACC champions end their season prematurly. After a pair of fouls to open up the women’s hammer throw, Annjulie Vester was able to convert on her third throw to move in the finals and eventually seal her ticket to the NCAA Championships with a throw of 203-1 (61.89m).
• For two-time All-American and four-time ACC champion Matthias Treff, the senior javelin thrower was pushed to the brink as he was bumped into the 13th slot right before his final throw. Treff managed to pull off a final throw of 229-0 (69.80m) to move into qualifying position.
Catching up to his brother
• After a season which saw him top the 17-foot mark for the first time, Chris Uhle has been moving in the right direction late in the season. The sophomore saved his best for last as he not only set a new personal record vault of 17-3 (5.25m) at the East prelims, but was perfect on the day at the East prelims.
• The Tech vaulter won’t be the only high-flying Uhle in Eugene this week though. Chris’ twin brother Joey is one of the top vaulters in the country and this will be the first time the two will compete against one another on the NCAA’s biggest stage. Watching the twins from the stands will be their older brother Michael who placed fourth at the 2010 Indoor Championships while competing for Akron.
Soaring into the postseason
• Sophomore Martina Schultze enters the East prelims after winning her last five events, breaking her school record three times along the way.
• After claiming her third straight ACC gold medal, Schultze has been on cruise control, topping the 4.30-meter mark in each of her last four meets. In her last meet at the Roanoke/Virginia Tech Twilight, she set her current record of 14-4 (4.37m) which is second in the region.
Adding to 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.
• With back-to-back personal record breaking performance at the East regional, Pollock earned his first trip to nationals as clocked in at blistering time of 3:40.77, just over a second off of Michael Hammond’s school record.
Separating from the pack
• After grabbing school’s record in the 110-meter hurdles, Jeff Artis-Gray is now in possession of six 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.
• This was the fourth school record that Artis-Gray has broken this year after previously topping his indoor 60-meter hurdle and outdoor long jump marks along with breaking Ken Stewart’s indoor long jump record which stood since 1984.
• Artis-Gray went on to shatter his long jump record by more than a foot at the ACC Championships as he landed at mark of 26-0.75 (7.94m).
• With four All-America honors in the past two seasons and an ACC indoor long jump crown, the versatile athlete will look to end his Hokie career on a high note at the NCAA Championships where he is one of the top seeds in the long jump after winning the East regional.
Breaking records
• This season, five Hokies have broken at least one school record. Jeff Artis-Gray (110m hurdles & long jump), Ronnie Black (high jump), Martina Schultze (pole vault), Amanda Smith (800 meters) and Darrell Wesh (100 meters). Artis-Gray in the 110m hurdles and Smith in the 800 meters broke long-standing records while the rest of the records were simply reset, with Schultze topping her record multiple times this season.
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.
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 winning 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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.