BLACKSBURG – Following a second-place finish on both sides at the ACC Indoor Championships, a select group of Hokies will head south to Texas A&M for the NCAA Track and Field Indoor Championships.
Action begins on Friday at 11 a.m. ET with the heptathlon inside Gilliam Indoor Stadium in College Station, Texas, and concludes on Saturday at 7:55 p.m. ET with the women's 4x400-meter relays.
ESPN3 will stream the meet live starting at 6:30 p.m. ET Friday and starting at 5 p.m. ET Saturday. A re-air of the championship will take place starting at 7 p.m. ET Sunday on ESPN2.
Two disciplines will be heading to the Lone Star State representing the 12th-ranked teams in the country, with the distance and pole vault groups. On Sunday, the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) put out its rankings heading into NCAAs, and the Tech came in at No. 12 on both sides.
Competing individually, the women will see Rachel Pocratsky (800 meters), Rachel Baxter (pole vault) and Lisa Gunnarsson (pole vault) go at it, and on the men's side will be Neil Gourley (mile), Vincent Ciattei(mile), Patrick Joseph (mile), Torben Laidig (pole vault) and Deakin Volz (pole vault).
Both distance medley relays will run Friday evening. The DMRs are coming off taking first place at ACCs on Feb. 22, with the women running a school-record time and the men a season best.
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Fri. | NCAAs | 11 a.m. ET | Live Results | Live Stream
Sat. | NCAAs | 1 p.m. ET | Live Results | Live Stream
On Monday the USTCCCA announced its region award winners and two Hokies were announced as some of the best in the Southeast Region. Distance coach Ben Thomas was tabbed the Men's Assistant Coach of the Year, while distance runner Neil Gourley earned Men's Track Athlete of the Year.
The last time out, six individuals took gold at the Clemson Indoor Track and Field Complex, including five NCAA qualifiers in Ciattei, Gourley, Gunnarsson, Pocratsky and Volz. The men racked up 107 points, marking the first time in school history of back-to-back years of reaching the 100-point plateau for indoor, and the women scored 81, their highest indoor finish since 2008.
At the 2017 NCAA Indoor Championships, the men's DMR earned silver, Laidig placed sixth and Volz 10th in the pole vault and Gourley finished in fourth in the mile. The men turned in 23.5 points to finish seventh in the final team standings, their highest finish in program history.