Ready to compete on the national stage, seven individual athletes and three relay teams will represent Virginia Tech at the 2021 NCAA Indoor Championships. The Hokies' national squad consists of Rachel Baxter (pole vault), Lindsey Butler (800m), Essence Henderson (shot put), Antonio Lopez Segura (3000m), Bashir Mosavel-Lo (800m), Ben Nibbelink (mile; 3000m), and Jacory Patterson (400m). In addition, both the men's and women's DMR squads and the men's 4x400m relay are set to compete.
The ten events the Hokies will contest is the most at a single NCAA Championships in the history of Virginia Tech's track and field squad. Additionally, this is the first time the Hokies have qualified a men's 4x400m relay team for the indoor national meet.
The championships will begin Thursday, March 11 and run through Saturday, March 13 at the University of Arkansas's Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark. The Hokies will look to add to their list of six indoor national titles.
Entering the meet, several Hokies are seeded at or near the top of their events. Lindsey Butler enters the 800m seeded first with a time of 2:01.96, her school record and ACC Championships winning mark. Rachel Baxter's season best 14' 6.75" (4.44m) mark in the pole vault sees her enter seeded third in the event, and ACC Indoor Championships MVP Jacory Patterson's 45.24 in the 400m places him fourth entering the championship meet.
Butler, Baxter, Patterson, Mosavel-Lo, and Lopez Segura all head to the NCAA Indoor Championships following wins in their respective events in the ACC Championships, while the men's DMR also heads to Fayetteville with ACC gold.
Competition for the Hokies is scheduled to begin on Friday, March 12 with prelims in the sprint and middle-distance events, the DMR finals, and the women's shot put and pole vault all taking place that day.
