Hokie Women’s Track and Field Rising Fast

Virginia Tech’s women’s track and field team won the NCAA East Regional over
the weekend, an accomplishment that is every bit as impressive as winning a
regional final in basketball and going to the Final Four. Tech’s victory follows
two straight ACC championships — indoor and outdoor — for the women’s track
and field team, one of the best kept secrets in Virginia Tech athletics.

57 schools participated in the East Regional, and it’s fair to say that
Tech’s women dominated the event, finishing first with 89 points, far ahead of
South Carolina’s 62 points.

Four Tech women won individual events:

• Junior Erin Mahony won the pole vault (4.06m [13’3″]).
• Freshman Kristi Castlin won the 100-meter hurdles (12.91 seconds, school
  record, meet record, American Junior [19 and under] record).
• Freshman Queen Harrison won the 400-meter hurdles (56.09 seconds, school
  record).
• Sophomore Brittany Pryor won the shot put (16.65m [54’7″], school
  record).

As winners, those women advance to the NCAA Finals, and a number of other
Tech women did well enough, finishing in the top five of their events, to
advance as well:

• Freshman Ashley Early finished second in the pole vault at 4.06m
  (13’3″).
• Pryor also qualified in the discus, finishing fifth at 51.44m
  (168’9″).
• Junior Sherlenia Green finished fifth in the 400-meter hurdles with a time
  of 57.31.
• Harrison finished second in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.12.
• The women’s 4×100-meter relay team of Green, Castlin, sophomore Patrice
  Potts, and junior Britni Spruill came in second at 44.33 seconds, a school
  record.
• Potts finished third in the 100-meter dash at 11.63 seconds, and Spruill was fifth at 11.71.
• Spruill came in fifth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.43.

Sophomore Tasmin Fanning came in sixth in the 1500 meters, with a time of
4:24.28. She’ll await a possible at-large bid to the NCAA Finals.

Perusing this impressive list of accomplishments brings one point clearly to
mind: None of the nine athletes mentioned here, eight of which automatically
qualified for the NCAA Finals and another of which might, are seniors. The nine
of them are split evenly amongst the other three classes, with three freshman,
three sophomores, and three juniors.

The Hokie women’s improvement since joining the ACC just three years ago is
nothing short of phenomenal. VT easily won the ACC championship in both indoor
and outdoor track and field in 2007. In indoor track, Tech scored 136 to whip
second place Miami (99 points), and in outdoor track, the Hokies scored 144.5 to
Miami’s 113. The ACC titles finished off a meteoric rise from the bottom tier of
the standings to the top in just three years.

With two ACC titles and a regional title to their credit, the VT women’s track
and field team is Virginia Tech’s most accomplished team of the 2006-07
academic year. With all of their top athletes eligible to return next year,
there is more success on the road ahead.

The NCAA Track and Field Outdoor National Championships will be held at the
Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex in Sacramento Calif., on June 6-9, 2007. The
at-large bids will be announced this afternoon, so keep an eye on
hokiesports.com to find out if other Tech athletes advance.