Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 11 No. 3 | January 2019

inside.hokiesports.com 41 MFPs I Document Management I Managed Print Services I Production Print Roanoke • New River Valley • Lynchburg • Charlottesville Richmond • Hampton Roads • Shenandoah Valley VAbusinesssystems.com • 540-362-3300 Our Fast Forward Document Solutions are a Slam Dunk! Providing Teamwork and Fast Forward Document Technology to Virginia Tech Athletics ... and your company! VBS Hokie Basketball ad 2018_Layout 1 12/13/18 8:12 AM Page 1 POLE VAULT MEN TOP RETURNERS Deakin Volz, Joel Leon Benitez, Jaelyn Demory NEWCOMER Harrison Rice OVERVIEW The Hokies lost one of the best pole vaulters in program history with the graduation of Laidig, who earned All-America honors seven times in his career and twice finished as a national runner-up in the event, including this past June at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. He was a two-time ACC champion and a five-time ACC silver medalist. But Tech should be strong in this discipline, as Volz, Benitez and Demoryreturn.Volz,asenior,wontheACCtitleattheleague’sindoormeet last February and claimed bronze at the NCAA Indoor Championships. He enters his senior season with four All-America honors to his name, including two from last year’s campaign (indoor and outdoor). Benitez won a bronze at his first ACC Indoor Championships and finished fourth at the league’s outdoor meet before later earning All- America honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships with an eighth- place finish. Demory, a redshirt sophomore, was sixth at the ACC Indoor Championships in February – in addition to competing in the heptathlon, where he came in seventh. Pole vault coach Bob Phillips expects each of the trio to take the next steps in their development. If that happens, the Hokies could make up for the loss of Laidig – and be just as strong in the event this season. WOMEN TOP RETURNERS Rachel Baxter, Paige Ritter NEWCOMERS None OVERVIEW Tech returns an All-American in Rachel Baxter, who made a name for herself as a freshman. She finished second at the ACC Indoor Championships and third at the league’s outdoor meet in her debut season. She qualified for the NCAA Championships in both seasons, coming in 11th at theNCAA Indoor Championships to earn second-team All-America honors and fourth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships to earn first-team All-America honors. Baxter followed her freshman season with a strong summer in which she won the pole vault event at the U.S. Junior Outdoor Championships held in Bloomington, Indiana, and then came in 11th at the World U-20 Championships held in Tampere, Finland in July. Ritter took a redshirt season in 2017-18. She vaulted well on the high school level in Pennsylvania before coming to Tech and hopefully can provide support as a redshirt freshman this season. POLE VAULT COACH BOB PHILLIPS’ TAKE “My expectations for the three returning All-Americans has to do more with inputs than outputs. My expectation is that they give me 100 percent effort in workouts, that they buy into the technical changes that we’re making, that they do the little things necessary to jump at an elite level in terms of getting sleep and rest, letting me know when they’re hurting, proper diet – those sorts of things. If they take care of all those inputs, the output side will be good.” JUMPS/MULTI-EVENTS MEN TOP RETURNERS Jaelyn Demory, James Holt, Matthew Manilli NEWCOMERS Chauncey Chambers, Jayron Cheatham, John Manilli, Sean Murphy OVERVIEW The Hokies feature mostly youth and inexperience in this area, especially with the departure of Mackenzie Muldoon, whose scores in the decathlon and the heptathlon rank among the top five all time at Tech. season preview track & field DEAKIN VOLZ