Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 10 No. 4 | March 2018

inside.hokiesports.com 27 300 Technology Drive Christiansburg, Virginia 24073 www.inorganicventures.com European distribution center located in Santander, Spain Proud to support the Hokies’ teams. Two of our PhDs as well as eleven key members of our service, production, and business teams hold degrees from Virginia Tech. When you’ve got the right talent in place, there’s no limit to how far you can go. Makers of the world’s most accurate Certified Reference Materials Because the Hokies are such a big part of ours. for the first time since the 2005 indoor season. Pocratsky, a junior from Gaithersburg, Maryland, continued Tech’s dominance in the women’s 800, as a Tech runner has won this event each of the past five years. She held off two hard-charging Clemson runners to win in a time of 2:03.17. Teammate Laurie Barton came in fourth, running the event in a personal-best time of 2:03.72. In addition, Edwards came up big in the women’s 3,000, winning a silver medal in a time of 9:18.99. She just missed her second career ACC gold medal, finishing only 32-hundredths of a second behind winner Elly Henes of NC State. And Katie Kennedy finished fourth in the women’s mile in a time of 4:44.77. The senior from Springfield, Virginia found herself in traffic toward the latter stages of the race, which allowed Notre Dame’s Jessica Harris to pull away. Harris won with a time of 4:38.58. “I think we scored 62 points as a distance unit at the ACC Championships, where there are so many great athletes,” distance coach Ben Thomas said. “You can’t be disappointed, but of course, we’re disappointed in not winning the title for the seniors. We had a lot of people step up, but I think the other team [Florida State] just earned it in this case. Florida State really had an outstanding meet.” The Techwomen dominated in the pole vault as well, finishing first and second behind the performances of Lisa Gunnarsson and Rachel Baxter, respectively. Gunnarsson, a freshman, won the event with a top vault of 4.35 meters (14 feet, 3.25 inches), while Baxter, also a freshman, came in second with a personal- best vault of 4.30 meters (14 feet, 1.25 inches). Gunnarsson became the first Tech female to win the pole vault since Martina Schultz swept the indoor and outdoor crowns in 2014. “They were both the top-ranked vaulters coming in, and so, the expectations for them were to be on the podium,” Phillips said. “Still, it’s easier to say that than to do it, and they did a great job of making sure that happened.” Gunnarsson and Baxter were part of the youth movement that performed outstanding at this Championships. Sophomore Eszter Bajnok joined the group by winning the gold in the triple jump with a school-record jump of 12.93 meters (42 feet, 5.25 inches), besting the competition by nearly four inches. Teammate Stefanie Aeschlimann, a freshman, came in sixth with a personal-best jump of 12.62 meters (41 feet, 5 inches). Freshman sprinters Caitlan Tate and Kennedy Dennis also held their own. Tate came in eighth in the 60-meter dash, and both were part of the 4x400 relay team that broke the school record and came in fourth. On the men’s side, sophomore Keishaun Limehouse came in seventh in the 60-meter hurdles, and freshmen Matthew Manilli and Demory both scored in the heptathlon—part of a trio that scored along with senior Mackenize Muldoon, who just missed a school record with 5,246 points. In all, Gunnarsson, Baxter, Bajnok, Barton, Bush, Edwards, Aeschilmann, Tate, Dennis, Yanga, Benitez, Demory, Limehouse, and Manilli scored points, and all are freshmen or sophomores. “I’m very excited for this group because we’re still pretty young,” Cianelli said. “We don’t have that many seniors, and a lot of freshmen and sophomores stood out. We had athletes here for the first time, and sometimes that can be nerve-wracking, but overall, they handled it well. “That really bodes well because they’re going to come back stronger the next time. I feel good about the next few years with the group that we have. I think we’ll continue to be a program that’s in the hunt.” Select members of both teams participated at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships held March 9-10 in College Station, Texas, and the Hokies then start the outdoor season March 23-24 at the Weems Baskin Invitational in Columbia, South Carolina. Deakin Volz won his first ACC gold medal when he captured the pole vault title ahead of teammate Torben Laidig at the ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships.