Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 10 No. 5 | May 2018

inside.hokiesports.com 35 W orkers continue to spend much of the spring putting the finishing touches on the $18 million Rector Field House/ softball hitting facility project, with the Rector portion including a permanent lobby with trophy cases, a new throws area, additional spectator seating, an additional training room, new lighting and more. As she and others trained on the track during the construction process, Rachel Pocratsky couldn’t help but watch and feel an urge to offer a suggestion or two to the workers, engineers and architects involved. Such is themindset of a person pursuing a degree in civil engineering, with its emphasis on designing and building. “I don’t know much about this, but I feel like I could be telling them what they should be doing and what they should not be doing,” Pocratsky laughed. Typical of an engineering major, Pocratsky has built a nice little academic resume, as she prepares herself for a future in the construction world. She’s also developed a rather impressive track career, one with plenty of room for future growth. The junior from Gaithersburg, Maryland anchors the Tech women’s track and field team as a middle distance runner. In fact, she has been rather dominant at nearly every middle distance this season, recording 11 wins combined, including relays, at various meets throughout the indoor and outdoor campaigns heading into the ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Miami. In some respects, that comes as no surprise. Many runners are actually great at running but lack the passion to put in the work that it takes to win. Pocratsky, on the contrary, actually loves it. That love actually started when she played soccer as a kid. Her coach put her in the midfield, which forced her to scurry around for 90 minutes—and thus revealed her passion. She kept soccer as her main sport until she got to middle school when her father, Carl, got her into running as a way of remaining in shape. As a freshman in high school, she endured one of life’s epiphany’s, which came courtesy of a torn ACL in her knee suffered on the pitch during the season. “I was two weeks into the track season, too, and I was really excited because I was feeling in really good shape, but then when that happened, I was out for a while,” she said. “I realized when I was sitting on the sidelines at soccer games in the spring, still recovering, that I was like, ‘I don’t really miss this as much as I was excited to see how I’d do in track.’ So then, I was definitely way more excited the next year when I was able to do track again.” Pocratsky came back in a big way, establishing herself as a dominant runner in the Washington, D.C-Maryland area. She twice won the 800 at the WCAC (Washington Catholic Athlete Conference) Championships, and later in her high school career, she finished in the top 10 in the 800 at the prestigious AAU Junior Olympics and the New Balance Nationals. When it came time to look for colleges, she focused first on academics, but a nagging urge to try track at the collegiate level wouldn’t go away. She looked at all the big schools, including Duke, Virginia and Penn State, the alma mater of both of her parents. The two Pennsylvania natives strongly encouraged their oldest daughter to make State College her home for four years. A visit there, though, left her unimpressed. “I don’t know,” she said. “It wasn’t really what I was expecting. I think we went on maybe a not-so-nice day. It was kind of cold, and there was a lot of construction going on at the time, so it just wasn’t the Penn State that they were telling me about. I don’t know. It just wasn’t what I was looking for at the time, and it was even bigger than here, so I was like, ‘Uh, this is a little too big.’” Pocratsky had been emailing college track and field coaches to gather information and to gauge interest. She had been attracting a little attention, but the recruiting process for Olympic sports is different from that of major sports like football and basketball. A lot of Olympic sport coaches lack the budgets to attend meets, visit high schools or go to a prospect’s home, so they mostly rely on email or social media correspondence with a person of interest. Pocratsky’s strategy was quite simple. She emailed coaches and waited for a response. “If they responded, ‘Yeah, you can come to my office,’ then I’d go see them,” she said. “If not, then I’d just look around the school and see if I liked it anyways.” Fortunately for the Virginia Tech track and field program, distance coach Ben Thomas and assistant Eric Johannigmeier happened to be in town when Pocratsky emailed them, and they quickly responded, inviting her to the office for a visit. Dave Cianelli, Tech’s director of track and field and cross country, also invited her to stop by. In fact, they were among the first to respond to her, as she started the process. That, and their genuine interest in her, quickly won her over. “They were really nice about it,” she said. “They were the first school that was really interested in me, and it just kind of went from there. They kept in really good correspondence with me and showed a lot of interest. And it was a big engineering school, which is what I wanted to do. There were a lot of benefits. “I also liked the atmosphere here. Everyone was really nice, and I liked the big school aspect also. I wasn’t trying to go to too small of a school, and this was the right distance from home. It wasn’t too close, but not too far. It had a lot to offer.” Pocratsky had a lot to offer, too, and the Hokies took advantage, as she earned All-ACC honors during both the indoor and outdoor seasons as a freshman, doing so in the 800 in the indoor season and the 1,500 in the outdoor season. She earned All-ACC honors during both seasons as a sophomore, with both coming in the 800, and she helped the Tech women win the ACC’s outdoor team title. She spent most of those first two seasons looking at Hanna Green’s backside, though, as Green simply dominated middle distance events during her career. Green departed Tech’s program last year as a five- time All-American and a six-time ACC gold medalist. She finished as an NCAA runner-up in the 800 on three occasions. The two certainly pushed each other over the past two years, and that made each better. As Pocratsky continues dominating in her own right this winter and spring, she carries with her even more respect for Green’s approach to training and running. “A lot,” Pocratsky said when asked what she learned from Green. “There was a teammate rivalry because we were always going back Everyone was really nice, and I liked the big school aspect also. I wasn’t trying to go to too small of a school, and this was the right distance from home. It wasn’t too close, but not too far. It had a lot to offer. Rachel Pocratsky on her decision to come to Virginia Tech Continued on page 36 track and field spotlight rachel pocratsky ” “