Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 14 No. 2 | October 2021

28 2022 INVESTMENT GUIDE LPGA QUALIFYING UPCOMING Keep your eye out for Emily (Mahar) Gray (’21) and Amanda Hollandsworth (’18) over the ’21 LPGA Qualifying Series this fall. Emily and Amanda both had impressive showings in California at the first stage of the qualifying tournament. Emily finished tied for 22nd at 5-under 283 (67-69-74-73) on the heels of an impressive summer, including competing at the ’21 U.S. Women’s Open. In her second season on the Symetra Tour, Amanda finished tied for 66th at 1-over 289 (76-68-72-73) . In a field of over 250 players, only the top 95 players and ties advance to the second stage which hosts new players, including LPGA Tour Members ranked outside of the Top 150. The LPGA Stage II Qualifying Tournament will take place at Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, FL on October 21-24th. Follow these two Hokies on the road to the LPGA with live scoring online by searching for the LPGA Q-School Leaderboard. (Women’s Golf Director, Whitney Herr ’17 - whits1@vt.edu ) SWIMMING & DIVING AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES Klaudia Nazieblo ’18 (BS Economics) was recently drafted by DC Trident of the International Swimming League (ISL) . Klaudia trains with many of the best in the world with Pinnacle Racing in Christiansburg, under guidance of Head Coach Sergio Lopez Miro. She is planning to swim for the foreseeable future, explore her career with the ISL, and perhaps try for the Paris 2024 Olympic games. 2020 Tokyo Olympics —Five members of the Hokies’ swimming & diving teams represented the Hokies in Tokyo this summer at the Games. Antani Ivanov (’22) , on the Bulgaria team, competed in the 200m Fly finishing in 20th place (1:56.36) , just outside of making a semi-final appearance. Antani also competed in the 100m Fly finishing 29th in a time of 52.25! Antani was an All-American as a Junior in ’20-21 season, as well as All-American Honorable Mention in ’18-19 as a freshman and is a business major at VT. Hokie Alumnus Ian Ho (’19) competed for Hong Kong in the 100m Free and finished in 34th place with a lifetime best going 49.49! Later Ian went on to compete in the 50m Free finishing 32nd with a 22.45. Ian was named to the All-ACC Academic Team in ’17 and ’18 and came to Virginia Tech from Blacksburg High School. The highlight of the meet for the Hokies was rising- sophomore Youssef Ramadan (’24) in the 100m Fly who became the first Hokie to advance to the Olympic semi- finals, swimming a 51.67 in the prelims to break the Egyptian National Record! Youssef finished 16th overall in the event putting an exclamation point on Ramadan’s first Olympic appearance! As a freshman this year (’20-21) , he was selected as an All American and the ACC 2021 Male Freshman of The Year and was the fastest freshman in NCAA History in the 100-yd Fly (44.32)! The Hokies were one of only a handful of coaching staffs in the NCAA to send multiple coaches to the Games. Head Coach Sergio Lopez Miro was a member of Team Singapore, making this his 6th overall appearance at the Olympics and 4th appearance in a row as a Coach! Recruiting Coordinator/ Assistant Coach Albert Subirats went as a member of Team Iceland, making this his 5th overall appearance and 1st appearance as a Coach! (Article via Coach Payton Brooks - pbrooks@vt.edu & MC Director John Schmidt ’79 - schmidt01@cebridge.net) . INTRODUCING THE HOKIE NETWORK The Virginia Tech Hokies and the team at Athlete Network are thrilled to announce a new partnership with the goal of engaging all current and former student-athletes with available services and resources. The partnership launches a branded digital platform to organize, promote, and track the programs and services offered to their athletes. “The technology and resources that Athlete Network provides will allow us to continue building relationships even after Hokie student-athletes leave campus. It will also provide our alumni student-athletes a vehicle in which to maintain their connection with Virginia Tech so that we can truly fulfill the mantra of ‘Once a Hokie, Always a Hokie.’” - Brian Walter, VT Monogram Club President This platform is exclusively for former student- athletes. To sign-up today visit Hokies.AthleteNetwork.com. “FOR THOSE TO COME” SCHOLARSHIP The Monogram Club is also proud to announce the “For Those to Come” endowed scholarship. Membership of the Monogram Club, composed of former student-athletes, trainers, video team members and managers, recently voted to invest $25,000 towards endowing a scholarship for a current student-athlete. “Kelly and I are proud to support this initiative,” Virginia Tech Director of Athletics Whit Babcock said. “Endowments are truly the greatest way to support the future of Virginia Tech Athletics. Our alumni laid the foundation for our 22 sports at Virginia Tech and are now creating opportunities for student-athletes with the For Those to Come Endowment. Our former student-athletes put Virginia Tech on the map, and we will continue to work in their honor to build champions in the classroom and in competition.” MAKING AN IMPACT STUDENT-ATHLETE ALUMNI AFTER GRADUATION Continued from page 27