BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Virginia Tech had a productive day at the NCAA East Regional Thursday, advancing four student-athletes to the NCAA Championships and five more to the quarterfinal rounds on Friday and Saturday.
Ronnie Black was the Hokies’ first NCAA qualifier of the day, tying for first in the high jump with a new personal-best height of 7-1.5 (2.17m), which is a new school record at Virginia Tech. Black set a new school record earlier this season at 7-1 (2.16m). Dorotea Habazin, who leads the East Region in the hammer throw, won Thursday’s qualifying round, throwing 221-6 (67.51m) to advance to Des Moines, Iowa in two weeks. Matthias Treff advances to the Final Championships in the men’s javelin, finishing 11th Thursday with a toss of 224-5 (68.51m). Jeff Artis-Gray closed out the Hokies’ day in the field events, placing 11th in the long jump to move on to the NCAA Championships with a new PR of 24-8.25 (7.52m).
In the running events, Lauren Lemieux just made the cut to compete in Saturday’s 1,500-meter quarterfinals, placing 24th Thursday with a new PR of 4:25.39. Her counterpart in the men’s race, Michael Hammond, will also move on to Saturday’s round after finishing 10th in 3:49.00. The Hokies’ two competitors in the women’s 100-meter dash ran near-identical times, with Ogechi Nwaneri (11.72) just edging out Funmi Alabi (11.73), which earns them both spots in tomorrow’s quarterfinal. On the men’s side, Keith Ricks also made the cut, placing 19th in 10.42.
Frances Dowd ran a personal-best 2:09.07 in the women’s 800 meters, but just missed the cut by less than half a second. Tech had four competitors in the men’s 800 meters, but they fell short of the top 24, with Tihut Degfae finishing one spot shy of the cutoff in 25th at 1:51.17. He was followed by Nick McLaughlin (34th, 1:52.27), Ryan Witt (35th, 1:52.44) and Jeff Miller (43rd, 1:55.34). Kelly Phillips also fell just short of the cutoff, tying for 13th in the women’s pole vault qualifying round (12-7.5, 3.85m). Finishing the night on the track was Courtney Dobbs, who placed 42nd in the 10,000 meter quarterfinals (35:35.46).
Events continue tomorrow with the field events starting at 11 a.m. ET and the running events at 4:30 p.m.
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