BLACKSBURG, Va. - The Virginia Tech men’s and women’s track & field teams will host their third home meet of the year as they host the Doc Hale VT Elite Meet on Feb. 7-8 at Rector Field House in Blacksburg. 12 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams are slated to compete.
Eight teams will represent the ACC including Duke, Maryland, Miami, NC State, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. In addition, four other schools (Florida, Georgia, East Carolina and Kentucky) are slated to compete.
On the women’s side, Tech put in several quality performances at the Virginia Tech Hokie Invitational two weeks ago at Rector Fieldhouse. Sarah Rapp raced her way to a first place finish in the women’s 3000-meter race with a time of 9:41.94. Rapp led for the majority of the race but slipped behind with a few laps to go. Rapp found her second wind and rushed forward in the final lap to earn the win.
Tech dominated the women’s 1000-meter race with Frances Dowd and Katarina Smiljanec earning one-two finishes. Dowd earned her first-place finish with a time of 2:49.22, while Smiljanec finished in second with a time of 2:49.63.
For the men, The Hokies produced several quality performances in the men’s 3000-meter race. Leoule Degfae led the way running a time of 8:09.16 to propel his way to a first-place finish. NC State’s Graham Crawford led the way through the final lap until Degfae used a final surge to propel to a narrow victory by 12/100ths of a second.
Tech’s Grant Pollock finished third in the race with a time of 8:15.97 while teammate Stuart Robinson earned a sixth place finish. In the men’s 1000-meter race Tihut Degfae earned a first-place finish with a time of 2:24.63, his personal best at that distance. Kevin DeWillie finished in fourth place while Martin Dally earned himself a sixth place finish in the race.
Chris Uhle dominated in the pole vault with an impressive mark of 5.28 meters (17'03.75") beating out his personal best set earlier this season. Uhle finished in first place while teammate Jared Allison finished in second with a mark of 4.98 meters (16'04.00").
Events begin on Friday afternoon at 5 p.m. and at 11 a.m. Saturday morning.
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