Hokie ClubEUGENE, Ore. – The Virginia Tech track & field team concluded the NCAA Outdoor Championships with one national champion, three first team All-Americans and four second team All-Americans after Matthias Treff earned second team honors today by finishing 15th in the javelin throw.
“The highlight of the week was certainly Tomas winning the hammer throw as well as Jeff Artis-Gray also competing extremely well in the long jump to pick up fifth,” Director of Track & Field Dave Cianelli said. “I was hoping for a little higher finish on the men’s side, but that’s just the way it was. We had a couple people come a little dinged up, but I thought everybody competed well. As it has been in the past, it’s such a high quality meet that you have to come in and be 100 percent healthy and you really have to bring your best to place in this meet."
The only Hokie to compete on the final day, Treff opened up the event with a throw of 217-6 (66.29m), but was unable to hit a better mark on his next and took a pair of fouls. After the first flight he was sitting in eighth. Through the first round of the second flight, the redshirt senior was bumped out of qualifying for the finals resulting in the end of his day. He closes out his Hokie career as a three-time All-American.
The Hokie men finished 19th overall with 14 points. It is the program’s sixth straight top-20 finish.
“It’s nice to be in that top-20 group,” Cianelli added. “We’ve been top-10 and we’ve been top five, but to be in the top 20 in the country is still a really good accomplishment and it keeps our men’s team in the mix of being one of the top 10-20 programs nationally. We’ll continue to come here with the goal of being in the top 10 and hopefully next year when we come back here, we’ll move up back into that top 10 group.”
Tech’s biggest highlight of the four-day championship meet came two days ago as freshman Tomas Kruzliak captured the program’s 14th individual national championship and the sixth title in the men’s hammer throw in the last nine years. He is the fourth Tech thrower to win a national crown in the event on the men's side and fifth Hokie to win a national title in the event.
First Team All-American
Jeff Artis-Gray – Long Jump
Tomas Kruzliak – Hammer Throw (champion)
Martina Schultze – Pole Vault
Second Team All-American
Ronnie Black – High Jump
Matthias Treff – Javelin Throw
Chris Uhle – Pole Vault
Annjulie Vester – Hammer Throw