BLACKSBURG – Strong performances by David Whitfield and Ava Hassebrock headlined the performances of the Virginia Tech men's and women's cross country teams, as both squads wrapped up their home schedules with the Hokie Open held at the Buford Meredith Cross Country Course on Friday.
Both runners finished in third place in their respective races. Whitfield ran the 6K course in a time of 18 minutes, 52.8 seconds, which was a personal-best time for that distance. He came in a little more than 15 seconds behind winner Mike Ungvarsky of Duke. Sam Labahn, running unattached, came in second with a time of 18:48.3.
Tech's Clint Gault and Omar Aougab also registered top-10 finishes, as Gault came in ninth with a time of 19:13.4 and Aougab, running unattached, was 10th with a time of 19:13.5.
Duke won the men's competition with 15 points. The Hokies did not have enough runners to finish to register a team score.
On the women's side, Hassebrock ran the 4K distance in a time of 14:50.6. The freshman finished 33 seconds behind winner Rachel Pocratsky, who wrapped up her Virginia Tech career this past spring and ran this race unattached. Julie Wiemerslage also ran unattached and came in second with a time of 14:39.2.
Ella Breidenstine, Emily Schiesl and Allie Zolkiewicz all registered top-10 finishes for the Hokies. Breidenstine was fourth with a time of 14:53.4, while Schiesl came in sixth (15:07.7) and Zolkiewicz was seventh (15:16.9).
The Tech women's team won the team title with 22 points. Liberty came in second with 33.
Most of Tech's distance runners took the week off to rest up for the upcoming NCAA Southeast Regional meet, which will be held next Friday in Charlottesville, Virginia.
