Virginia Concludes Strong Opening Day at Hokie Invitational
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia men’s and women’s track and field teams closed the opening day of the Hokie Invitational at the Rector Field House in Blacksburg on Friday (Jan. 22) with a strong performance from several athletes.
For the second consecutive week, senior Halle Hazzard (Commack, N.Y.) led the Cavaliers with the top time in the 60m dash. Hazzard ran the fastest time in the prelims at 7.32 before running a time of 7.34 in the finals to win the event.
Junior Derek Johnson (Leesburg, Va.) raced to a first-place finish in the 3000m. His time of 8:17.17 placed him over a second-and-a-half ahead of the rest of the field.
Sophomore Maya Maloney (Boise, Idaho) cleared 3.90m (12’9.5”) in the unseeded pole vault to win the event, while freshman Gabriella Recce (Harrisburg, Penn.) cleared 3.70m (12’1.5”) to tie for second place. Recce’s height was a collegiate best for the UVA first-year who now ranks ninth all-time in program history.
Alix Still (Aberdeenshire, Scotland) recorded a career-best score in the pentathlon to place second overall in the competition. Her score of 3,781 ranks sixth all-time in program history. The UVA junior also recorded career-best marks in the 60m hurdles (8.85), the shot put (10.23m; 33-6.75) and the long jump (5.48m; 17-11.75).
Highlights
• Junior Alix Still (Aberdeenshire, Scotland) recorded a career-best score of 3,781 in the pentathlon, sixth-best score in program history. She also recorded a career-best mark in three of the five events.
• Graduate student Ty Kunzman (Spencer, N.Y.) captured a career-best mark of 19.18m (62’11.25”) in the weight throw to rank fifth all-time in program history.
• Redshirt freshman Claudio Romero’s (Santiago, Chile) throw of 18.47m (60’7.25”) in the weight throw ranks seventh in program history.
• Graduate student Ka’eo Kruse (Kalaheo, Hawaii) recorded a career-best time of 8:23.52 in the 3000m to finish third in the event. His indoor career best prior to the meet was a 8:32.84 that he ran in 2017 at Harvard.
• Senior Hannah Moran (Salem, Va.) dropped over seven seconds off her career-best time in the 3000m to finish with a 9:46.48.
Next
Virginia will return to action tomorrow for day two of the Hokie Invitational at the Rector Field House. Events will begin at 9:30 a.m.