Track Note

I am really looking forward to following the track teams this year. The women are preseason #10 indoors and with the Kristi Castlin and Queen Harrison returning to anchor the sprints great things can be attained. The men are preseason #25 but to really vault up the rankings the men's team needs sprinters badly.

Season in Review

If you had told me on August 31 after watching the Hokies get eviscerated by VCU that they would make the Final Four losing to eventual national champ Wake Forest I would have bet large sums against the prospect. I knew the Hokies would get better, an Oliver Weiss team tends to do that, but this surprised even me. Over the next 3+ months the Hokies only losses were to a very high caliber BC team. The team gelled and developed a depth that in years past simply was not there. Patrick Nyarko became more of a setup man than the past two years by leading the team with 10 assists but he scored critical goals during the year. This development of his game no doubt contributed to his Hermann Trophy finalist status and making first team AA. Overall goal scoring was distributed well as 3 players tallied at least 7 goals. Several new comers were big in key positions but the play of senior Ben Nason was pivotal. Nason has seen the program grow from the early days and has played many roles for the Hokies and was rewarded with second team All-ACC status. A least one freshman made an impact as well with James Shupp making All-ACC Frosh team. Some hubbub has been made of the presence of several foreigners on the team. If they are full time students and the NCAA allows it, what is the issue? Three Frosh did not play a single minute (indicating a possible redshirt situation) while Bentley, Boland and Hooper played limited minutes. Shupp was the only Frosh to play significant minutes. Hopefully the maturation of these players and another good recruiting class means the future is bright. I know with Oliver Weiss running the ship the program will continue to gain stature.

In summary, this team played in the most significant Olympic Sporting event in school history and arguably the second most significant event ever after the football national championship game. They completed the greatest season in school history and deserve their place in the annuals of Va Tech sports.

Go Hokies!