Collegiate Times

Virginia Tech women’s hurdlers burned up the track in Rector Field House this past Friday and Saturday in the VT Elite Meet.

Tech conquered seven events overall and senior Queen Harrison continued to dominate her competition. In the women’s 60-meter hurdles preliminary, Harrison crossed the finish line in less than eight seconds, becoming the first ever Hokie to garner that bragging right. She

later improved upon her already record-breaking time during the finals of the event, clocking in at 7.96 seconds.

“Surprisingly, it felt really smooth,” Harrison said when asked about the feat. “I can’t lie, I was really excited. I couldn’t believe it for about 30 minutes afterwards.”

Assistant coach Charles Foster had nothing but compliments for his squad on Saturday, especially regarding the senior leadership. As the team approaches the Atlantic Coast Conference championships, which begin on Feb. 25,

Foster discussed his training strategies.

“We’re going to convert to speed work,” he said. “We’ve been doing strength work, and I actually got a letter from the team saying, ‘When are we going to start doing some speed work?’”

Even though the team is off to a solid start, Foster continues to challenge his runners.

“We’ve broken records every single time we’ve hit the track,” Foster said. “Who’s going to be the next one?”

Kristi Castlin, fellow senior and teammate to Harrison, also looked to the future. As she posed with the other runners for pictures, she was all smiles, but when asked about the team’s future plans, she didn’t hesitate to comment.

“Getting ready for ACC’s, that’s our next big championship,” Castlin said. “We can dramatically improve those times.”

While broken records may have been the theme of the meet, Harrison believes there are more to come.

“I think so,” Harrison said.

“Not just from me — my teammates, too.”

The team will be back in action for the Virginia Tech Challenge on Feb. 19 and 20, and Harrison is optimistic; as she said to fans, “We’ll put on a show.”

A version of this article appeared in the Feb 9 issue of the Collegiate Times.