Defense wins Concord spring game
The Concord University football team finished up its spring practice segment as the defense defeated the offense 37-19 Saturday afternoon at Callaghan Stadium in the annual Maroon-Gray game.
The offense received points for traditional scoring plus one point for each first picked up in the contest while the defense scored on turnovers (six points), sacks (two points), tackles for loss (one point) and stopping the offense on third or fourth down (one point).
The first half did not feature either scoring in the end zone or on turnovers by the defense, but freshman kicker Luke Walls punched through an 18-yard field goal at the end of the first half to give the Maroon a 14-13 lead at the break.
However, the defense outscored the offense in the second half 24-5 led by an interception from sophomore defensive back Jonathan Roebuck and a fumble recovery from junior defensive back Jakil Sarhim. The latter turnover came with the defense up 31-19 and after a completion of 34 yards from junior quarter Kyle Akin to sophomore wide receiver Tywan Pearce.
Wilderness Road ride
The Wilderness Road Ride is a bicycling event that takes place Saturday, May 25, 2019. The ride is scenic and historical adventure through southwest Virginia’s beautiful New River Valley and follows part of Daniel Boone’s Wilderness Road.
This is a ride for the whole family to enjoy, with something for everyone— 4 routes to choose from ranging from a 29 mile relaxed journey for novices, to a full century challenge for the fittest cyclist.
For details please visit the website at http://wildernessroadride.org.
Hokies win Coastal
Clinching the ACC Coastal Division for the first time in school history, the No. 24/23 Virginia Tech softball team won its second straight run-rule game versus Boston College, winning 11-2 in five innings on Saturday at the Harrington Athletics Village.
In the process, the Hokies (42-8, 19-4 ACC) tied the school record for most ACC wins in a season with 19, set by the 2014 team, and most ACC series wins with seven, set by the 2007 team.
With the win over the Eagles (16-31, 4-16), Tech now owns a top-two seed in the ACC Championship, which will be played on the campus of Florida State (44-8, 15-5) in Tallahassee, Florida.
Gasperini All-Big South
Radford red-shirt junior Peter Gasperini was named to the 2019 Big South Men’s Golf All-Conference Team on Monday. In addition, red-shirt senior Ben Ramsey was selected to the Big South All-Academic Team.
Gasperini tied for 19th at the Big South Championship last weekend after carding a combined three-round score of 226, the top result by a Highlander. The South Boston, Virginia native was named the Big South Golfer of the Week on April 5th after placing eighth at the Wofford Invitational. Gasperini’s 3-under 213 was the top score among all Big South competitors at the event. He also tied for 11th-place at the Golden Horseshoe Intercollegiate and the Pinehurst Intercollegiate events this past spring.
Ramsey is currently working on obtaining an MBA in finance and has been a dean’s list student every semester at Radford. He owns a flawless 4.00 grade point average as a graduate student and earned a 3.94 GPA as an undergraduate. Ramsey tied for 21st at the Wexford Invitational after recording a 74 in all three rounds. He was also 23rd at the Kiawah Classic after carding a three-day score of 221 (74-76-71) and was 27th at the Elon Phoenix Invitational with a three-day score of 215. (74-70-71)
Strong finish at US Open
Virginia Tech’s three assistant coaches – Cody Brewer, Jared Frayer and Ty Walz – all placed at the 2019 Marine Corps US Open in Las Vegas on Saturday with Brewer claiming the Open title at 61 kg. Incoming freshman Sam Latona placed second at 57 kg at the junior level for the Hokies.
Walz placed fourth at 97 kg and Frayer, who was competing for the first time since the London Olympics in 2012, finished in seventh at 74 kg. All three coaches qualified for the World Team Trials in Raleigh, hosted by NC State, on May 16-19. By winning his weight, Brewer gets an automatic bye to the finals of the World Team Trials.
Joining Latona as qualifiers for the Junior World Team Trials in Raleigh are freshman Cody Howard, who took fifth at 92 kg, and redshirt freshman John Borst, placed third at 125 kg.
Four winners at Penn Relays
The Hokies ended the final day of the competition at the Lenny Lyles/Clark Wood Invitational, Penn Relays and Virginia Grand Prix on a high note, as Deakin Volz (pole vault), Rachel Baxter (pole vault) and Tyson Jones (shot put) all won event titles.
Baxter won her second vault title of the season with an all-time personal-best jump of 4.50 meters (14 feet, 9 inches), which tied Martina Schultze for the second-best vault in program history.
Volz won his first vault title of the season, as he recorded a top vault of 5.33 meters (17 feet, 5.75 inches).
Jones threw a personal-best 18.50 meters (60 feet, 8.5 inches), which moved him to fourth all time in Tech’s record book, as he earned his second shot put title of the season.
The 4×100-meter relay team of Joseph Tay, Jacory Patterson, Michael Davenport and Cole Beck finished third in the finals with their time of 40.16 seconds. The group was recognized at the conclusion of the race with gold Penn Relay watches, as they posted the best time among Eastern teams.
