Marty Gordon
The eight-member class of Jeff Artis-Gray, Larsen Bowker, Duane Brown, Dave Cianelli, Brittany Pryor, Heather Savage, Logan Shinholser and Tyrod Taylor were officially inducted into the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame Friday evening at The Inn at Virginia Tech.
New throws assistant
Director of Track and Field and Cross Country, Ben Thomas, has announced the addition of Cleopatra Borel to the 2024-2025 coaching staff. Borel will assume the position of assistant coach for throws.
Borel has a highly decorated athletic career, highlighted by her competing for the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic teams in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. She was a finalist in the shot put in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics. She was also named the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee Sports Woman of the Year five times. Her personal-best shot put of 19.48m/63-11 still stands as the Trinidad and Tobago national record.
In her most recent role at Texas State, Borel designed and implemented a throw program for multi-event athletes and women’s shot put. In her year with the Bobcats, Borel coached Melanie Duron to a 2024 Sun Belt Conference indoor shotput title and helped the team to 19 points with two athletes reaching NCAA First Round qualifying marks. Her coaching also led to personal bests by the men’s heptathlon throwers and women’s pentathlon throwers in the conference championship meet.
Clash sold out
The Commonwealth Clash, presented by Smithfield, returns to Lane Stadium in front of a full-capacity crowd for the first time since 2018, as Virginia Tech Athletics announced Tuesday that the Virginia Tech football game against Virginia on Nov. 30 is now sold out.
Now, just one home game remains with available seats – the Thursday night showdown against Boston College on Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m. ET. With limited inventory left, fans are urged to act quickly to secure their spot in Lane Stadium for this exciting matchup.
Fans still seeking single-game ticket options for the sold-out games are encouraged to visit SeatGeek, the official fan-to-fan ticket marketplace of Virginia Tech Athletics.
P-R national award
Virginia Tech defensive lineman Antwaun Powell-Ryland has been named the Bednarik Award Player of the Week by the Maxwell Football Club, and the Walter Camp National FBS Player of the Week, following his standout performance in Saturday’s 37-17 win over Old Dominion.
Powell-Ryland (6-3, 252) registered four sacks against the Monarchs, matching his own school record-tying effort of four during the 2023 game against Wake Forest.
APR is one of only four Tech players to ever record four sacks in a game, including J.C. Price, Morgan Roane, and Bruce Smith. The Portsmouth, Virginia product joins Smith, the Virginia Tech Hall of Famer, as the only two players to have at least four sacks in multiple games.
The redshirt senior wreaked havoc, totaling seven tackles while also forcing two Old Dominion fumbles, recovering one.