Written by Tim Hofstaetter
This past weekend at Roanoke College was full of thrilling competition. Everyone competed between Friday and Saturday. During these days, there were 15 different competitions that Roanoke participated in. Along with so many competitions, Roanoke hosted 9 of these events. This was a Roanoke sports fan dream, because they could travel through the Cregger Center and see basketball, volleyball, and track and field all on the same day/weekend.
Track and field started our weekend with the pole vault for men starting at 3:30. Sophomore Dominic McCombs came in 7th. After the men competed, so did two Roanoke women. Senior, Anna Stafford placing 5th and sophomore, Tasha Miller finishing 6th. During the pole vault, the high jump was happening at the same time. Our women took first and third. Senior Kaitlyn Nguyen claimed first and freshman Rebbeca Carr claimed third. After the pole vault, running events commenced with 10 different events on Friday. During these events, Roanoke’s distance medley relay placed 5th. While track events took place in the Cregger Center field house, Men’s Volleyball hosted their first game of the tournament. They beat Lees-McRae, a nationally ranked team. This game came down to the wire with Roanoke winning the 5th and final set to secure the win. About 30 minutes after volleyball cleared the floor, our Men’s basketball team hosted a Division 1 team, the Royals from Regent. This game was a blowout from the beginning with Roanoke jumping out to a 30-point lead in the first half and the second half was no different where we ended up winning the game by 43 points.
Track and Field once again kicked the weekend off with field events starting at 10 am and track events starting at 10:30 am. Throughout the day, we saw incredible performances on both the track and field side. Senior, Grace Fowler came in 3rd in the weight throw and 4th in shot put. Freshman, Olivia Viers finished 5th in the long jump. Senior, Haylee Gamble ran both the 400 and 200. Finishing 4th and 2nd respectively but has her time as number 1 in both events in ODAC standings. On the men’s side, we had sophomore, Daniel Graham finish in 5th in the 60-meter hurdles and junior, Brady Fowler finished 4th in the 60-meter dash. Both the men’s and women’s 4×400-meter relays claimed first. While the track events were occurring, other competitions set forth. Including men’s volleyball’s second win of the weekend beating Wittenberg, earning them a chance to compete for the tournament championship. They played Southern Virginia in the championship and a hard-fought game awarded them a second-place finish in this tournament. One of the few teams that traveled this weekend was the Women’s basketball team. Much like the men’s team, they won this game without much tribulation. They soundly beat Averett by 25 points. The final home match this weekend concluded with wrestling beating the Generals from Washington and Lee University at the Mill Mountain Theater. This was a revenge match as W & L beat Roanoke earlier in the season. From this match and a match against Southern Virginia earlier in the week, we saw junior David Reid earn the ODAC Wrestler
