Track And Field Moves Up AAC Ranks At Hokie Invitational

Friday, January 20

Blacksburg, Va.

All Day

East Carolina University

Hokie Invitational

Track And Field Moves Up AAC Ranks At Hokie Invitational

January 21, 2017 | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field, Track & Field

Hokie Invitational Full Results

Hokie Invitational Full Results (PDF)

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The East Carolina track and field program took on some stiff competition at the Hokie Invitational Friday and Saturday inside the Rector Fieldhouse in Blacksburg, winning three events and setting a school record against a field that included the No. 1 ranked University of Florida men's team.

"We had a pretty good overall weekend when we assessed everything," Director of Men's and Women's Track and Field and Cross Country Curt Kraft said. "We still have a lot of work to do before the indoor conference championships. Anytime you're setting school records, moving up the performance list on the American athletic conference list and producing personal records, that's a great weekend. I thought our second day was better than our first day as a team. Hopefully the competition that we faced this weekend will prepare us for our conference championships in a month."

Sophomore Stefano Migliorati set a new school standard in the 600m, breaking his own personal best by nearly one second as he crossed the finish line in 1:18.84 to win the event. Classmate Nick Ciaccia also picked up the victory in the 5,000m with a time of 15:17.79 as we won the race by more than 11 seconds. He currently ranks fourth in the American Athletic Conference in the discipline.

On the women's side, senior Aminah Ghaffar captured the crown in the pentathlon, racking up 3,318 points. She finished first in the 60m hurdles (8.97) and the 800m (2:29.51) as part of the win. Ghaffar currently leads the American Conference with that point total.

The 4x400 relay team consisting of junior Jordan Martin, sophomore Hakeem Horton, freshman Zach Halliday and junior Tamarack Bolden finished third ahead of squads from Florida and NC State by putting up a time of 3:15.98 that currently ranks second in the AAC.

Senior Galissia Cause and junior Mohogany Baker both moved into third in the league in the shot put and weight throw with respective marks of 15.30 meters and 19.32 meters.

East Carolina returns to action Feb. 3-4, making the trip back to Blacksburg and the Rector Fieldhouse for the Doc Hale Elite Meet.

"We will have two full weeks off before we return to Virginia Tech," Kraft added. "It is my hope that our team will look completely different as far as performances go in two weeks. The goal is always to improve each and every week in some event."