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Knights Head to Blacksburg for Virginia Tech's Hokie Invitational

Complete Schedule of Events in PDF Format

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By Pat Salvas
UCFAthletics.com

ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - The UCF indoor track & field team continues the 2011 season with its second meet of the year this weekend at Virginia Tech's Hokie Invitational in Blacksburg, Va. The Knights kicked the season off with impressive performances and new school records at the Kentucky Invitational last weekend.

Friday has the Knights getting underway from Rector Fieldhouse. The field events start with junior Tomika Story in the triple jump at 5 p.m. Story is the lone Knight competing in the event in Blacksburg.

Sophomores Erica Weiss and London Enos will represent UCF in the pole vault, the second event of the day. Last week, both posted heights of 10-08.00/3.25m to finish just outside the top 10.

The weight throw rounds out Friday's field events and begins at 7 p.m. The event will feature two freshmen throwing in just their second collegiate meet for the Knights. Destinee Romain and Satrina Oliveira will look to improve on last week's performance; their first-career throws at 20 pounds.

Running events also begin Friday afternoon for UCF, starting with the preliminaries of the 60-meters hurdles at 5:10 p.m. Jackie Coward, an All-American in this event last season, will be joined by seniors Karessa Farley and Mica Wimberly. The finals are set to get underway just after 7 p.m. for those that advance out of their preliminary heats.

The 60-meter dash will feature two freshmen and a senior. First-year Knights Aurieyall Scott and Dominique Booker are coming off a stellar first collegiate meet and will look to continue the trend Saturday at 5:50 p.m. in the preliminaries. Lynne Layne rounds out the trio of Knights in the 60 meters seeking to advance to the 7:10 p.m. finals.

Booker set a new school and freshman record in the preliminaries of this event last weekend in 7.32, only to best that mark by three-hundredths of a second in the finals in 7.29 to claim first place.

Senior Carley Dart is the only UCF runner entered into the 600 meters, set to start at 6:30 p.m.

The high jump is the first event of Saturday, getting underway at 10 a.m. with freshman Sandy Jean and sophomore Sonnisha Williams. Williams and Jean jumped last week in Lexington, Ky., with both clearing 5-5.25/1.66m to finish tied for 11th. Selected seeds of the women's pole vault will compete following the high jumpers Saturday morning.

Jean will also run in the 400-meter dash following the high jump earlier in the day. She will run alongside senior Champelle Brown and freshman Erica Winston in the 400. Brown is the only one of the three to run in this event last week, posting a time of 58.58.

Juniors Jacquelyn Gilchrist and Story along with Williams and Layne will represent the Knights in the long jump. Dan'Elle Bellamy and Ne'Ausha Logan will make up the Knights' contingent in the 800 meters on Saturday afternoon.

A week after setting a school and freshman record in the 200 meters with a time of 23.35, Scott will look to continue to improve in her second weekend of competition. Joining Scott in the 200 meters Saturday afternoon is Sheila Paul and Layne.

Freshmen Tyler Smith and Booker will also run in the 200. At Nutter Fieldhouse last Saturday, Booker came up just short in the event, finishing second in 23.65; a mark that would have been a new record had it not been for Scott's performance.

Romain and Oliveira look to build off their initial shot put throws last weekend when they compete Saturday afternoon in the final field event. At Kentucky, Romain's throw of 41-6.00/12.65m edged Oliveira's 36-11.75/11.27m in an event assistant coach Jeff Chakouian says to be their best.

The Distance Medley Relay will be followed by the 4x400-meter relay to close out the weekend at Rector Fieldhouse. In the Knight's first meet of the season, the 4x400-meter relay team set a new school record in 3:40.15, besting the previous program mark by nearly six seconds.

In all, 21 teams will be competing at this weekend's meet with the Knights the lone program from Conference USA. Six schools from the ACC are set to run this weekend, including Clemson, Duke, Florida State, NC State, Virginia, Wake Forest and the hosts from VT.

Following this weekend's competition, UCF will once again travel north to take part in the Penn State National Invitational on Friday, Jan. 28 and Saturday, Jan. 29.