Aquatic center closed
The Christiansburg Aquatic Center will be hosting the H2Okie May Day Invite from Friday, May 18 – Sunday, May 20.
The competition pool will close at 1 p.m. on Friday, May 18 and will reopen at 7 a.m. on Monday, May 21. The leisure and therapy pools will close at 3 p.m. on Friday, May 18 and will reopen at 5:30 a.m. on Monday, May 21. The cardio room will follow its normal hours during the meet.
For more information, please call the Christiansburg Aquatic Center at 381-7665 or visit www.christiansburg.org/aquatics.
Athletes to study abroad
While most college students are eager to get their summer vacations started immediately after final exams, a certain group of Virginia Tech students have decided to kickstart their summer break this year in a different way.
This group of Virginia Tech students and four staff members departed from Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C. on Sunday for an experience that will surely impact them long after they return. They spent two days traveling to Rwanda, a small African country located in the central-eastern part of the continent, for a two-week study abroad course and will return to the United States on May 25.
During the 12 days in Rwanda, the students will be enrolled in SPIA 3954: Sport, Policy, and Society, a three-credit course within the School of Public and International Affairs.
The course focuses on how sports can be used for development in an international community. The course will expose students to an experiential style of learning that they simply cannot get on Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg campus.
Eberle named CoSIDA
Virginia Tech Sophomore Carrie Eberle has been named to the 2018 Google Cloud Academic All-District Softball Team in District 3, as voted by members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Eberle, one of two pitchers and sophomores on the team, was a second-team All-ACC selection and finished the academic year with a 3.88 GPA in biology.
The Academic All-District team recognizes the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom.
A standout in the circle and at the plate for the Hokies in 2018, Eberle led the softball team with a 1.72 ERA and eight home runs.
She also posted a .518 slugging percentage, a clip that ranked second, with 17 RBI, four doubles and a .264 batting average. Eberle racked up 187.0 innings and registered 12 wins, 21 complete games, 131 strikeouts and six shutouts. Opponent’s hit only .182 against her.
First-team Academic All-District honorees advance to the Google Cloud Academic All-America ballot, with first- and second-team Academic All-America® honorees to be announced in June.
Jones joins Hokies
Virginia Tech Athletics announced the addition of Jason Jones to the staff as director of equipment services for football on Tuesday. Jones joins the staff of Erik Lewis who serves as Tech’s director of equipment services. Jones replaces Sam Nichols who recently joined the NFL’s Washington Redskins as an assistant equipment manager.
Jones comes to Virginia Tech after spending the last four years as the head equipment manager at Arkansas State University where he was responsible for the ordering and tracking of equipment for all that school’s varsity sports.
Prior to his assignment at Arkansas State, Jones worked for 12 years at TCU beginning his tenure as a student manager in 2002. He later served as a graduate assistant before earning a full-time position as assistant equipment manager in 2011, working in that role until his departure for Arkansas State in 2014.
Highlanders gain NCAA awards
The Radford University women’s tennis and women’s cross-country teams have once again been recognized for their academic excellence, receiving Public Recognition Awards as standouts in the latest Academic Progress Report (APR), the NCAA announced Wednesday afternoon. These awards are given each year to teams with APRs in the top 10 percent of each sport, and the results are based on the 2016-17 academic year.
The two programs join a group of 1,284 teams from 312 Division I institutions across the country that earned the prestigious award, including a record-setting 28 teams from the Big South Conference.
Radford women’s tennis was led in the classroom by senior Natalie Sayer while the women’s cross-country program followed the lead of junior Percie Lyons, both of which earned spots on Big South All-Academic Teams this season.
APR scores for all Division I teams will be released May 23. The APR measures eligibility, graduation and retention each semester or academic term and provides a clear picture of the academic performance for each team in every sport. All teams must meet an academic threshold of 930 to qualify for the postseason.
