BLACK’S REGIONAL MARK HIGHLIGHTS BUSY WEEKEND FOR RAMS
5-4-09
Duke Twilight Results
George Mason Classic Results

For most student-athletes, exam week gives the most trouble in preparing for upcoming competition.

Apparently, freshman Ronnie Black (Newport News, Va.) of the Virginia Commonwealth University men’s track & field team is not one of those student-athletes.

Black highlighted a busy weekend for the Black & Gold by qualifying for the upcoming NCAA East Regionals with a victory in the high jump, clearing the mark of 6’ 10 ¾” at the Duke Twilight meet.

As a team, the Rams competed in both the George Mason Classic on Saturday and the Duke Twilight on Sunday. In all, VCU brought home 16 top-five finishes on the weekend.

“It was a good weekend for our guys,” Head Coach Julian Spooner commented. “With Ronnie qualifying that gives us seven guys going to NCAA East Regionals and Antonio wasn’t too far off. I keep saying it, but I’m really excited about the next few years for this program.”

Also at the Duke Twilight meet, sophomore standout Antonio Norvell (Portsmouth, Va.) nearly joined Black on the regional qualifier list with a second-place showing in the 200-meter dash, stopping the clock in 21.50, just .15 seconds off the qualifying time. He also grabbed fourth-place in long jump.

Classmate Brian Wallace (Portsmouth, Va.) claimed second place in both the long jump and the triple jump, while another sophomore, Cyprian Yankey (Richmond, Va.) garnered a top-five finish in the discus.

On Saturday at George Mason, senior Grant Matthews (Chester, Va.) led the way with two top-three finishes in the javelin (150’ 9”) and the pole vault (12’ 11 ½”).

Junior Stephen Mutisya (Machakos, Kenya) and sophomore John Vial (Glen Allen, Va.) teamed to claim two of the top four spots in the 5000-meter run, with Mutisya finishing second (14:54.99) and Vial fourth (15:09.08)

Others garnering top-five finishes included sophomore Andrew Long (Princeton, N.J.) in the pole vault (fourth place), senior James Evangelisti (McLean, Va.) in the long jump (fourth place), freshman Kevin Parkhurst (Richmond, Va.) in the shot put (fourth place), sophomore Joe Edwards (Virginia Beach, Va.) in the triple jump (fourth place), sophomore Allan Moody (Woodbridge, Va.) in the triple jump (fifth place) and sophomore James Bohigan (Falls Church, Va.) in the 400-meter hurdles (fifth place).