
Looking for something to do this holiday weekend? See our picks for some fun local events.
Jake Joyce once helped Carlisle win a Virginia Independent Conference title. Today, he might help Virginia Tech win an ACC crown. The Collinsville native is one of the top relievers for the Hokies, who will play in the title game of the ACC baseball tournament at 1 p.m. today in Durham, N.C. “It’s been a dream to come into this conference and get to the championship game,” Joyce said Saturday in a phone interview from Durham.
LYNCHBURG — The Region III track and field meet is history. The prep careers of William Byrd’s Marcellus Fletcher and Liberty’s Mikayla Jones are far from a closed book. The two sophomores set 2013 personal bests in the triple jump Saturday at Liberty University to highlight Timesland performances in the 43rd and last Region III meet. Region III will cease to exist next year under the VHSL’s new six-classification realignment plan, but Fletcher and Jones figure to be around awhile. Fletcher bounded 46 feet, 11 inches to win the boys triple jump, while Jones went 37-6 to claim the girls event by almost three feet. Fletcher has leaped onto the scene as a Group AA championship contender. He has added almost five feet to his triple jump from his freshman year under head coach Eric Royal, putting the young Terrier squarely in the hunt for a state title next weekend in Harrisonburg. “I don’t really think I’ve really surprised anybody,” Fletcher said.
INDIANAPOLIS - The 97th running of the Indianapolis 500 is today with a wide-open field and a pair of drivers trying to join the elite list of four-time winners. Two Americans start on the front row, along with Carlos Munoz, an unknown Indy 500 newcomer who grew up idolizing Juan Pablo Montoya - a fellow Colombian who won "The Greatest Spectacle In Racing" as a rookie. Lurking back in the
CONCORD, N.C. — Jimmie Johnson is focused on chasing victory at the Coca-Cola 600. He says he’s not thinking about his championship legacy. A win tonight would be Johnson’s fourth in NASCAR’s longest race, trailing only Darrell Waltrip’s five spring victories at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Johnson could also strengthen his series points lead with his third win this season as he chases his sixth Sprint Cup title. And a win
Caleb Findley scored two goals to help top-seeded Radford beat No. 2 seed Giles 3-0 in the Three Rivers District boys soccer tournament final Saturday at Glenvar High School. Radford (16-0) won the tournament for the 14th time in the past 15 years. Zach Turk also scored for Radford. Carson Journell had 10 saves for Giles. Radford hosts Grayson County in a Region C quarterfinal at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. Giles
FREDERICK, Md. - Brenden Webb recorded two of Frederick's three RBIs with a seventh inning homer to lead the Keys (23-22) over the Salem Red Sox 3-2 on Saturday. Salem (20-24) led the Keys 1-0 after Red Sox hitter Brandon Jacobs sent Zach Davies' pitch out past left field for a solo home run in the top of the 5th. Frederick's Travis Adair responded, hitting a homer off Sox pitcher
LA CROSSE, Wis. - Roanoke College's Carmen Graves concluded her career by finishing fifth in the final of the 800 meters Saturday at the NCAA Division III outdoor track and field championships hosted by University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Graves, a senior who graduated from Christiansburg High School, finished the 800 in 2 minutes, 9.99 seconds and earned All-America honors for the fifth time in her college career. Christy Cazzola of
FINCASTLE — Heading to Botetourt Golf & Swim Club on Saturday, the top players in the field for the 40th Roanoke Valley Golf Hall of Fame Junior field had red on their minds as the set out to play the 5,711-yard course. Then Mother Nature decided to intervene. In what turned into a round of golf played in a veritable wind tunnel, the field got blown away by the turbulent,
ABINGDON — De’Quan Green-Gause was toast. He had already won three events at the Region IV track and field championship, but the 200 wasn’t going to be the fourth. Instead, as Martinsville’s Brandon Carter and Hidden Valley’s Owen May pulled away, Green-Gause grimaced his way to a third-place finish. So when, not even an hour later, Green-Gause took the baton for the anchor leg of the 1,600 relay trailing Blacksburg’s
RADFORD – There is no way of knowing whether it’s better to be a Region C track champion or to be included in the same sentence as Calvin Talford. Fort Chiswell’s Daniel Hamm enjoys both distinctions. Hamm’s blue ribbon 48-foot, 6-inch triple jump at Saturday’s regional meet was a half-inch short of the record set almost three decades ago by Castlewood’s Talford, one of the most gifted athletes in Virginia
Virginia took a football commitment Saturday from North Carolina offensive tackle Will Richardson, a 6-foot-6, 330-pounder with multiple ACC offers. Richardson, from Cummings High School in Burlington, visited Charlottesville this weekend with his parents. Rivals.com reports that Richardson also had offers from Virginia Tech, Florida State, North Carolina State, Duke and Louisville, slated to join the ACC in 2014. Richardson, the fifth player to commit to UVa for 2014, said
DURHAM, N.C. — Kenny Towns’ three-run homer in the bottom of the 12th inning lifted Virginia past Florida State 7-4 on Saturday at the Atlantic Coast Conference baseball tournament. Towns finished with four RBIs and Joe McCarthy also homered for the third-seeded Cavaliers (47-10). They trailed by three early before rallying to finish the tournament 2-1. Virginia coach Brian O’Connor learned Friday afternoon that his team was eliminated from the
This week’s Q&A-Mac is brought to you by The Woodwork: Climb on out of there, Virginia Tech baseball fans! Q: Are there such things as passionate Tech baseball fans? A: This has been a topic of oft-hilarious debate this week on the blog. UVa fans have been grumbling about the Johnny-come-lately enthusiasm for Olympic sports shown this week by Hokies. The gripe is that Tech fans care only about football
URBANA, Ill. - Virginia's Jamere Jenkins advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA singles championships with a wild 7-6 (8), 2-6, 6-4 win over Ray Sarmiento of USC on Friday at the University of Illinois. Jenkins won it after a breaking Sarmiento's serve to go up 5-4 in the third set. Jenkins becomes the first Cavalier since Somdev Davvarmen in 2007 to advance this far into the singles tournament. In
Patrick Henry, Franklin County and William Fleming each had winning performances Friday at the Northwest Region track and field championships in Charlottesville. Patriot Caroline Brailsford set a meet record to win the pole vault. The only Patriot girls to earn all-region honors, Brailsford cleared 12 feet, meeting her season-best effort. Franklin County had two individual winners. Coy Senneff won the boys pole vault, clearing 14 feet. Teammate Bram Chaconas cleared
Who says Blacksburg isn’t a baseball town? No one does after what transpired Friday. Hours after Virginia Tech reached the ACC tournament final, Blacksburg High School’s baseball team possibly trumped that feat. One strike away from defeat, Blacksburg came up with six runs in the seventh inning to post a stunning 8-7 victory over Hidden Valley in the River Ridge District tournament championship game at Kiwanis Field. “It’s hard to
It took more than a few tries, but Blacksburg forward Jessi Wollmann finally found the net Friday against one of the top goalkeepers in Timesland. And then she did it again. Persistence paid for the Bruins, who got a tally in each half from Wollmann to defeat Salem 2-0 for the River Ridge District title at Bruce A. Mahan Field. “It was really a mental game for us,” said Wollmann,
FREDERICK, MD. - Michael McCarthy (3-2) pitched five solid innings, allowing only a leadoff home run to Jerome Pena, and Keury De La Cruz laced a two run-double in a pivotal three-run third inning as the Sox edged the Frederick Keys 3-2 at Harry Grove Stadium. David Renfroe drove in Garin Cecchini with the eventual game-winning run with a groundout after De La Cruz's double. The Keys closed the margin
MONETA — Caitlyn Porterfield knows how to stick to a game plan. Northside softball coach Lynn Richmond said the plan was as simple as “get the lead; keep the lead.” Porterfield, the second Viking to come to the plate in the bottom of the first inning, followed the plan to perfection. She hit a shot that might have made it over the center field fence most days, but the stiff
Since the Blacksburg boys soccer team hasn’t dropped a match all season, some of its fans think that when the Bruins do lose a game it will be a cold day in July. For a moment of the River Ridge District tournament championship Friday, it appeared it might just be a cold night in May. Blacksburg sophomore forward Sebi Brown broke a scoreless tie with Salem two and a half
CHRISTIANSBURG – On an unseasonably cold night for softball, Cave Spring’s cleanup hitter Kylie Kent generated plenty of heat with her bat. Kent led an explosive Knights’ attack with three homers and seven RBIs as Cave Spring blew out Salem 15-1 to win the River Ridge District Tournament title on Friday in a game called after five innings due to the 10-run rule. “I was feeling good. I was seeing
Nine runs weren’t enough. Patrick Henry’s baseball team continued to swing the bats with great vigor in the Group AAA Northwest Region opening round. The problem was, the Patriots couldn’t prevent guest Forest Park from doing the same. PH rallied to tie the score three times, the first time from five runs down, only to see the Bruins plate three unanswered runs in a 12-9 victory on a sunny but
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