RALEIGH, N.C. - In their second week of competition during the outdoor season, the first for some, Virginia Tech's distance squads had a successful day, picking up six top-three finishes in their sections, including wins from Amanda Smith and Shannon Morton in the 1500 meters at the Raleigh Relays held at Paul Derr Track.

In her second race of the day, Smith captured Tech's first win on the day in Section IV of the 1,500 meters after setting a new personal record in at 4:33.98. Trailing the sophomore by just under a second was teammate Katarina Smiljanec who also came away with a new personal best. Not to be outdone, freshmen Shannon Morton won Section III of the 1500 meters, finishing with a time of 4:28.21.

On the men's side, Ryan Kuhns finished sixth in Section II at 4:53.49, while Darren Barlow bested his teammates time while finishing eighth in Section II at 3:49.31

The 5,000 meters saw the Hokies place three in the top 10 as Paige Kvartunas (16:37.24) and George Carter (14:38.14) came in third in the respective sections. Juan Campos was not too far behind Carter in their section as she clocked a time of 14:44.42 for eighth. Early in the day in Section V, Stuart Robertson took second place at 15:05.82.

The men's 10,000 meters closed out the night and Leoule Degfae and Thomas Curtin finished just inside the top 10 at eighth and ninth, respectively. Degfae just barely edged out his teammate, crossing the finish line seven hundredths of a second ahead him.

The Hokies will not have anyone competing on day two of the Relays. Next weekend, Tech will split its squad up as one group will head to Gainsville, Fla., to compete in the Florida Relays, while the other will stay in state and travel to Williamsburg for the Colonial Relays.