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BLACKSBURG, Va. – The distance and mid-distance runners owned the night as the Hokies earned four first-place finishes all in events over 1000-meters on the first day of the Virginia Tech Hokie Invitational.

Sarah Rapp raced her way to a first place finish in the women’s 3000-meter race with a time of 9:41.94. Rapp led for the majority of the race but slipped behind with a few laps to go. Rapp found her second wind and rushed forward in the final lap to earn the win.

Tech dominated the women’s 1000-meter race with Frances Dowd and Katarina Smiljanec earning a one-two finish. Dowd earned her first-place finish with a time of 2:49.22, while Smiljanec finished in second with a time of 2:49.63.

Courtney Dobbs finished in second place in the women’s one-mile race with a time of 4:57.60 while teammate Madalyn Nuckols earned a fourth-place finish with a time of 5:01.48.

The Virginia Tech men performed equally as well on the night.

The Hokies produced several quality performances in the men’s 3000-meter race. Leoule Degfae led the way running a time of 8:09.16 to propel his way to a first-place finish. NC State’s Graham Crawford led the way through the final lap until Degfae used a final surge to propel to a narrow victory by 12/100ths of a second. Tech’s Grant Pollock finished third in the race with a time of 8:15.97 while teammate Stuart Robinson earned a sixth place finish.

In the men’s 1000-meter race Tihut Degfae earned a first-place finish with a time of 2:24.63, his personal best at that distance. Kevin DeWillie finished in fourth place while Martin Dally earned himself a sixth place finish in the race.

Tadashi Pinder finished in second place in the men’s 60-meter dash with a time of 6.84 seconds.

In the men’s unseeded pole vault, Matt Hoogland finished in third place with a mark of 4.45m.

The Virginia Tech Hokie Invitational finishes tomorrow. Events start at 11 a.m.

For updates on Virginia Tech track & field, follow the Hokies on Twitter Follow @VT_Track