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BOSTON – Virginia Tech runner Thomas Curtin finished second in the men’s 5,000-meter run and several other Hokies qualified for the finals of their respective events Friday to headline the second day of the ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center.

The Tech men’s team – the defending ACC indoor champion – sits in sixth place with 19 points. Syracuse leads the event with 32 points. The Hokie women’s team is in 14^th place with 2.5 points.

Curtin stayed near the front for much of the race, but on the final lap, Syracuse’s Justyn Knight took the lead. Curtin and Knight sprinted for nearly the entire final lap, but Knight – who finished second to Curtin at the ACC Cross Country Championships – edged Curtin at the finish line by less than a stride. Curtin ran the race in a time of 14 minutes, 1.78 seconds – less than eight-hundredths of a second behind Knight.

Curtin’s silver medal performance and David Prince's eighth-place outing in the long jump provided the Tech men’s team with its only points of the day. Prince's best mark was 23 feet, 9.5 inches.

But the Hokies have several potential scoring options in Saturday’s finals.

In the men’s 800, Tech’s Neil Gourley won his heat with a personal-best time of 1:49.63 to qualify for the finals. Gourley had the second-fastest time overall behind Wake Forest’s Robert Heppenstall (1:49.58). The Hokies’ Kevin Cianfarini finished third in his heat with a time of 1:52.89 and didn’t qualify for the finals.

Also, the Hokies’ Darren Barlow qualified for the finals in the mile, finishing fourth in his heat with a time of 4:05.77. The top two in each of the three heats advanced along with the next four best times, and Barlow’s time was one of those four, putting him in the finals.

In addition, the Tech men’s team will have its pole vault contingent going, along with its 4x400 relay team, Manuel Ziegler (triple jump) and Curtin (3,000-meter run). Ziegler and Curtin won ACC titles in those events at this meet last year.

On the women’s side, the Hokies’ Erica Hjerpe and Hannah Meador finished seventh and eighth, respectively, in the pole vault to earn the first points of the meet for the women’s team. Both finished with the same best mark of 13 feet, .25 inches, but Hjerpe reached that mark in fewer attempts to take seventh. Meador's mark tied for her personal best.

Four other members of the Tech women’s team qualified for the finals of their respective events. In the 800-meter run, the Hokies’ Hanna Green and Rachel Pocratsky both qualified for the finals. Green, a junior, easily won her heat, finishing in a time of 2:08.67, while Pocratsky, a freshman, came in second in her heat in a time of 2:08.13. Shannon Quinn and Tessa Riley both ran in the event as well, but failed to qualify for the finals.

In the mile, Shannon Morton won her heat with a time of 4:44.31. That time marked the fifth-fastest time of the event.

In the women’s 200-meter dash, Tech’s Nora McKiver came in second in her heat with a time of 24.03 seconds and advanced to Saturday’s finals as one of the top eight qualifying times. McKiver’s time was a career best and fifth best overall in the event.

Competition on the final day of the ACC Championships begins at 11 a.m. The Hokies will hit the track at noon with the men’s pole vaulters starting their event.

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