This Week in VMI Athletics - May 4

Baseball finally got off its epic slide, ending its 11-game losing streak Sunday and going into exams with a 7-5 win over Radford.

The Keydets don't play again until May 11, when they host Richmond at Gray-Minor, so if there ever was a time to have gotten a win...Sunday was it. Still left on the schedule? The Winthrop Eagles, who VMI is currently battling with for control of one of the top four spots in the conference. Those spots are critical, because they get you out of the play-in games held the first day of the tourney, and make it where you have to lose your first game to draw Coastal Carolina...If you miss the play-ins and win game #1, you have a chance to build momentum and get on a roll before you face the Chanticleers, and who wouldn't want that?

Other sports have seen interesting weeks, particularly track. Felix Kitur took part in an epic 800-meter race at Liberty Thursday night, as he posted what was, at the time, tied for the fifth-fastest time in the country (1:47.78). The race's story was picked up by letsrun.com, and VMIKeydets.com's video was noted by Liberty, UVA and letsrun. Anyway, that time remains the fifth-fastest time in the East Region, and puts him in good shape for the upcoming regional meet.

On the women's side, Michelle Feole led a VMI sweep of the top three spots in the javelin, while Jennifer Sing and Kate Collins both had strong outings in the pole vault. Sing's, in particular, was notable, as she became just the third VMI woman ever to clear 11 feet in the pole vault.

We were speaking of track's regional meet earlier...The format of Regionals and Nationals has changed a bit this year. What used to be the Regional meets have now become the first round of the Championships, as the meets have been combined to act as one, all-encompassing get-together. View more details on this, as well as a PDF of the structure of this meet, here.

In another track-related tidbit, alum Donnie Cowart '09 hit the B standard in the 3K steeple this past week. Take a look at that here.

Lacrosse ended its season Saturday at Patchin Field with a 12-11 overtime loss to Canisius, one of the most epic games I've seen in a long time. The careers of Tim Moran, Brett Leonard, Sean McCoy, Dave Padgett, and the rest came to an end with the final horn. The Golden Griffins, VMI's archrivals, were left out of the MAAC Tournament after losing in a random draw.

Men's soccer released its schedule this past week...Games with some new opponents (Mercer comes to mind), as well as the return of the Sculley Memorial Tournament. The women's schedule shouldn't be too far behind the men's.

Finally, football held its final spring scrimmage this past Friday. You can check out the recap from that here, and also, check out Coach Woods' Twitter account @SparkyWoodsVMI.

Thanks, as always, for joining us...We will have a condensed blog next week, despite the fact that there won't be any events to recap. Enjoy the slower time period, but keep watching VMIKeydets.com for news that could come out during this time. Anything's possible.