Blacksburg, Va. (Jan. 14, 2005) - The East Tennessee State track and field team competed in their second meet of the season and first of the new year at the Virginia Tech Invitational.

The Bucs sprinters are off to a good start as Chantelle Vernon (Markham, Ontario) and Johnny Tucker (Spartanburg, S.C.) advanced to finals in the 60-meter dash. Vernon ran a preliminary time of 7.59 and went on to reduce her time to 7.56 in the finals for 11th place. Tucker ran 7.02 in the preliminaries and repeated that time for a 12th place finish in the finals.

In the middle distance events, Nathan Strickland (Morganton, N.C.) and Adan Blevins (Greeneville, Tenn.) competed in their first meet for ETSU in the 300 meters. Strickland finished with a time of 38.10, while Blevins recorded 39.70. In the 500 meters, Tyler Woodruff (Sevierville, Tenn.) finished with a time of 1:08.75, while Michael Wright (Chattanooga, Tenn.) followed with a time of 1:08.84.