BLACKSBURG, Va. - Tierra Flowers ran a personal-best time of 7.59 seconds in the preliminaries of the 60 meters and Wanetta Kirby had two top-10 finishes to help the Norfolk State women's track team to a successful outing at the Virginia Tech Invitational on Friday and Saturday at Rector Field House.

Flowers finished ninth in the 60 prelims, just missing the cut for the finals. Kirby finished fourth in the long jump with a leap of 19 feet, 1 ½ inches and was seventh in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.71. She qualified for the finals by running an 8.62 in the preliminaries.

Kaleena Gray set a new school record in the weight throw with a distance of 47-11 and she finished 16th in the shot put with a throw of 37-10 ¾.

The Spartans got several good performances on the track also. Shanneka Claiborne and Dania Sanford ran times of 24.84 and 24.90, respectively, in the 200. Flowers followed closely behind in 25.25. Sanford (39.52) and Claiborne (40.93) were NSU's top finishers in the 300.

Jennifer Chichester led the way in the mile run by finishing 16th in 5:10.38. Aurora Scott finished seventh in the 5,000 in 18:47.71 and ran a 10:50.43 in the 3,000. Chichester also ran the 800, finishing 14th in 2:16.13.

Other highlights from the meet include Elaine Rhoades finishing seventh in the triple jump (39-8), Jonee' Artis tying for third in the high jump (5-4 ½) and Allyssa Pickett running a 59.54 in the 400. The 4x400 team also ran the best time of the season (3:52.46) despite finishing 10th.

The Spartans return to action next Friday and Saturday in the Penn State Open in State College, Pa.