[su_spacer size=”40″] Senior Nick Vena also put the Bulldog men on the scoreboard with a sixth-place finish in the shot put on the first day of the four-day meet. The Georgia men stand in a four-way tie for 25th place with three points while Oregon (34), Florida (16) and USC (15) make up the top three. The first finals for the women will arrive on Thursday.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Georgia also has a combined three competitors sitting in the top three in the heptathlon and decathlon. Sophomore Kendell Williams, who is the defending NCAA champion, is second in the heptathlon while senior Quintunya Chapman posted four personal-best efforts to propel herself into third place.
[su_spacer size=”40″] In the decathlon, junior Maicel Uibo, who captured the 2014 national crown, is just 21 points behind the leader going into day two.
[su_spacer size=”40″] For the first time in history, the NCAA meet went to a staggered schedule featuring just events for the men on Wednesday and Friday and only women’s events on Thursday and Saturday. The two exceptions were the decathlon and heptathlon competitions, which started on Wednesday and will be completed on Thursday.
[su_spacer size=”40″] “This was a tough day overall,” said Bulldog head coach Wayne Norton. “We got some good things going in the heptathlon with Kendell and Chapman and the top girls in that event are probably going to be up in the 6,200 point range, which is a high-level competition. Our girls are in second and third right now and are hanging in there and the women as a whole are in good shape.
[su_spacer size=”40″] “Uibo’s in good shape in the decathlon and has a good chance to come through and win it (on Thursday). But we did not do a good job of qualifying through on the men’s side, although I am pleased Vena came through with a sixth-place finish in the shot put. This is a tough meet and we are really quite a bit down from where we would have hoped to be. Hopefully we can bounce back and scrape what we can from the decathlon. Our women’s team still have a full cupboard and I think we have plenty of things to look forward to on that side.”
[su_spacer size=”40″] Vena made his final meet as a Bulldog a memorable one. The Whippany, N.J., started the last three throws in the finals in seventh place with an opening throw of 63 feet, 10 ½ inches. After he had dropped to the eighth and final scoring spot in the finals, Vena answered with a season-best effort of 64-11.50 on his sixth attempt to jump back to sixth place.
[su_spacer size=”40″] This marks the second straight year Vena has scored for the Bulldogs after the Virginia transfer rallied for a third-place finish in 2014.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Both Williams and Chapman registered day one personal-best scores to stand second and third, respectively, in the heptathlon through four of seven events. Williams scored a day one high of 3,804 points and is 219 points behind the leader, Kansas State’s Akela Jones (4,023). Chapman is 90 points behind Williams with a personal-best 3,714 points thanks to four personal records in a row.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Williams wrapped up her first day by running her first 200-meter dash under the 24-second mark. Running out of the third heat, Williams dropped her personal best from 24.26 clocked earlier this year to a 23.67 to score 1,013 points and take fifth overall.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Williams ran a season-best time of 13.08 to win the 100 hurdles and score 1,112 points in a spot that has been particularly special to the Marietta, Ga., native in that event. Last year, Williams set the collegiate record in the hurdles at the NCAA Championships before winning both USA and World Junior titles in the open hurdles later in the summer.
[su_spacer size=”40″] During the high jump, Williams went over the bar at 5-11.25 to finish third for 991 points. This hovered around her season-best effort in the event and kept her pace with the lead pack.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Similar to her high jump result, Williams stayed in the mix with a second throw in the shot put of 40-8.75. This gave her a 12th-place finish in the event and added an additional 688 points to her total.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Coming in as the nation’s second-ranked heptathlete, Chapman moved into the No. 10 spot in the school record books in the 200 to cap her stellar day one showing. Chapman finished in 23.62 for 1,017 points after stretching across the line third in her heat.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Chapman’s first alternation to the UGA record books came in the opening event of the 100 hurdles. She ran a 13.43 to jump from sixth to fifth on the all-time list for her first 1,060 points of the meet.
[su_spacer size=”40″] The third improvement in the Bulldog record books for Chapman came during the shot put. The Hinesville, Ga., native shot from 10th to eighth on the all-time list on her third and final try for a mark of 47-9.25 for 831 points.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Perhaps Chapman’s most impressive performance of the day came in the one event that did not change the school record books. After being stuck around the 5-3 mark during the indoor and outdoor seasons, Chapman soared over the high jump bar at a personal-best height of 5-5.25 for 806 points.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Uibo left Hayward Field with three personal bests and is in second in the decathlon headed into Friday. He scored 4,209 points as he attempts to defend his NCAA title and become just the fourth competition in history to win two consecutive championships in the decathlon.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Uibo sandwiched his best long jump effort in the last two years between two fouls to win the event. He traveled 24-9, which scored him 945 points and gave him his second seasonal best of the meet.
[su_spacer size=”40″] He also reached his top mark in the shot put on his second try. Uibo had only his second 47-foot shot put meet in history as the Estonian watched his attempt travel 47-2.25 for 752 points.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Uibo started the day by finishing 14th in the 100 for 838 points. He added .05 seconds to his 2014 finish to cross the line in a season-best time of 11.10.
[su_spacer size=”40″] The final two events for Uibo collected him a combined 1,674 points. He cleared 7-0.25 on his second attempt in the high jump before closing out his day with a 51.65, which was 18th in the event’s rankings.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Senior Garrett Scantling and sophomore Devon Williams also started the decathlon, but had to pull out because of injuries. Scantling recorded a career-best mark of 23-10.25 in the long jump, but sustained an ankle injury in the high jump. Scantling was No. 2 on the national list coming into the meet and finished fourth at the 2014 NCAA Championships.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Williams fouled out of the long jump and did not start another event because of a hamstring injury. This was his first trip to the NCAA outdoor meet and he was competing at the same track on Wednesday with his younger sister Kendell Williams. Devon Williams was a First Team All-American indoors this year in the heptathlon.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Sophomore Alex Poursanidis earned expected Second Team All-American honors after taking ninth place. His top throw of the day (223-5) came on his second attempt to place him one spot outside the scoring column. Poursanidis actually tied the eighth-place competitor, but his second-best mark was not as long as Cornell’s Rudy Winkler so Poursanidis came up short in the tiebreaker.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Sophomore Alex Larsson had his third throw of the day travel 213-5 for fourth place in the opening flight and 13th overall. His performance is a three-foot improvement from his 2014 performance that gave him 12th place.
[su_spacer size=”40″] In the 400 hurdle semifinals, senior Drew Branch fell five spots short of qualifying for the finals with his second-best time of the year. Branch, who was 17th in the semis last year, completed his lap in 50.40 for expected Second Team All-America honors.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Fellow senior Charles Grethen completed his Bulldog career by taking sixth in his 800 semifinal heat and 14th overall. The Luxembourg native matched his time from the first round of the NCAA East Prelims with a 1:48.67 and was nearly a second and a half behind the eighth and final qualifier.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Another Bulldog who wrapped up his career in red and black was senior Brandon Lord in the 10,000. Lord completed his 25 laps in 30:19.98 in his second consecutive trip to the NCAA Championships in the event. He was the 2014 SEC champion before taking third in the 5000 at this year’s conference meet.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Finally, Ayrian Evans, Branch, Raytez Jenkins and Jamario Calhoun combined to clock a 3:06.42 to take 11th overall in the 4×400 relay semifinals and miss the finals by three spots.
[su_spacer size=”40″] On Thursday, the decathletes start their final five events (110 hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, 1500) at 1 p.m. ET. The two Lady Bulldog heptathletes begin their last three events (long jump, javelin, 800) at 3 p.m.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Four Georgia women also start compete in open events on Thursday. Freshman Keturah Orji, who is also competing in the triple jump, and junior Chanice Porter, who is also in the high jump field, will battle for the long jump title at 8:15 p.m.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Also, junior Freya Jones, who was the 2013 NCAA champion, and graduate student Jenna Wargo will line up in the javelin at 8:30 p.m. following the long jump’s start.