The Georgia track and field teams had another strong showing during the teams’ second meet in as many days at the Vulcan Invitational in Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday.
“In my eight years at Georgia, I think this was one of the best openers, if not the best, that we have had,” said Bulldog head coach Petros Kyprianou, whose teams also competed at the Blazer Invitational in the CrossPlex facility on Friday. “Especially since the people we will be counting on in the postseason showed up. Some of our crew is already in position to qualify for the NCAA Championships and that’s promising this early in the season and with what we have to practice for indoors. I’d say Mady Fagan had one of the top performances of the weekend and now we will see if she and others can repeat those feats when it counts.”
Junior Georgia Stefanidi improved her pole vault performance from Friday night by two inches to win her second consecutive competition. Stefanidi cleared 12 feet, 7 ½ inches on her second try as freshman Kayla Smith earned runner-up honors for the second day in a row with a clearance of 11-11.75.
Another top collegiate finish went to junior Leontia Kallenou in the high jump. Kallenou had a first-attempt clearance at 5-10.75 to finish third overall. Former Lady Bulldog Levern Spencer won the high jump outright for the second meet and day in a row after clearing a mark of 6-3.50, which is a world-leading mark of 2016.
Also, heptathletes Kendell Williams and Xenia Rahn went over the high jump bar at 5-6.50 to take fourth and fifth, respectively.
Training for the multi-events, junior Devon Williams posted an open long jump personal best after traveling 23-10 on one of his two fair attempts. Sophomore decathlete Karl Saluri finished fourth in the event with a 23-1.75 effort while senior Maicel Uibo was sixth (22-7.75).
Another of the Bulldogs’ decathletes, senior Garrett Scantling, took three throws in the shot put and had an open personal best with a toss of 47-1.75 for sixth place. On Friday, Scantling was the third collegiate finisher in the 60-meter hurdles with an open event personal-best time of 7.99. Also in the shot put on Saturday, sophomore decathlete Karl Saluri finished seventh with a mark of 45-5.25.
Following a victory in the long jump on Friday night, freshman Keturah Orji advanced to the finals in the 60 and took third with a 7.58. Sophomore sprinter Katie Stone finished fifth in the 60 finals with a 7.65. Also of note, senior jumper Chanice Porter advanced to the second round in the 60 with a 7.61.
On the men’s side, senior Jamario Calhoun sped to a sixth-place finish in the 60 after clocking a career-best time of 6.89. In the 400, junior Maurice Freeman returned to competition for the first time since 2014 and ran a career-best time of 48.39 for third-place honors.
Georgia returns to the road on January 22-23 for the McCravy Memorial in Lexington, Ky. The SEC Indoor Championships arrive in Fayetteville, Ark., on February 26-27.
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