Keturah Orji jumps in the long jump competition during the Spec Towns Invitational Track and Field Meet on Saturday, April 11, 2015 in Athens, Ga. (Photo by Sean Taylor)
Following a highly successful weekend at the Razorback Invitational, the Georgia Track and Field teams travel to Blacksburg, Va., for the weekend’s Virginia Tech Doc Hale Elite Meet.
Meet #5 Starts:
Georgia traveled nearly 40 competitors to Fayetteville last weekend and will now take 29 to the Hokie campus. Junior Devon Williams will start the action in the heptathlon on Thursday at 12 p.m. and wrap up his seven events on Friday afternoon.
The open events start on Friday at 5 p.m. with the women’s mile, long jump and unseeded pole vault and the men’s long jump and weight throw. Day two of the meet starts on Saturday with the women’s high jump and seeded pole vault at 11 a.m.
Kyprianou’s Comments: “Coming off a strong weekend for us going against stiff competition in a meet that was basically a preview of the SEC and NCAA Championships, we have a fairly small number of student-athletes competing this weekend and we want to train through this meet,” said Bulldog head coach Petros Kyprianou, who had two pentathletes open and shoot to the national top-10 list and three heptathletes who competed and are now ranked in the country’s top 10. “We want to give our team members who are traveling this weekend the opportunity to get a solid indoor training in and work on their techniques and runs before the next meet.”
The top 16 nationwide in each event qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships following the conference championships. Kyprianou is aiming to make Georgia’s qualifiers list longer and longer.
“Our goal remains to get as many people as we can on the national list,” Kyprianou explained. “It’s like what weapons you bring to a battle. You don’t want to go to the NCAA Championships, the big war, with a handgun. You’d like to have a machine gun if you could. We are predominantly a field events team so we want to make sure those kids get high on the national list early and then get to step back, take a breather and train for the big championships because at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.”
Where The Bulldogs Rank:
The Georgia women are ranked second in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) national poll. The Bulldog men are ranked 10th nationally going into the meet. The women’s ranking matches the team’s top final NCAA indoor finish in history while the men’s top final ranking of all-time is sixth.
Who Is Representing The Red And Black:
The following Lady Bulldogs are traveling:
Graduate student Xenia Rahn, seniors Chanice Porter, Torrenzia Lyles, Brooke Koblitz, juniors Kendell Williams, Morgan Green, Georgia Stefanidi, sophomores Keturah Orji, Sarah Gardner, Katie Stone, Emily Savage, Catelyn Schmiedebusch, Morgan Ainslie, Hailey Branch, Allie Castro, Kate Northrop, and freshmen Kingsley Green, Grace Tavani, Mary Terry, Dorie Faber and Caroline Dickey.
The following Georgia men will be joining them:
Senior Michael Giuliano, juniors Jon Okoye, Derrick White, Reggie Glover, Devon Williams, sophomore Jon Moses and freshmen Jonathan Raines and Daniel Navarro.
Where The Bulldog INDIVIDUALS Rank:
With the SEC Championships arriving in Fayetteville on February 26-27 and the NCAA Championships set to begin in Birmingham, Ala., on March 11-12, Georgia is concentrating on placing as many competitors as possible in the top 16 on the NCAA descending order lists. Here’s who is currently ranked in the top 16:
MEN
Garrett Scantling – Heptathlon – 1sts (6,020 pts)
Maciel Uibo – Heptathlon – 3rd (5,854 pts)
Ashinia Miller – Shot put – 4th (65 feet, 1 1Ž2 inches)
Denzel Comenentia – Shot put – 9th (63-0)
Karl Saluri – Heptathlon – 9th (5,686)
Evans, Jenkins, Freeman, Glover – 4×400 relay – 11th (3:08.90)
Kisean Smith – 800 meters – T-15th (1:48.35).
WOMEN
Keturah Orji – Triple jump – 1st (44-5.50)
*Kendell Williams – Pentathlon – 2nd (4,558 pts)
*Kendell Williams – High jump – T-2nd (6-1.50)
Chanice Porter – Long Jump – 3rd (21-7.25)
Tatiana Gusin – High jump – T-5th (6-1.25)
Keturah Orji – Long Jump – 6th (21-4.25)
*Xenia Rahn – Pentathlon – 8th (4,212)
*Kendell Williams – Long jump – T-9th (20-11.25)
Mady Fagan – High Jump – T-9th (6-0)
Kendell Williams – 60 hurdles – T-11th (8.24)
*mark achieved in multi-events
Two Heptathlons In Eight Days:
Devon Williams opens in his second heptathlon in as many weeks on Thursday. Williams competed in Fayetteville, Ark., at the Razorback Invitational on January 29-30 and is scheduled to complete seven more events over Thursday and Friday. With that being said, he will actually be competing with only four rest days between the two meets.
On Arkansas’ campus, Williams was third following the competition’s first day and first four events thanks in part to a monstrous effort in the long jump of 24-10, which was the best for the Bulldogs since 1998. Blazing to a time of 7.85 in the 60 hurdles that matched his personal best the next day, Williams then did not reach a height in the pole vault for zero points in the event. However, he did return to run his first 1000 of the season to end the heptathlon.
Success At Last Year’s VT Elite:
Kendell Williams won the 60 hurdles at last year’s VT Elite Meet after clocking her fastest time of the season (at that point, she later went on to set a collegiate heptathlon record with an 8.10 at the NCAA Championships) with an 8.21. Williams also won the long jump with her best mark of the year (21-5.50) while Orji picked up her top effort of 21-2 for second place.
Ayrian Evans, who is not traveling with the Bulldogs this week, won the 400 after crossing the finish line in 47.98. Evans also joined three teammates to win the 4×400 relay with a time of 3:12.12.
Morgann Leleux, who graduated in 2015, was the second collegiate finisher in the pole vault with a season-best clearance of 14-4. Another departed senior, Nick Vena, rocketed to third on Georgia’s all-time list with his toss of 65-7 to finish second in the shot put.
Where To Find Results, News: Live stats and full results from the VT Elite Meet will be posted at georgiadogs.com.
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