(Photo by John Kelley)
[su_spacer size=”40″] Seniors Quintunya Chapman (pentathlon) and Morgann Leleux (pole vault), junior Chanice Porter (long jump), sophomores Leontia Kallenou, Tatiana Gusin (high jump) and Kendell Williams (pentathlon) and freshman Keturah Orji (triple jump, long jump) will represent the fourth-ranked Lady Bulldogs.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Seniors Nick Vena (shot put) and Brandon Lord (5000 meters), juniors Garrett Scantling, Maicel Uibo (heptathlon) and Ashinia Miller (shot put) and sophomore Devon Williams (heptathlon) will battle the rest of the country’s top talent for the sixth-ranked Georgia men in the Randal Tyson Track Center.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Arkansas has hosted the NCAA Indoor Championships 11 times since 2000, including the 2013 meet, and been the site of seven indoor Southeastern Conference meets in that span, along with the annual Tyson Invitational that Georgia travels to most years.
[su_spacer size=”40″] ESPN3 will stream the NCAA Championships live. Friday’s link (http://es.pn/1CHZ9JU) is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. ET. Saturday’s link (http://es.pn/1EvYCd5) is expected to be active at 7 p.m.
[su_spacer size=”40″] A tape delay of the NCAA Championships will air on ESPNU on Monday, March 23 starting at 7 p.m.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Orji, who captured the 2015 SEC triple jump title, has recently been named the SEC Women’s Freshman Field Athlete of the Year while Uibo, who was second at last year’s NCAAs, garnered the SEC Men’s Scholar Athlete of the Year award.
[su_spacer size=”40″] In addition, Williams has been honored as the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) South Region Women’s Field Athlete of the Year. From the coaching ranks, head coach Wayne Norton was named the South Region Women’s Coach of the Year and associate head coach Petros Kyprianou earned the region’s Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year award.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Scantling and Uibo along with Devon Williams start the meet for Georgia in the first four events of the heptathlon starting at 11 a.m. on Friday. The Bulldog trio will compete in the 60, long jump, shot put and high jump on Friday and 60 hurdles (starting at 11:45 a.m.), pole vault and 1000 on Saturday.
[su_spacer size=”40″] The first open event of the meet for Georgia is the women’s high jump at 5 p.m. Kallenou and Gusin make up two of the 16 women in the field. Other UGA competitors on Friday include Porter and Orji (women’s long jump – 7 p.m.) and Lord (men’s 5000 – 9:45 p.m.).
[su_spacer size=”40″] On Saturday, Kendell Williams and Chapman will knock out all five events of the pentathlon (60 hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump, 800) starting at 12:30 p.m. while the heptathletes conclude their competition. Leleux (women’s pole vault – 6:30 p.m.), Orji (women’s triple jump – 7 p.m.) and Vena and Miller (men’s shot put – 7:30 p.m.) will also compete during the meet’s second and final day.
[su_spacer size=”40″] The Bulldogs took 10 to last year’s NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, N.M. The Georgia women finished in the top 10 for the 10th time and in the top five for the fourth time in history after scoring a program record 40.5 points to tie for third. The Bulldog men had a top-30 finish for the sixth time in seven years thanks to eight points, which put them in a tie for 26th place.
[su_spacer size=”40″] The Georgia women had six scorers last year, including a pair of national champions, and four of those are also in this year’s field. Kendell Williams headlined the meet by setting a collegiate and World Junior record to win the pentathlon with 4,635 points. Kallenou also finished first, clearing 6 feet, 1 ½ inches to win the high jump crown. Porter secured a second-place finish in the long (20-9.75) while Leleux cleared 14-3.25 to tie for fifth in the pole vault finals.
[su_spacer size=”40″] The other two Georgia women who scored were 2015 senior Carly Hamilton, who sustained an injury that shut her down at this year’s SEC Championships, and Lucie Ondraschkova, who graduated. Hamilton ran a 4:40.18 for fifth place in the mile finals and Ondraschkova tallied 4,268 points for fourth-place honors in the pentathlon at the 2014 NCAAs.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Vena and Uibo were the two Bulldogs representing Georgia in 2014. Vena improved his 10th-place finish at the 2013 NCAA meet to take ninth last year, finishing one spot out of scoring. Uibo, who was coming off the 2014 SEC title in the heptathlon with Scantling redshirting, earned runner-up honors at Nationals after scoring a school record 6,044 points.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Live and full results and a recap from the NCAA Indoor Championships and all Georgia meets will be located at georgiadogs.com. Updates from this meet and throughout the season will be posted on Twitter at @UGA_XCTF.