Members of the sixth-ranked Georgia women (FloTrack No. 5) and the eighth-ranked Bulldog men (FloTrack No. 10) traveled to Walnut, Calif., this week in anticipation for the Mt. SAC Relays.
The meet will begin with senior Sid Vaughn running in one of the 10,000-meter races at 1:45 a.m. ET late Thursday night. Another six Georgia runners will compete versus many of the nation’s top middle- and long-distance runners on Friday.
Sophomore Bryan Kamau is slated to run in the open 1500m at 2 p.m. on Friday while seniors Kisean Smith and Christian Harrison and freshmanJeramey Hampton will run in the open 800m at 5:55 p.m. The final Bulldog pair taking the track will be seniors Zack Sims and Steven Spevacek at 1:30 a.m. in the 5000m.
Following this weekend’s action, Georgia will travel to Charlottesville, Va., for the Virginia Challenge on April 22-23. The Bulldogs will conclude the regular season with their final home meet (Georgia Invitational – April 30). The Southeastern Conference Championships in Tuscaloosa, Ala., arrive on May 12-14 before the NCAA East Prelims in Jacksonville, Fla., on May 26-28. The season will conclude, as regular, in Eugene, Ore., with the NCAA Championships on June 8-11.
Last Weekend For The Bulldogs: The Bulldogs hosted their largest meet of the year with the Bulldog Decathlon/Heptathlon and the Spec Towns Invitational. And the home team did not disappoint. Sophomore Karl Saluri rocketed to the national lead in the decathlon by winning with 8,108 points, which clinched the Estonian’s spot on his national team for the Olympics this summer and moved him to No. 3 on the UGA all-time top-10 list. He was named the SEC Men’s Field Athlete of the Week for his work. On the women’s side junior Kendell Williams scored the country’s third-most points in the heptathlon this season to grab the collegiate win (second overall to former teammate Quintunya Chapman) with 5,957 points.
The final two days of the four-day meet was the Spec Towns meet, and another plethora of personal records came from Georgia. Sophomore Mady Fagan highlighted the meet by posting an enormous personal best in the high jump to garner SEC Women’s Field Athlete of the Week honors. Fagan cleared 6 feet, 1 1/4 inches to move into a tie for third on the national list and vault to No. 5 in the school record books. In addition, senior Shelby Ashe launched her fourth attempt in the hammer a personal-best distance of 212-4 to win and position her in the sixth spot on the national list.
FLASHBACK – 2015 Mt. SAC Relays: A larger group, including a handful of throwers, accompanied the distance corps during last year’s trip to California. When the final gun had fired, Georgia had established five fresh entries in the teams’ all-time top-10 lists. In the distance events, departed seniorBrandon Lord came within 21 seconds of the school record in the 10,000m after finishing second in the Invitational race. His time of 29:09.46 was the second fastest in school history. In another of the 10,000m Invitational races, departed senior Luke Baker won with a personal-best time of 29:36.95, which ranks No. 6 in the Bulldog record books. Vaughn was also in that race and took 10th with the 10th-fastest time in school history (30:00.66). Sims left the track with the sixth fastest 5000m time in school history with a 14:11.16 to finish fifth. During the 3000m steeplechase, departed senior Brendan Hoban clocked UGA’s seventh-best time in history (9:05.59) to finish sixth.
Also, departed senior Charles Grethen had his second-best time of the season (1:48.46) to finish eighth in one of the 800m races and Victoria Coppage had the fastest time of her season (10:37.96) to take sixth in a steeplechase race.
Where To Find Results, News: Live stats and full results from the Mt. SAC Relays will be posted at georgiadogs.com.
Updates from Georgia’s track and field and cross country program can always be found onTwitter/Instagram (@UGATrack).