Georgia’s track and field teams dodged the rain and posted a number of impressive performances on the second day of the Yellow Jacket Invitational in Atlanta as the Bulldog’s Maurice Freeman scorched the track for a national leading time of 45.77 in his 400-meter dash victory on Saturday.
 
 
Senior Ashinia Miller won his second straight meet to help give the Bulldogs’ four wins on the weekend.
 
 
“I thought our student-athletes performed really well in less than perfect conditions,” said Bulldog associate head coach and sprints coach Ken Harnden. “We had some strong competition highlighted by Alex (Poursanidis) in the hammer (on Friday), Devon (Artis) in the 800m and of course Maurice taking over the national lead in the 400m.”
 
 
Freeman, who had not broken 47 seconds during his outdoor career as a Bulldog, sped to a 45.77 to pick up the win. This makes him the only sprinter in the country to break 46 seconds this year and boosted him to fifth on Georgia’s all-time top-10 list with the fastest time since Bulldog legend Torrin Lawrence ran a 45.40 at the 2012 Olympic Trials.
 
 
Also in the 400m, sophomore Raytez Jenkins clocked a monstrous personal best of 46.87 for fourth place, which also put him at No. 11 on the national list.
 
 
The national leader in the men’s shot put, Ashinia Miller, won his second meet in a row on Saturday. Miller had his third throw travel 63 feet, 10 ¼ inches to win by more than seven feet.
 
 
Miller’s training partner, true freshman Denzel Comenentia, was second in the discus with a career-long throw of 179-11. This mark moved him into the top 20 nationally going into April.
 
 
The Bulldog foursome of Jon Okoye, Jenkins, Reggie Glover and Freeman earned runner-up honors in the 4x100m relay with the nation’s seventh-best time this year. Georgia clocked a 39.80 to come within .20 seconds of recording the 10th-best time in the school record books.
 
 
In the women’s 400m, senior Ashley Henry left the George C. Griffin Track with a season-best time of 54.00. This finish gives her the ninth-best time in the country this year.
 
 
Sophomore Devon Artis registered the ninth-best time in school history to finish fourth in the 800m. Artis, who focused on the 400m last year, completed her two laps in 2:08.57 during the first complete 800m of her outdoor career.
 
 
After opening his career with a win at the Georgia Relays last weekend, freshman Joe Kimura Smith was third in the javelin this time around, reaching 194-5.
 
 
Also, senior Jimmy Hicks broke the 4:00 mark for the first time in the 1500m and was third with a 3:52.38.
 
 
Georgia will travel to Gainesville, Fla., next week for the Florida Relays on April 1-2. The Bulldogs host their second home meet of the season on April 6-7 with the Bulldog Decathlon/Heptathlon and Spec Towns Invitational on April 8-9.
 
 
Full results and a recap from each day of the Yellow Jacket Invite can be found at georgiadogs.com.
 
 
Updates from Georgia’s track and field and cross country program can always be found on Twitter/Instagram (@UGATrack).