(Photo by John Kelley)
[su_spacer size=”40″] In addition to four more Georgia scorers on the meet’s first of three days, senior Charles Grethen qualified for the 800-meter run finals and senior Drew Branch earned a spot in the 400 hurdle finals.
[su_spacer size=”40″] ior Maicel Uibo also took a commanding lead after the first day of the decathlon thanks in part to a meet record in the high jump. Sophomore Kendell Williams is in second place in the heptathlon following four of seven events.
[su_spacer size=”40″] The Bulldog men (25) have the early team lead with Texas A&M (17) and Florida (16) making up the top three. Texas A&M (20) has the day one edge for the women with Missouri (18) and Arkansas (10) in second and third place. The Lady Bulldogs are currently in ninth place with two points.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Live coverage of the meet will air on SEC Network + on Friday and Saturday. The coverage will air from 4:40 p.m.-7:50 p.m. ET on Friday and from 3:50-7:50 p.m. on Saturday.
[su_spacer size=”40″] ESPNU will air the SEC Championships as part of a two-hour show on May 21 beginning at 8 p.m. The broadcast talent includes Dwight Stones (play-by-play), Larry Rawson (analyst) and Jill Montgomery (reporter).
[su_spacer size=”40″] “It was a tough meet for the first day, a grueling day,” said Bulldog head coach Wayne Norton. “We did some good things and did a good job qualifying someone in both the 400 hurdles and the 800. The highlights for us were the points we scored since anytime you score points at this meet, you have to look at it as a high point. Alex Poursanidis won the hammer and Alex Larsson scored as well so that was a great boost.
[su_spacer size=”40″] “Good things happened early and then we ended the night on a positive note in the 10,000. The women didn’t score in the 10,000 but they really ran hard and put up a great effort and that will help us down the road in that event. Luke Baker literally left it on the track with his dive for second in the men’s race so a great effort from those guys. And Zack Sims fought hard and gutted out a fifth-place finish for us.
[su_spacer size=”40″] “Overall, I think we are in good shape headed into Friday. We will finish up in the decathlon and heptathlon and hopefully everyone else on our team will perform well enough to help us get into that top half of the team scoring.”
[su_spacer size=”40″] A native of Paphos, Cyprus, Poursanidis became the first member of the Bulldog men’s team to repeat as SEC hammer throw champion since Andras Haklits won three straight from 2000-02. Poursanidis lifted his opening attempt 223 feet, 11 inches to win by four and a half feet.
[su_spacer size=”40″] This marks the seventh SEC men’s hammer throw title for the Bulldogs since 2000 and 12th in program history. Georgia managed a total of 15 points in the event this year after fellow sophomore Alex Larsson finished fourth (213-6) for the second year in a row on his first mark of the competition.
[su_spacer size=”40″] On the track, senior Luke Baker and junior Zack Sims combined to score 10 points in the 10,000 thanks to third and fifth-place finishes. Baker trimmed six seconds and two spots off of his 2014 finish, lunging at the finish line to clock a 29:52.19 and finish just .02 from the second-place finisher.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Sims shot to No. 8 on the school’s all-time top-10 list with a time of 29:56.88. This marked Sims’ first collegiate race at this distance and his first time scoring in an individual event at the SEC Championships.
[su_spacer size=”40″] UGA’s first points of the meet came from sophomore Asianna Covington in the women’s hammer throw. Covington snuck into the finals with a third throw that measured 184-10 and that ended up being her top effort of the meet. She scored two points with a seventh-place finish, marking the third time she has scored at an SEC meet and first in the hammer.
[su_spacer size=”40″] This finish broke a five-year streak of the Lady Bulldogs finishing first in the women’s hammer. 2014 graduate Elizabeth Tepe had won the last two before this year.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Georgia is also on pace to score substantial points in the multi-events. Uibo has put himself in position to clinch his third SEC decathlon crown in a row as he trains for his NCAA title defense. He has opened up a 337-point lead with 4,224 points through five of 10 events.
[su_spacer size=”40″] The Polva, Estonia, native got his largest boost by setting a meet record in the high jump, clearing 7-1.75 on his second attempt. Uibo scored 973 points in the event and topped a 38-year-old meet record (Mississippi State’s Lee Palles, 7-1.50).
[su_spacer size=”40″] Thanks to his first attempt, Uibo won the long jump with a season-best mark of 24-5 for 920 points. He followed up his effort with a pair of fouls and still managed to outscore his nearest competition by nearly 100 points. This was Uibo’s best jump since the 2013 season.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Uibo followed up his win in the long jump with a victory in the shot put. He worked up to a second throw of 46-5.50 to add 738 points to his total and stretch his overall lead in the decathlon.
[su_spacer size=”40″] In the fifth and final event of the day, Uibo was second in his heat and eighth overall in the 400. Uibo tallied 774 points after he ran his lap in 50.89, which is his best finish since last year’s NCAA Championships (50.64).
[su_spacer size=”40″] Uibo started the competition by taking sixth in the 100 with an 11.19 for 819 points. This was .03 seconds faster than his finish at the 2014 SEC meet.
[su_spacer size=”40″] During the first day of the heptathlon, Williams (3,671) is in second place by 149 points while senior Quintunya Chapman, who has the nation’s highest score this year, is sitting in fifth place with 3,554 points.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Williams’ only personal-best mark of the day came in the 200 as she took third, one spot behind Chapman. Williams shaved .04 seconds off her previous fastest time with a 24.26 for 956 points.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Williams was also second to Mississippi State’s Erica Bougard, who leads the competition with 3,820 points, in the high jump. Williams went over the bar at 5-11.50 on her second try for 1,003 points.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Williams began her first full heptathlon of the year by finishing second in the 100 hurdles with a 13.31 for 1,078 points.
[su_spacer size=”40″] In the shot put, Williams finished 10th with an opening attempt of 38-0.25 for 634 points.
[su_spacer size=”40″] The 10th-best shot put mark in school history came from Chapman in the third event of the day. Coming in with a 46-11 personal record, Chapman muscled her opening attempt 47-6.25 to win and score 826 points.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Finishing second to Bougard in the 200, Chapman ran the second-best time of her career for 977 points. She clocked a 24.04 to wrap up her first day.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Chapman ran the second-best time of her career in the 100 hurdles (13.58) for fifth place. Her finish earned her 1,039 points following the first event.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Chapman cleared 5-2.25 for another 712 points.
[su_spacer size=”40″] For the fourth consecutive year, Branch punched his ticket to the 400 hurdle finals, this time with the fourth-best time of his career. Branch finished just behind the winner in the second heat and qualified automatically with the sixth-fastest mark of the prelims.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Branch will race in the 400 hurdle finals at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Grethen advanced to the 800 finals for the third consecutive time with the second-fastest finish of his career. Grethen completed his two laps in a season-best 1:47.53 to be the runner-up in the first heat and seventh overall to advance.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Grethen will take the track in the 800 finals at 5:40 p.m.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Although he finished one spot out of scoring, senior Braydon Anderson watched his third throw travel a season-long distance of 215-7, which represented the best throw of his season by seven feet.
[su_spacer size=”40″] This marks the first of three postseason meets for the Bulldogs. Georgia travels to Jacksonville, Fla., for the NCAA East Prelims on May 28-30 and then to Eugene, Ore., for the NCAA Championships on June 10-13.
[su_spacer size=”40″] On Friday, Uibo starts the final five events of the decathlon (110 hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, 1500) at 11 a.m. The heptathlon (long jump, javelin, 800) for Williams and Chapman begins at 12 p.m. while the first open event, the men and women’s long jump, is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.