The Georgia men’s and women’s track & field teams competed on day one of the 40th-annual Spec Towns Invitational in Athens, GA on Friday, and the Bulldogs started out strong, claiming a victory in the men’s hammer throw and established a top-10 mark on the all-time women’s long jump list.
In her first collegiate outdoor meet, redshirt freshman Kate Hall traveled 21 feet, 6 inches on her sixth and final attempt in the long jump to take second. This mark moved the Iowa State transfer to second on the current NCAA list and into a tie for sixth in the school record books. South Carolina sophomore Rougui Sow closed the competition with a personal-best mark of 22-0.75 to win and move atop the 2017 NCAA and world lists.
Senior Alex Poursanidis worked up to a third hammer throw of 224-11 to pick up a 10-foot victory while his junior Alex Larsson lifted a season-best mark of 200-7 to take fourth. Poursanidis sits third on the current national list, one spot behind sophomore teammate Denzel Comenentia who sat out the hammer in preparation for the shot put and discus on Saturday.
During the women’s hammer, true freshman Beatrice Llano had a second toss of 218 feet to finish with runner-up honors. This performance comes a week after Llano went 218-4 for second place at the Texas Relays and took over the third spot on the national list.
CLICK HERE for the results from day one of the Spec Towns Invitational.
The second day of the meet begins on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. with the women’s 5000 meters. The Bulldog Decathlon/Heptathlon also kicks off its first of two days at 11:45 a.m. with the decathlon’s 100m. The first event of the heptathlon, the 100m hurdles, is slated to begin at noon.
“We take a lot of pride in this meet and I am thankful for all of the staff and coaches who worked hard to reschedule our events and make this thing happen,” said Bulldog head coach Petros Kyprianou, who changed the multi-events competition from Wednesday-Thursday to Saturday-Sunday. “I was pleased with Kate’s performance since she’s a redshirt freshman and set a collegiate personal record right out of the gate. She competed versus a great athlete, one who is a tremendous competitor and I was happy how Kate responded. It is fun for us to get a little attention with great efforts and results like this to start the meet.
“I know Alex Poursanidis was very fired up about this meet and he is working hard to be the leader that the ‘C’ on his chest represents since he is one of our captains. He knows he has to be consistent and he’s showing that so far this season. I also thought Beatrice responded well to the wind and weather and I am encouraged by how well she did in bad conditions.”
On Saturday, the sixth-ranked Georgia men and seventh-ranked Lady Bulldogs will welcome back and recognize school record holder in the indoor long jump and NFL 12-time Pro Bowler Champ Bailey back to Spec Towns Track. 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Reese Hoffa and many other Bulldog track alumnae will also have a reunion at the track near the end of Saturday’s action.
There is free admission to all three days of action at the Spec Towns Track. Please visit the following link for live results of both the Spec Towns meet and the multis competition: http://gado.gs/7a8