A pair of Georgia track and field runners left the Gamecock Invitational in Columbia, SC, with times that rank in the nation’s top six on Saturday.
Junior Cejhae Greene won the 100-meter dash with the country’s sixth-best time in 2017 while his sophomore teammate Kendal Williams completed the 200m in second with the nation’s sixth-best finish this year.
“All in all, I was pretty happy with our performance since we had a number of seasons bests,” said Bulldog associate head coach and sprints coach Ken Harnden. “The relay teams ran well, but not great. I was a little disappointed in the men’s 4x100m relay because we had some poor exchanges but we are trying to work on some things and we got the stick around which was one of the most important things of the day.
“Obviously I am extremely happy with Cejhae’s race. I thought he executed extremely well for his second race of the year and while Kendal had a little bit of trouble coming off the turn, I thought he ran very well and there’s a lot more there. I was also very excited with Katie Stone establishing a personal record in the 200m. Unfortunately, she stopped at the wrong finish line in the 100m or she may have had a personal best in that one too.”
After starting his 100m career for the Bulldogs with a 10.28 at the Spec Towns Invitational last weekend, Greene dropped his season best to 10.10 for the win on Saturday. This is the sixth-best time in the NCAA this year and is the fourth-best time in school history.
Williams, who redshirted in 2016 with Greene after the duo transferred from Florida State, sprinted to the country’s sixth-best time this year in the 200m (20.32) to cross the line second. Williams’ performance matched the second-best time in school history (Richard Campbell, 1980 NCAA Championships) and is the best finish for the Bulldogs since Campbell’s finish.
Georgia swept the 4x400m relays at the Gamecock Invitational. Freshman Amber Tanner, junior Devon Artis, freshman Catherine Reid and freshman Chelsea Zoller registered a time of 3:41.38 to win by nearly a second. Then, senior Reggie Glover, senior Ayrian Evans, junior Gabe Blackman and senior Maurice Freeman beat the field by nearly two seconds after recording a finish of 3:08.50.
Junior Katie Stone took over the No. 10 spot in the school record books by grabbing the top collegiate finish in the 200m. Stone ran a 23.59 and was second overall in her second event of the day. As Harnden mentioned, Stone slowed down shy of the 100m finish line in her first race and took second with a season-best time of 11.51.
Williams, Greene, Glover and Freeman took the track in the 4x100m relay and finished second with their second consecutive sub-40 finish. The foursome registered a 39.70 after setting the school record last weekend.
Freeman and Evans were the top collegiate finishers and were second and third overall in the 400m. Freeman finished in 46.52 while Evans ran a 47.23.
Reid also ran in the 400m and trimmed her collegiate personal best down to 54.71 for seventh place. In the 800m, Tanner took second in the 800m after coming around the track in 2:12.08.
CLICK HERE for the final results from the Gamecock Invitational.
While this group of Bulldog runners is expected to train through next weekend, Georgia travels to Charlottesville, Va., for the Virginia Challenge on April 21-22.