Feb. 6, 2015
BLACKSBURG, Va. – Junior Nathan Daniel and senior Morgan Jackson highlighted the first day at the Virginia Tech Elite Meet for the Georgia Tech men’s and women’s track and field teams Friday at the Rector Field House.
“Day one was a solid day for us,” head men’s track coach Grover Hinsdale said. “Spencer Allen continues to improve with his 7.94 PR in the 60-hurdle prelims. Patrick Fleming had an indoor PR in the mile and Chris Burnett ran a PR in the 800m. Nathan Daniel had an indoor PR in the vault along with winning the open PR division, while Brandon Lasater looked good on the mile as well.”
Daniel won the men’s unseeded pole vault with a career-best height of 5.05m (16’6.75″), two inches higher than his previous best.
Jackson’s performance in the mile highlighted the day for the Georgia Tech women. Jackson finished second with a season-best time of 4:52.31, which is 10 seconds faster than her last time out.
“We’re very happy with how the first day of competition went for the women,” head women’s track coach Alan Drosky said. “We saw improvements across the board and see so many of our women heading in the right direction. Morgan Jackson ran a huge seasonal best in the mile and Jamilah Middlebrooks had two strong runs in the 60m and 200m, just missing the final in the 60m.
Christina Pensock continues to impress in the 800m and Kenya Collins ran very well in the hurdles. Other women in the sprints, middle distances, and the pole vault also made nice improvements today. There are still things to work on, but the women have the right attitude and are competing hard.”
Jamilah Middlebrooks logged a pair of personal-bests on the day, running to a time of 7.64 in the preliminaries of the 60 meters and finishing 10th in the 200 meters with a time of 24.61.
Christina Pensock ran a season-best time of 2:14.16 in the 800 meters, an almost two-second improvement on her time last time out at the Vanderbilt Invite.
Also for the women, freshman Kenya Collins recorded a strong performance in the 60-meter hurdles with a PR time of 8.70.
In the field events, Ksenia Novikova took eighth in the pole vault with a career-best mark of 3.63m (11’10.75″).
The men’s middle distance group had a strong outing Friday as Zack Fanelty took third in the 800 meters (1:52.00) and Chris Burnett took fifth (PR-1:52.41).
In the mile, Brandon Lasater ran a huge PR with a time of 4:06.71; his last time was 4:32.12 during the indoor season of his freshman year, to place third. Teammate Patrick Fleming also ran a PR in the mile to take 12th (4:14.58).
Spencer Allen took first in the 60-meter hurdle preliminaries (PR-7.94) and placed fourth in the finals (7.97).
Freshman Zachary Gunnz recorded finished the 60-meter hurdles preliminaries in 6.99 and placed 10th in the 200 meters with a time of 22.24.
In the field events, Jonathan Gardner’s 15.52m (50’11”) for fifth place marked a season-best indoor distance.
Day two of the meet begins Saturday at 11 a.m. with the women’s high jump and the running events begin at 1 p.m. with the women’s 3,000 meters.
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