March 31, 2018
Final Results: Florida Relays | Stanford Invite | San Francisco State Distance Carnival
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Georgia Tech outdoor track and field continued its strong weekend as it wrapped up the Florida Relays and a three-meet week with another record-setting performance on Saturday.
“It was a solid weekend for the women,” head women’s coach Alan Drosky said. “The obvious highlight was the school record in the shuttle hurdle relay and I’m so happy for them. They’ve been great all year and have led us in every meet. Outside of them, we had some nice improvements in the 5k out on the west coast.”
“We were split up this weekend but had some outstanding performances from both groups,” head men’s coach Grover Hinsdale said. “I’m very proud of Nahom Solomon‘s performance in the 5000m at Stanford. That was a long-standing record. Ty Brooks had a nice PR in the 400m and Daniel Pietsch had a very solid weekend. Avery Bartlett also had an outstanding win in the 800m against a great field of runners. And the 4x400m relay team finished off the Florida Relays with a season-best time, finishing second in the collegiate division. I really like the work ethic and competitive spirit of this team. I’m very pleased with their weekend’s work.”
The Yellow Jackets return to action next weekend with the Spec Towns Invitational in Athens, Ga., on Saturday, April 7.
Women’s Highlights
The highlight of the day was the outstanding performance by Marinice Bauman, Raven Stewart, Kenya Collins and Jeanine Williams in the shuttle huddle relay.
The quartet took first place overall on Saturday with a program-record time of 53.16. Ranking as the ninth-fastest performance all-time in NCAA history, the mark eclipses the 2005 school record that was set by Shantia Moss, Fatmata Fofanah, Adriane Butler (formerly Lapsley) and Chaunte Howard – a group that individually amassed six national championships, 15 all-American nods and 15 ACC championships.
It’s the fastest performance by an Atlantic Coast Conference team since 2012 and places Georgia Tech fifth on the top-10 list by school behind only Texas A&M, LSU, Illinois and Clemson. Nationally, the 53.16 time is the fastest time recorded since LSU in April 2017.
The 4×800 team of Haley Anderson, Amy Ruiz, Hana Herndon and Kendria Edouard also turned in a top-10 performance on the day, finishing eighth with a time of 9:05.27.
Over in the pole vault, Anna Hightower fell just outside the top-10 with a clearance of 3.80m (12th) – just 0.05 meters off her season-best.
Men’s Highlights
The Yellow Jackets were led by their relay teams on Saturday as well. The 4×400 group of Ty Brooks, Lionel Jones, Daniel Pietsch and Benjamin Jean took second place in the finals with a new season-best time of 3:09.21 – ranking second in the ACC this season.
Tech also performed well in the first 4x800m event of the season as Bennett Hillier, Andres Littig, John Lyons and Avery Bartlett turned in a time of 7:28.84 to finish fifth overall.
The 4×100 squad capped the weekend by turning in a season-best performance, shaving 0.06 off its previous best, as Wesley Watkins, Jr., Tyson Spears, Maurice Simpson and Andreas Ward recorded a time of 41.22 (23rd) – which remains a top-10 time in the conference.
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