April 30, 2016
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – The Georgia Tech track & field squad finished its final day of competition at the Penn Relays on Saturday. The Jackets also competed in the Georgia Invite in Athens, Ga.
The highlight of the day came in Philadelphia, where the men’s 4×800 relay quartet of Chris Burnett, Andres Littig, Nico Metzler and Avery Bartlett finished fourth in the 4×800 with a time of 7:24.05.
“We had some good performances at both locations this weekend,” head men’s coach Grover Hinsdale said. “I was pleased with what Julian Darden, Myles McDavid, Andreas Ward and Nathan Daniel accomplished at Georgia. And, I thought the 4x800m team at the Penn Relays put up a good fight. Now we head home and prepare to compete in the ACC Championships starting a week from Thursday.”
Darden had a career-best time of 54.03 in the 400m hurdles in Athens, while McDavid finished third in the long jump with a mark of 7.57m. Ward finished fourth in the 110m hurdles with a time of 14.67, and Nathan Daniel won the pole vault event with a vault of 5.05m.
On the women’s side, Bria Matthews continued to perform well, winning the triple jump with a leap of 12.84m and earning a fifth-place finish in the long jump with a mark of 6.13m at the Georgia Invite.
“We had a good day both in Philly and in Athens,” head women’s coach Alan Drosky said. “The relay at Penn Relays competed well, particularly Sam (Kiblinger) coming back after a week layoff. In Athens, the 400m women had a very good day – all running personal bests. Bria also had a really good day in both jumps. Now we need to take care of exams and continue preparing for ACCs.”
The quartet of Haley Anderson, Samantha Kiblinger, Amy Ruiz and Caroline Kissel finished ninth in the women’s 4×800 relay with a time of 9:02.21. In the 400m, Angelica Henderson (55.73), Domonique Hall (55.81) and Lindsey Wheeler (56.03) finished fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively, in Athens.
The Jackets’ next meet will be the ACC Outdoor Championships, which will take place May 13-15 in Tallahassee, Fla.
