March 17, 2016
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Georgia Tech track & field squad will open the 2016 outdoor season Friday and Saturday at the Alabama Relays, hosted by the University of Alabama.
Freshman Bria Matthews will compete in the long jump a week after taking home All-America honors in both the long jump and triple jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Matthews also won gold in both events last month at the ACC Championships.
“We’re excited about getting the outdoor season started,” head women’s coach Alan Drosky said. “We had a really good indoor season where a lot of progress was made, and we want to carry the momentum forward. The Alabama Relays are a great opportunity to do just that. Even though the championships are two months away, we’re going into this meet with an attitude that every performance is important and every competition matters.”
On the men’s side, Nikita Kirillov will be one to watch in the pole vault event. After suffering an injury last season, Kirillov has steadily regained his form. After beginning 2016 with a vault of 4.65m, he ended the indoor season with a vault of 5.12m, earning him second-team All-ACC honors.
“We are looking forward to kicking off the 2016 outdoor season this weekend in Tuscaloosa,” head men’s coach Grover Hinsdale said. “The Alabama Relays has been our outdoor opener for the last several years, and we’re excited about taking part again this year. Coach Dan Waters has done a great job of building this meet back up to what it was ‘back in the day’. It will be a great challenge and a great opportunity for our team.”
The Jackets will begin competition at 6 p.m. ET on Friday with the women’s 4×200 relay. Live results for the meet can be followed at http://bit.ly/1LsS5X0. Fans can also watch the meet live on http://bit.ly/1LsS5X0 (Friday) and http://es.pn/1S6ku4o (Saturday).
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