THE FLATS – Georgia Tech track & field opened up the 2021 outdoor season at home on Friday as it hosted the Yellow Jacket Invitational at Griffin Track.
The Yellow Jackets laced it up against Boston College (M/W), Georgia (M/W), Georgia State (W), Kennesaw State (M/W), Lipscomb (M/W) and Samford (M/W).
Highlighting the outdoor season opener was the return of six-time ACC champion senior jumper Bria Matthews and a pair of school records broken in the men’s & women’s 2000m steeplechase.
Matthews took first in the women’s long jump clearing a mark of 6.16m/20′ 2.5″. That distance was good for the fifth-best mark in the country at the time of publication. It was her first time suiting up for the Jackets since the 2020 ACC Indoor Championships, where she won the triple jump title. The Jackets took the top three spots in the long jump competition as freshman Onyinye Chukka (2nd-place, 5.55m), freshman Mikayla Williams (T3rd-place, 5.53m) and sophomore Taylor Grimes (T3rd-place, 5.53m) made podium.
Sophomore Claire Moritz and freshman Cole Miller each set new school records in the 2000m steeplechase. Moritz clocked in at 6:52.93 taking third-place, beating out the previous best time of 6:57.44 set in 2018 by Hailey Gollnick. Miller had a second-place effort at 5:56.21, topping the previous record of 5:59.67 set by Alex Grady in 2018.
Senior sprinter Tyson Spears had a first-place outing in the 100m dash, crossing the finish line at 10.60. Spears’ versatility was on full display Friday as he turned out a second-place performance in the long jump competition afterwards, leaping for 6.95m/22′ 9.75″.
Grimes was back on podium as she and freshman Anna Witherspoon took the top two spots in the 100m hurdles with times of 13.35 and 13.67, respectively.
Senior thrower Mark Kimura Smith hit a new personal best mark of 55.75m/182′ 11″ in the javelin, passing his previous best distance of 52.52m/172’4″, as he finished that event in second-place.
Junior distance runner Braeden Collins kept the podium performances rolling for Tech as he took second in the 1500m, posting a mark of 3:48.43 setting a new PR in the process. The Jackets took five of the top ten spots in the 1500m as freshman Zach Jaeger (4th-place, 3:50.49), freshman Alex Thomas (6th-place, 3:51.31), sophomore Henrik Anderson (8th-place, 3:53.61) and senior Jake Shewbert (9th-place, 3:53.80) had valiant executions in a field of 50 total runners.
Day two of the Yellow Jacket Invitational kicks off at noon (EST) tomorrow with the high jump competition. A complete schedule of the Invitational can be found here. Live results for the Invitational can be found here.
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the A-T Fund’s Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes, and Athletics Initiative 2021, Georgia Tech athletics’ ongoing $125 million initiative to allow Tech to recruit the nation’s most elite student-athletes, build a better student-athlete once they arrive on The Flats and, ultimately, win! To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
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