CLEMSON, S.C. – The Georgia Tech men’s and women’s track and field teams set multiple top-five program performances and numerous personal bests on the last day of the Bob Pollock Invitational on Saturday afternoon.
Gracie Marston and Lottie Chappell crossed the line within 2 tenths of a second of one another, both running into the record book as the fourth and fifth best 800m performers in Tech history. Marston and Chappell clocked sub-2:10 minute times.
Marston just nicked her previous time by 0.05 seconds to retain and strengthen her hold as the fourth fastest. Chappell now holds three Tech indoor top-five performances spanning across the 800m, mile, and distance medley relay.
Taylor Wade led the men’s side with his mighty 3000M performance. He came across the line at 8:02.33 to claim third overall and etched his name into the record book with the fifth-fastest time in school history, just 0.1 off John Higinbotham’s time set last season.
Four Tech athletes set personal bests in the men’s 3000m race with Wade’s performance leading the way. Matt Castronuovo finished eight seconds behind Wade to finish eighth overall with senior Joey Sandel placing 11th. Castronuovo led the second heat of racers, himself, Kushan Patel and Wyatt Windham all set their best marks.
Kendall Ward opened the day with a solid performance in the women’s high jump. The junior passed her first mark at 1.59m before flying over the next mark at 1.64m to secure a third-place finish. Ward has cleared 1.60m in three consecutive weekends.
Adaora Tagbo saved her best for the final triple jump turn of the day as she laid down a new career-best at 12.50m. She cleared her previous overall best by 0.1m and eclipsed 41 feet in her performance.
Claire Shelton continued her hot start to the track season with another leading performance, crossing the line with the fastest 3000M time for the Jackets. Her time of 9:33.63 marks her career-best mark.
Kamren Kennedy led the Jackets in the men’s 800m with a season-best time of 1:53.37, earning a top-15 finish at 14th. John Jessup set his personal best at 1:54.76 in the men’s 800m while Caden Terrell ran 21.82 in the men’s 200m for his career-best time. Other personal bests included Alexis Wingenbach’s 3000m time and Stella Chambless’ time in the 800m.
Georgia Tech will compete at the Tiger Paw Invitational in Clemson and David Hemery Valentine Invitational from February 13-14 in the final weekend of competition before the ACC Indoor Championships.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
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