March 17, 2017
THE FLATS – Georgia Tech track and field tallied seven first-place finishes at the Yellow Jacket Invitational to kick off the 2017 outdoor track and field season on Saturday at the George C. Griffin Track.
The Yellow Jackets will be back in action on March 24-25 when they travel to Tallahassee for the Florida State Relays.
“First, I would like to thank all of those that took part in the running of an excellent meet,” said men’s track and field head coach Grover Hinsdale. “We had a solid first outdoor meet to start the season. I would like to congratulate Alex Grady, Preston Smith, Tyson Spears and Andreas Ward on their winning performances today. Also, I thought Zachary Gunnz and Ryan Peck had very solid days. We will get back to work on Monday and get ready to kick it up a notch next Friday at Florida State.”
“Coming off an indoor season of competing on the road, it was awesome to open up outdoors at home,” said women’s track and field head coach Alan Drosky. “The women performed very well, led by our hurdlers. Kenya [Collins] and Jeanine [Williams] picked up where they left off indoors, and Raven [Stewart] and Marinice [Bauman] had solid races too. Hailey Gollnick had a great race in the steeplechase and Amy Ruiz had a great opener in the 1500m. Beyond them we had a lot of good performances and the effort across the board was outstanding.”
William Solomon started off the day well for the Jackets with a third-place finish in the long jump with a career-best mark of 7.30m. Senior Nikita Kirillov flew to a first-place finish in the men’s pole vault with a mark of 5.00m. Preston Smith and Ryan Thomas capped off the men’s field events for the Jackets with first- and second-place finishes, respectively.
Senior Alex Grady started off the running events for Tech in the 2000m steeplechase, taking the win with a time of 5:59.95. Tanner Shaw registered a career best in the 1500m run with a time of 3:59.47. Andreas Ward took a win in the men’s 110m hurdles with a time of 14.54. Freshman Tyson Spears brought the heat in his outdoor debut, grabbing a win in the 100m dash with a time of 10.56. Zachary Gunnz took third with a time of 10.66. Gunnz went on to finished second in the 200m dash with a time of 21.32. Ryan Peck took second in the 5000m with a career-best time of 14:46.43.
The women started the running events off with a bang as Hailey Gollnick took first in the women’s 2000m steeplechase with a time of 6:59.43. Amy Ruiz then took third in the 1500m run with a time of 4:33.26. Three Jackets notched career bests in the 1500m. Charlotte Stephens bested her personal record with a time of 4:39.85. Melissa Fairey and Mary Prouty also tallied career bests in the 1500m run.
Kenya Collins and Jeanine Williams took first and second in the 100m hurdles, respectively. Collins finished in a career-best time of 13.57. Maurinice Bauman also set a new career best in the 100m hurdles with a time of 14.04 to finish sixth overall. Brianna Hayden took a third-place finish in the 100m dash with a time of 11.85. She then followed up that performance with a second-place finish in the 200m dash with a time of 23.84. Angelica Henderson notched a career best in the 200m with a time of 24.57.
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