Feb. 11, 2012
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Freshman Nikita Kirillov set a school record in the men’s pole vault launching himself over a height of 5.20 meters (17-0.75) to highlight the Georgia Tech men’s and women’s track and field teams’ time at the Vulcan Invitational.
The height helped him into a second place finish at the meet, as well as the second best mark in the ACC this season, just behind Joe Davis of Virginia Tech.
Also seeing success over the course of the weekend was Julienne McKee who set a career best mark in the long jump with a leap of 6.13m (20-1.5) which gave her the victory, as well as the fourth best distance in school history.
The Tech jumpers kept the success going with Jasmine Kent taking the runner up spot in the long jump behind McKee with a distance of 5.87m (19-3.25). On the men’s side of things, Omar Morrison finished seventh in the same event with a distance of 6.87m (22-6.50).
Morrison improved to sixth place in the triple jump with a distance of 14.56m (47-9.25) while Jonathan Gardner finished right behind him with a mark of 14.37m (47-1.75).
Tech’s men’s distance runners saw much success on the day as well as Alec Clifford took third place while Jeremy Greenwald took fourth in the mile run with times of 4:11.35 and 4:13.10 respectively. Niall Longobardi took home second place in the 5,000m run with a time of 15:16.09 while teammates Obiandu Igwe took home fourth (15:19.64) and Austen Gutierrez placed sixth (15:45.68).
Patrick Barron brought home a third place finish in the 3,000 meter run with a time of 8:18.61 while DJ McMillan finished sixth in 8:23.98. On the women’s side, Maureen McMeekin had a seventh place finish in the mile (4:58.72) while Rachel Grosz took home 12th for the Jackets in the 5,000m run with a time of 19:53.84 and Katie Townsend took sixth in the 3,000 meter run (10:03.35).
The mid distance runners of Rick Scheff and Zack Fanelty went 4-5 in the 800m run finishing in 1:53.10 and 1:53.28 respectively.
The sprint group left the meet accomplished. On the women’s side, newcomer Stephanie Kalu took home first place in the 60m dash prelims with a time of 7.50 seconds, ultimately ending up in second overall after the finals race with a season best time of 7.49 seconds. Perron Jones also made the finals on the men’s side finishing seventh overall with a time of 6.85 seconds. Jones kept the momentum going into the 200 meter dash where he finished with a fifth place time of 21.68.
The women’s hurdlers of Leslie Njoku and Melanie Akwule each earned a spot in the 60m hurdles finals where Njoku took fourth place with a time of 8.59 seconds and Akwule took sixth in 8.67 seconds. Glenn Powers also took part in the finals in the men’s competition finishing in 11th overall with a time of 8.32 seconds.
The Jackets will take a couple of weeks off in preparation for the ACC Championships to be held from February 23-25 at the Reggie Lewis Track Center in Boston, Mass.
