May 25, 2012
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – On day one of the NCAA East Regionals held at Hodges Stadium on the campus of the University of North Florida, the Georgia Tech men’s and women’s track and field team was headed by Julienne McKee who punched her ticket to the NCAA Championships with a seventh place finish in the long jump.
McKee matched a career best jump set at the Penn Relays earlier this season with a leap of 6.24m (20-5.75) hitting the mark twice in rounds two and three.
Also advancing on, but to the quarterfinal round of the 800m run was Shawn Roberts who was the highest placing Jacket on the day with his sixth place, 1:49.51 finish in the race. Roberts won his heat of the race to automatically move on to Friday’s event to begin at 7 p.m.
Rick Scheff, who also earned a spot in the 800m, finished 47th in the race with a time of 1:54.76. Antonio McKay, taking part in his fourth NCAA East Regional, finished 44th in the 400m dash with a time of 48.19 seconds to round out his Yellow Jacket career.
Tech’s final competitor was D.J. McMillan, the school record holder in the 10,000m run. McMillan, who qualified for the meet with his school record time, was unable to finish the race.
More Jackets will be in action on day two of the NCAA East Regionals as Jonathan Gardner and Melanie Akwule will begin competition in the triple jump and 100m hurdles respectively while Roberts tries to advance on to join McKee at the NCAA Championships.
