Feb. 23, 2018
CLEMSON, S.C. — The men’s 5000-meter school record felland six student-athletes made it to finals as Georgia Tech indoor track and field concluded the second day of the ACC Indoor Championships on Friday night at the Clemson Indoor Track & Field Complex.
Through just seven events for the men and six events for the women, the Yellow Jacket men are ranked eighth with 12 points while the women’s team is 15th with two point.
“I’m very proud of what the guys accomplished today,” head men’s coach Grover Hinsdale said. “We had several PRs and several student-athletes that made tomorrow’s finals. This is a special group of young men of whom I am very proud of. Of the many outstanding performances on the day, Nahom Solomon‘s 5000m really stood out. He took the lead early and set a tough pace for almost the entire race. He ended up in fourth place with a new school record and it was just an outstanding effort.”
“We had a great team effort from the women today, a lot of personal bests and a number of student-athletes advancing to the finals tomorrow,” head women’s coach Alan Drosky said. “Anna [Hightower] was outstanding in the pole vault and Jeanine [Williams], Raven [Stewart], and Amy [Ruiz] all took care of business and will be ready for their finals. We’re not where we want to be in the team scores, but if we can take advantage of our opportunities tomorrow we can make some movement upward.”
Competition continues on Saturday, beginning with the men’s triple jump at 10:30 a.m., followed by distance and the full range of events getting underway at 12 p.m.
Saturday’s events will air live on ACC Network Extra and is available to watch on WatchESPN.com and the ESPN app. Coverage begins at noon.
Women’s Highlights
Junior Jeanine Williams continues to top the ACC in the 60m hurdles, tying for first place in the prelims with a time of 8.12. Senior Raven Stewart also advanced to finals, finishing eighth with a time of 8.36.
Over in the mile competition, junior Amy Ruiz finished eighth overall with a time of 4:48.71 to advance to the finals and seize her fourth top-10 finish in the mile this season.
Anna Hightower also turned in another top-10 finish for the Yellow Jackets, finishing eighth with a personal-best clearance of 4.05 meters.
Men’s Highlights
Nahom Solomon continues to make his mark on the long distance record books, breaking the 5000m school record with a fourth-place time of 13:59.71. Solomon’s time eclipses the previous record by nearly 15 seconds (14:14.48), which was set by Kyle Rabbitt in 2003.
Solomon is also the first Georgia Tech track student-athlete in program history to run the 5000m in under 14 minutes, indoor or outdoor.
William Solomon finished sixth in the long jump with a season-best leap of 7.49 meters while Andres Littig (1:50.48) and Avery Bartlett (1:50.68) finished fourth and sixth, respectively, in the 800 prelims to advance to the finals.
Tech also had two more advance from qualifying in the 400 meters as Daniel Pietsch finished fourth with a personal-record time of 47.21 while Benjamin Jean ran a season-best 47.40 to finish sixth overall.
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