PHILADELPHIA – The Georgia Tech men’s and women’s track and field teams concluded its final outing of the 2026 Penn Relays with a fourth-place finish in the women’s 4x800m relay race on Saturday afternoon.
Claire Shelton opened the race for the Jackets; the sophomore set the early pace for the squad at 2:14.88 and kept Tech in the top 10 at the first exchange. This marked Shelton’s first collegiate outdoor relay race and her shortest distance this season.
Senior Gracie Marston took the reins and marched past fellow runners to put Tech in winning contention. The middle-distance runner ran 2:09.23, the quickest second leg by over two seconds. Her incredible pace ended up being the second fastest 800m time of the entire field and pushed GT right behind leaders Johns Hopkins at the next exchange.
Hitting the halfway point, Stella Chambless raced her 800m and clocked in at 2:17.49 as the Jackets were in fourth at the final handoff to Lottie Chappell. Chappell raced back to the top-three teams and crossed the line at 2:08.54 to finish within a second of Navy’s winning time.
The 2:08.54 time from Chappell was the fastest 800m time of the entire field as Tech held down the two fastest legs of the race.
The Jackets will return to the state of Georgia for the Torrin Lawrence Memorial on Saturday, May 2, in Athens before competing back in Atlanta at the Emory Twilight event on May 5.
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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