Dec. 4, 2003
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech men’s and women’s track and field teams will begin the indoor track season this Friday and Saturday, Dec. 5-6, at the Clemson Invitational, in Clemson, S.C. The Yellow Jacket men and women are coming off solid indoor seasons, in which the women finished runner-up after capturing their first Atlantic Coast Conference championship in 2002. The men placed third at the Indoor ACC Championships for the second consecutive season.
Leading the men will be All-Americans Ian Brewer and Brendon Mahoney. Brewer finished 13th in the hammer throw for Tech at the Outdoor NCAA Championships, becoming the 67th Tech athlete to earn All-America honors under men’s head coach Grover Hinsdale who enters his 25th season with the Jackets. Mahoney garnered All-America honors in the mile and 800 meters back in the 2001-02 season.
“We have in the past several years, since we’ve been fully funded, set an annual goal of being an upper-echelon ACC team and a top 20 NCAA team,” said Hinsdale. “Our number one goal right now is to win an ACC Championship. I feel very confident that this team has that kind of talent to accomplish that.”
Pacing the women will be high jump All-American Chaunte Howard, along with All-ACC returnees Amandi Rhett, Dana Rogers, Shanta Smith and Melanie Waits. Howard won the ACC championship in the high jump during both the indoor and outdoor seasons and finished runner-up at nationals in the outdoor season.
Rhett earned her fourth and fifth All-ACC accolades this past season, including her first ACC title in the 60-meter dash at the Indoor Championships. Smith is the only other Tech returnee to claim an ACC crown in 2003, taking first place in the triple jump at the Indoor ACC meet.
Rogers finished second in the 100-meter hurdles at the Outdoor ACC Championships to earn her second All-ACC honor. Waits claimed third-place during the indoor meet in the 60-meter hurdles.
“Indoors we want to be top three, with a chance to fight for the championship,” said women’s head coach Alan Drosky. “We also want to be top 25 in NCAAs. To be top three at the conference championships, you have to have athletes that can score in different events, but at the national level, you need athletes that can finish high.”
The indoor season will take a break for the Holidays and continue after the New Year in Lexington, Ky., for the Kentucky Invitational. The two-day event will begin on Jan. 16.
