April 3, 2003
ATLANTA – Having already tallied 15 NCAA East Regional qualifying marks this season, the Georgia Tech men’s and women’s track and field teams hope to add to that total Saturday when they host the 2003 Yellow Jacket Invitational at George C. Griffin Track.
Field events begin at 9:30 a.m. with the hammer throw, while action on the track opens at 1 p.m. with the 3000-meter steeplechase. The meet concludes with the 5000 meters, which is scheduled to start at 5:50 p.m. Admission to the meet is free of charge.
Joining the Jackets at the meet will be: Alabama (women), Arkansas-Little Rock, Arkansas State, California, Florida State, Georgia State, Michigan (men), Middle Tennessee State, North Carolina, Troy State, Tulane (women), Wake Forest, Western Carolina and Wisconsin (women).
Leading the way for the Yellow Jacket women is freshman Chaunte Howard, who set a school record in the high jump (6’0.50″) at last weekend’s Florida Relays. She is qualified for regionals in both the high jump and the long jump. On the men’s side a pair or recent school record-setters, sophomores Zeb Sion and Ian Brewer, anchor the men’s throws. Sion broke a 43-year-old mark in the shot put with a regional qualifying toss of 59’5.00″ at the Clemson Relays, while Brewer eclipsed his own school record and qualified for regionals in the hammer throw (198’6.00″) last weekend.
Other regional qualifiers for the men’s team include senior Brian Fraser in the triple jump, junior Brendon Mahoney in the 800 meters, junior Michael Massey in the high jump and senior Bryan Swarn in the 400 meters. Swarn also led the 4×400-meter relay team to a qualifying mark at the Florida Relays.
Freshman Brandy Depland joins Howard as a multiple qualifier, as she met standards in both the long jump and triple jump at the Clemson Relays. Other individual qualifiers include senior Jessica DeFreitas in the long jump, sophomore Dana Rogers in the 100 hurdles and sophomore Shanta Smith in the triple jump. DeFreitas and Rogers are also part of Tech’s 4×100-meter relay team that qualified at Clemson.
In addition to Saturday’s meet, the Jackets host the Georgia Tech Invitational, May 16-17.
-GT-
