April 17, 2002
ATLANTA – With the program’s first conference title coming at this year’s indoor championships, the Georgia Tech men and women’s track and field teams hope to build on that success at the 2002 Atlantic Coast Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which open Friday at the University of Virginia’s Lannigan Field.
Tech’s women, who won the indoor title, are led by a quartet of Jackets who enter the meet with the conference’s top mark in their respective events. Junior Katie Griffin stands first in the 10,000 meters with a NCAA automatic qualifying mark and school record time of 33:57.12, while senior Nicole Campbell owns the top time in the 800 meters, meeting the NCAA provisional standard in 2:05.12. Senior Alisha McClinton has a provisional mark in the 100-meter hurdles (13.50) and ranks first in the league in that event, while senior Jennifer Ledbetter leads the high jump standings with a mark of 5’07.75″.
On the men’s side, sophomore Brendon Mahoney, the 2002 ACC Indoor Most Outstanding Performer, leads the conference with provisional qualifying marks in the 800 (1:48.51) and 1500 meters (3:42.85).
Sophomore All-American Renee Metivier, who will compete in the 3000-meter steeplechase and 5000 meters, will also lead the way for the women. She owns the league’s third-best mark in the 5000 with a provisional time of 16:21.83. Senior Sara Pardue also has a NCAA provisional mark in the 800 meters, ranking second behind Campbell.
Junior Bryan Swarn and senior Chris Sinotte have also posted provisional marks on the men’s side. Swarn ranks second in the league with a 46.04 mark in the 400 meters, while Sinotte is second in the javelin with a school-record toss of 227’01.00″.
Other standout women include sophomore Amandi Rhett (100 and 200 meters), freshman Shanta Smith (400, triple jump), junior Jessica DeFreitas (100, jumps) and senior Mishanta Reyes (100 hurdles, jumps). Dana Hall, Cassandra Worthy and Angela Levens should also contribute in the throws.
Smith won the ACC indoor crown in the triple jump.
Tech’s 4×400-meter relay squad headlines the list of other men expected to place well. The team of Swarn, Sharif Azim, Brian Ford and Aaron Sink, who won the indoor title, owns the league’s second-best time in the event. Azim and Ford also will compete in the 400 meters, while Sink enters the meet ranked fourth in the 400-meter hurdles. Junior Chris Crawley ranks second in the triple jump and fifth in the long jump.
Freshman Zeb Sion (throws), senior Joe Stegall (1500 meters), sophomore Kyle Rabbit (5000 meters), sophomore Michael Massey (high jump), freshman Alex Berardi (pole vault), junior Brian Fraser (long jump), freshman Jonathan Spillman (throws) and freshman Ian Brewer (throws) are also expected to contribute.
Competition opens at 9:30 a.m. on Friday and concludes with the men’s 10,000 meters at 7 p.m. The meet resumes at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, wrapping up with the men’s 4×400 at 4:40 p.m., followed by the awards ceremony.
Both teams are in search of their first-ever outdoor titles. The men’s squad has finished a program-best third on four occasions, with the last time coming in 1989. The women’s team has finished fourth five times, most recently in 1998. The men were seventh a year ago, while the women were fifth.
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