April 23, 2003
ATLANTA – Led by a trio of recently crowned Atlantic Coast Conference champions, select members of the Georgia Tech men’s and women’s track and field teams will compete at the 109th edition of the Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. Action begins and Thursday and concludes Saturday.
Leading the way for the men will be senior Brian Fraser, who won the ACC title in the triple jump last weekend, and sophomore Ian Brewer, the conference champ in the men’s hammer throw. Freshman All-American Chaunte Howard, who recently won her second ACC high jump crown, headlines the group of women’s competitors. She owns the nation’s top performance in the high jump this season with a mark of 6’2.00″.
Highlighting a group of six relay entries for the Jackets is the men’s ACC champion 4×400 squad of sophomore Brian Ford, senior Sharif Azim, freshman Matt Trester and senior Bryan Swarn. Other men’s entries include a 4×800-meter relay and a distance medley relay. Junior All-American Brendon Mahoney, sophomore Neil McDonagh and junior David Schmidt will run on both of these relays.
The 4×100-meter relay of sophomore Dana Rogers, freshman Andriane Lapsley, senior Jessica DeFreitas and junior Amandi Rhett, which is ranked 15th nationally, leads the women’s entries. The Jackets will also field a women’s 4×200 and shuttle hurdle relay.
In addition to Howard, sophomore Shanta Smith, owner of the nation’s seventh-best mark in the triple jump, leads the women’s individual entries. Freshman Brandy Depland will compete in the long jump and triple jump, while DeFreitas goes in the long jump. Sophomore Megan Byrd joins Howard in the high jump.
Competing on the track will be Rhett in the 100 meters, Rogers in the 100-meter hurdles and three Jackets in the 400-meter hurdles. Additionally, senior Katie Griffin will run the 5000 meters, while junior Neta Ezer will compete in the 10,000.
Other men’s individual competitors include shot put entries Zeb Sion and Jonathan Spillman, as well as high jumper Michael Massey.
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