March 26, 2011
ATLANTA – In a rain shortened Yellow Jacket Invitational at the George C. Griffin Track Facility, the Georgia Tech men’s and women’s track and field teams finished with four victories and 14 top-3 performances over the two day event.
The Yellow Jackets participated in two events on Friday night, the hammer throw and the 5,000 meter run. Duncan Thompson finished third for Tech in the hammer throw posting a distance of 51.35 meters. The distance runners also saw success as DJ McMillan paced himself well to earn the Jackets first win of the weekend in the 5,000 meter run with a time of 14:53.42. The rest of the team finished well coming across in third (Niall Longobardi, 15:14.21), fourth (Nathan Tew, 15:17.74), fifth (Obiandu Igwe, 15:28.22) and sixth place(Doug Black, 15:28.60).
On the women’s side, Mary Kate DuBard was the first Jacket to cross the finish line as she took second place in a time of 17:17.80 while Betsy Kim raced to a fifth place finish in 17:45.80.
Not all of the events on the second day of the meet were able to take place. The women’s pole vaulters, men’s discus, men’s high jump and both the men’s and women’s 4×400 meter relay did not take place, due to the weather.
The highlight of the day for the Jackets was the 1,500m run as the men’s squad came across 1-2-3 with Mark Mendrek-Laske taking home the victory with a time of 3:50.04, which currently ranks ninth in the country. Alec Clifford took second with a time of 3:52.21 while Eric Powers rounded out the top-three with a time of 3:53.90. Mary Kownack was the first Jacket to cross on the women’s side with a fourth place, 4:42.71 performance.
The men’s 800-meter run also saw success on the day as Shawn Roberts continued his win-streak, taking home first place with a time of 1:51.44. Clifford was the runner-up in the 800 as well finishing in 1:52.42 while Mendrek-Laske earned a fourth place showing with a time of 1:54.41. On the women’s side, Jade Sims paced the Jackets with her fourth place 2:18.93 finish.
Hunter Clasen earned a top-3 time with his third place performance in the 400-meter dash, crossing the line in 48.69.
On the field side of things, Aaron Unterberger earned the first place finish in the pole vault, launching himself to a 4.75m height. The women’s long jump excelled as Julienne McKee took third place with a leap of 5.99 meters, while Jasmine Kent finished sixth with a distance of 5.71 meters and Monique Pate finished 10th leaping 5.25 meters.
Up next for the Jackets is a trip to Auburn, Ala. for the Auburn Tiger Track Classic on April 1 and 2.
