Jan. 17, 2015
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Georgia Tech track and field team wrapped up the Auburn Invitational on Saturday at the Birmingham Crossplex. The Jackets competed against 12 Division I teams, including three top-25 teams on the women’s side – No. 4 Georgia, No. 9 Florida State and No. 18 Auburn – and five top-25 men’s squads – No. 10 LSU, No. 11 Georgia, No. 13 Alabama, No. 20 Florida State and No. 24 Ohio State.
“Our highlights of the day were by five guys who opened their indoor seasons at this meet,” head coach Grover Hinsdale said. “They are Andres Littig, Zack Fanelty and Brandon Lasater in the 800m, Jonathan Gardner in the triple jump and Alexander Reese in the 400 meters. Those were five solid openers.”
On the track, Spencer Allen qualified for the finals in the men’s 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.25 and took sixth in the finals with an improved time of 8.03. Alexander Reese placed sixth in the 400 meters with a time of 49.27.
Three Yellow Jackets placed in the top five of the 800 meters. Brandon Lasater took second (1:53.49), Zack Fanelty placed third (1:53.73) and Andres Littig crossed the line fourth (1:54.17).
Justin Weaver ran a career-best time of 8:39.50 to place 11th in the 3,000 meters. On the women’s side, Diana Pressel also recorded a personal-best time of 10:15.83 to take 12th.
In the field events, Nikita Kirillov placed second in the pole vault with a height of 5.20m (17-00.75) and Nathan Daniel tied for seventh (4.60m; 15-01.00). In the women’s pole vault, Samantha Becker placed second with a personal-best distance of 4.00m (13-01.50).
Freshman Bailey Weiland placed fourth in the high jump (1.75m; 5-0.75) and Julia Frederick took eighth (1.65m; 5-05.00).
Carissa Tipler placed sixth in the long jump with a distance of 5.68m (18-07.75) and took second in the triple jump (12.09m; 39-08.00). Jonathan Gardner placed second in the triple jump (15.53m; 50-11.50) and Preston Smith took seventh (13.39m; 43-11.25).
In the men’s long jump, Myles McDavid took fourth with a jump of 7.08m (23-02.75) and freshman William Solomon placed in the top 10 coming in eighth with a mark of 6.77m (22-02.50).
In the last event of the day, the women’s 4×400-meter ‘A’ team made of Angelica Henderson, Christina Pensock, Jazmyne Taylor and Domonique Hall placed seventh with a time of 3:49.56 and the Tech ‘B’ team of Shannon Innis, Marinice Bauman, Alex Braxton and Malin Trollsas placed ninth (4:01.14).
The Jackets are back in action Jan. 23-24 at the Vanderbilt Invitational in Nashville, Tenn.
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