March 27, 2010
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech hosted the second day of the Yellow Jacket Invitational at Griffin Track on Saturday. In all, four Tech men and two women won events on the day.
“I think our competitiveness today was much improved over last weekend,” men’s head coach Grover Hinsdale said. “We just seemed to more into and getting after it more. The only disappointment for me today was the consistent hard wind that took away from all the oval races. The effort was out there, but you just didn’t see it in the end result with the times. But, the guys competed hard and I’m certainty pleased with their effort.
“I just think across the board our effort was very good and I’m very pleased.”
“We had a good weekend of solid performances across the board,” women’s coach Alan Drosky said. “The swirling winds were a challenge in many of the events, so times were just a little off. But we keep make improvements each week and the women keep building momentum.”
In the first track event of the afternoon, sophomore Mary Kate DuBard had a convincing victory in the 3000m Steeplechase, finishing in 10:48.33, beating her nearest competitor by 15 seconds. The mark was the second-best for DuBard on her career.
The next event of note for the Jackets was the 1500 meter run. On the women’s side, sophomore Annie Martin registered a third place finish after crossing the finish line in 4:34.05. On the men’s side, freshman Patrick Barron registered the first win of the day for the men’s squad, finishing in 3:54.37.
The next win of the afternoon for the Tech men came in the 400 meter dash, where junior Antonio McKay Jr. crossed the line in 48.06 to win the event. On the women’s side, Tiffany Grant was Tech’s highest finisher in third with a time of 55.28.
“I was happy to see Antonio back,” said Hinsdale. “He came back from a very bad flu bug from last week and he’s still not at full strength.”
In the women’s 800-meter run, three Georgia Tech runners finished in the top seven, all in consecutive order. The group was led by Amanda Montgomery, who placed fourth overall in 2:14.26, which was the second best time of her career. Martin followed right behind her teammate in fifth with a mark of 2:14.57, while Jade Sims was sixth in 2:14.63. On the men’s side of the event, Mark Mendrek-Laske won a heat with in a career-best time of 1:56.91 and finished 11th overall.
In the women’s 400 meter hurdles, Jasmine Isley finished third with a time of 1:00.84. In the 200-meter dash, McKay registered another impressive performance finishing third overall in 21.44. For the women, Grant was the highest finisher for the Jackets in ninth with a time of 24.11.
In the final two track events of the day, the women’s and men’s 4×400 relay, the women’s relay team finished fourth overall (3:48.02), while the men’s squad placed third in 3:14.45.
In field events, several Yellow Jacket athletes registered impressive performance. In the discus, Georgia Tech made a clean sweep of the event, as Bailey Wagner won the women’s portion of the event with a throw of 156 inches flat, while senior Steve Marcelle won the men’s side with a 182′ 3″ effort.
In the women’s pole vault, Joanna Wright registered a fourth place finish with a mark of 12′ 1½”, while in the women’s half of the long jump, Jhanelle McLeod also earned a fourth place finish with a 19′ 2¼”. On the men’s side of the long jump, freshman Stephen Hill finished second with a mark of 24′ 3¾”.
In the women’s high jump, Bianca Stewart posted a 5’7″ mark to finish fourth, while Juan Cave earned another win for the Yellow Jacket men after beating out his nearest competitor in a jump off after posting a 6′ 8¾” mark.
The final field event of note was the men’s triple jump, in which Nigel Orr and Omar Morrison finished third and fourth, respectively. Orr had a mark of 48′ 6¼”, while Morrison posted a 48′ 0¾” effort.
The Georgia Tech track & field team returns to action next weekend at the Auburn Tiger Track Classic in Auburn, Ala. Action gets underway on Friday, April 2nd and continues through Saturday, April 3rd.
