Feb. 4, 2012
BLACKSBURG, Va. – Highlighted by 20 top-10 finishes, including two first place victories by Shawn Roberts and Melanie Akwule, the Georgia Tech men’s and women’s track and field teams successfully finished out their weekend at the Virginia Tech Elite Meet, Saturday.
Roberts took home the first place finish in the 800 meter run on Friday night crossing the line in 1:51.23 while Akwule earned the 60 meter hurdle victory finishing in first place in both the preliminary and final round, ultimately finishing with a time of 8.37 seconds.
Three other Yellow Jackets followed suit behind Roberts in the 800 meter run ending with top-10 finishes. Rick Scheff was the next to cross the line in 1:51.65 in third place followed by Alec Clifford in sixth place with a time of 1:52.88 and Zack Fanelty in eighth place in 1:52.92. Jeremy Greenwald finished in 12th overall with a time of 1:54.32 and Adonis Gaines rounded out the Tech 800 runners with a time of 1:58.55.
Alongside Akwule was Leslie Njoku who also made the finals round in the 60 meter hurdles after notching a fourth place 8.55 second preliminary round finish. Njoku remained consistent and took fourth place in the finals round with a time of 8.49 seconds.
Perron Jones also tabbed a fourth place finish, in the 200 meter dash, crossing the line in 22.02 while Michael Simms finished 13th in 22.82 and Paul DeVito took 18th in 23.26. .
Ama Larbi took home sixth in the 400 meter invitational dash with a time of 56.87 while Kellie Christian finished in fourth place with a time of 57.50 in the open 400 meter dash.
On the field side of things, Tech brought home six of the 20 top-10 finishes as both Erica Penk finished second with a height of 3.55 meters (11-7.75) in the pole vault while Samantha Becker finished in fourth place with the same height. On the men’s side Nikita Kirillov finished in a tie for third place launching himself 5.10 meters (16-8.75) in the air
Jasmine Kent finished in fourth place in the long jump with a distance of 5.96 meters (19-6.75) while Jhanelle McLeod took eighth in 5.59 meters (18-4.25), Monique Pate finished 13th with a distance of 535 meters (17.6-75), Alex Braxton took 15th in 5.29 meters (17-4.25) and Njoku rounded out the Tech leapers with an 18th place 5.13 meter (16-10) finish. McCleod also took home a sixth place triple jump finish with a distance of 12.09 meters (39-8).
The Jackets will return to action next weekend on February 10 and 11 at the Samford Invitational in Birmingham, Ala. The meet will mark the third in as many weeks for the Yellow Jackets.
