Feb. 24, 2017
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Georgia Tech track and field’s juniors William Solomon and Ksenia Novikova earned All-ACC First Team honors on day two of the 2017 ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships on Friday. Competition wraps up with the final day on Saturday.
Solomon posted a second-place finish in the long jump with a career-best mark of 7.60. He earned All-ACC First Team honors with the finish. Novikova finished third in the women’s pole vault with a career-best mark of 4.06m. She earned All-ACC First Team honors with the mark.
The women head into the final day tied for 11th with nine points. The men’s team is also in 11th with 11 points.
“The women competed very well today, we’re proud of their effort and happy to see so many perform at personal best levels,” said women’s head coach Alan Drosky. “We had some good opportunities to score and capitalized on them. Ksenia [Novikova] was outstanding, getting onto the podium with her third place effort. Bailey [Weiland] has battled a foot issue all season but fought hard to earn a tie for sixth. Donjhae [Jones] was 7th and she was disappointed with that, but she has been an awesome performer for us throughout her career. She does not have fifth year eligibility for outdoor track, so we are really going to miss her. For tomorrow, we got to come out and fight for every point and capitalize on our strong areas.”
Andreas Ward qualified for the finals of the men’s 60m hurdles with a time of 8.15. Freshman Benjamin Jean advanced to the finals of the 400m with a personal record of 47.27. Dwayne Watkins also registered a career best in the 400m prelims of 49.33 but did not advance to the finals.
Andres Littig and Avery Bartlett advanced to the 800m finals. Littig raced a career-best time of 1:49.28 for the fourth-best time in prelims. Avery Bartlett won his heat to move on with a time of 1:50.67.
Senior Alex Grady notched a career-best time of 4:12.95 in the mile, finishing 20th overall. Freshman Tyson Spears posted a career best in the 60m prelims of 6.78 for a ninth-place finish, just missing the finals. Spears also bested his time in the 200m prelims with a time of 21.46. Zachary Gunnz joined Spears in the 200m prelims with a career-best time of 21.43, finishing ninth overall and second in his heat; neither advanced.
Jeanine Williams and Kenya Collins advanced to the finals of the 60m hurdles with times of 8.36 and 8.37 respectively. Raven Stewart registered a career-best time of 8.40 in the 60m hurdles prelims but did not advance to the finals. Marinice Bauman shaved a tenth of a second off her 60m hurdles time for a new career best of 8.61.
Charlotte Stephens and Amy Ruiz finished back-to-back in the mile with 18th- and 19th-place finishes, respectively. Stephens notched a new career-best time of 4:52.73, while Ruiz finished in a career best 4:53.20.
Angelica Henderson posted a career best in the 400m prelims with a time of 55.42. Both Brittany Powell and Lindsey Wheeler raced personal records in the 800m prelims with times of 2:13.92 and 2:15.19, respectively. Neither advanced to the finals.
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