May 1, 2010
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech women’s track & field team knocked off Clemson (120-58) and Kennesaw State (118-72), while the men’s team beat the Tigers (116-66) and fell to the Owls (102-90) at a tri-dual meet between the three schools on Saturday afternoon at Griffin Track.
“We had an outstanding meet today and we’re happy to win both dual meets,” women’s head coach Alan Drosky said. “Kennesaw State is a very solid program. Clemson’s comes off two big weekends in winning the ACC meet and then competing at Penn Relays, so they brought a limited squad. But the competition was very good and our women rose to the occasion. We had a lot of seasonal and personal bests. “
“We had a really good day, with some outstanding performances,” men’s coach Grover Hinsdale said. “We had several personal records fall. Omar Morrision’s P.R. in the long jump was just outstanding and Hunter Clasen had a very good effort and I think he’s starting to come around now. Many of the other guys had season-bests as well. The only thing I was disappointed in was that a couple of our better guys were not competing today nursing some injuries.
“All-in-all, I was really pleased with the effort and what we did in this meet.”
Things got underway on the afternoon with the women’s hammer throw, in which Tech’s Alana Clooten captured first place honors with a final mark of 182 feet, three inches. Clooten beat out her nearest competitor in the event by almost 22 feet.
In the women’s track events, several Jacket sprinters set new personal bests. First in the 100m dash, Jenae Anderson captured the event with a new personal best time of 11.75. Anderson also captured the 200m dash, with a time of 24.03, which was also a personal best.
The winning continued in the 400m dash, when Tiffany Grant took the top spot with a time of 54.38 (a personal-best), while Jade Sims took the 800m run after crossing the finish line in 2:14.73. Meanwhile, in the 3000m run, sophomore Mary Kate DuBard was victorious, after finishing in 9:47.86, a personal-best.
In the 100m hurdles, Melanie Akwule beat out teammate Jasmine Isley by a split second after crossing the finish line in 13.99 to win, while in the 400m hurdles, Leslie Njoku won with a mark of 59.58. The Yellow Jackets also captured both the 4x100m relay (45.92) and the 4x400m relay (3:49.08) to complete an impressive effort in the track events.
In the women’s field events, Tech got victories from Joanna Wright in the pole vault with a mark of 13 feet, 5.25 inches (a new outdoor school record and personal best) and in the triple jump when Jhanelle McLeod took top honors with a leap of 41 feet, 2.25 inches, also a new personal best.
In the shot put, Bailey Wagner beat out her nearest competitor by six feet to win with a mark of 46 feet, 0.75 inches, and then won the discus with 151 feet, 8 inch mark to round out action on the afternoon for the women’s squad.
On the men’s side, Antonio McKay Jr. got things stared on the right foot in the track events by capturing both the 200m dash (21.62) and the 400m dash (47.22). Meanwhile, Clasen finished right behind McKay Jr. in the 400m relay in a personal best time of 47.72. In the 1500m run, Tech’s Mark Mendrek-Laske registered an impressive performance, winning the event with a time of 3:54.95.
Next up in the 110m hurdles, senior Alphonso Jordan took the top spot after crossing the finish line in 13.99, setting a new personal record by one second. The last victory in the track events for Tech came in the 3000m steeplechase, in which Phillip O’Brien won with a time of 9:30.35.
In the men’s field events, senior Juan Cave lost out on a jump-off in the high jump, but posted a season-best mark in the process of six feet, 10.75 inches. In the long jump, Morrison won after beating out Jordan in a jump-off. His mark of 24 feet, 5.50 inches was a personal best and rounded out the victories on the day for the Yellow Jacket men.
“I think there’s a handful of guys on our team that should be very excited about these next two weekends leading up to regional championships because they put themselves in a position to where they can see that a regional qualifying performance is a strong possibility,” said Hinsdale. “That excites me, because there’s about five or six guys in the program right now that weren’t that close, but now can see that’s it not that far away.”
The Yellow Jackets return to action on Friday, May 6th when they take part in the Seminole Twilight Invitational in Tallahassee, Fla.
