April 24, 2002
ATLANTA – Coming off a solid showing at the ACC outdoor championships, select members of the Georgia Tech men and women’s track and field teams will head to Philadelphia for the 108th running of the Penn Relays, which open Thursday at Franklin Field. Several other Jackets will compete Sunday at the University of Tennessee’s Knoxville Invitational.
Leading the group at the Penn Relays will be the men’s 4×400 relay team, which won the ACC title last weekend in a NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 3:06.26. Anchoring the relay will be junior Bryan Swarn, the conference champion at 400 meters. Rounding out the team will be freshman Brian Ford, junior Sharif Azim and senior Olivier Deigni.
The men will also send a distance medley relay team consisting of sophomore All-American Brendon Mahoney, sophomores Tim Johnson and Barton Crist and senior Joe Stegall.
Rounding out the men’s contingent will be will be sophomore Michael Massey, who will compete in the high jump. He cleared a season-best 6’10.75″ at the ACC outdoor meet, good for fifth place.
All three men’s entries will compete Friday, with the 4×400 hoping to advance to Saturday’s action. The top eight collegiate finishers will compete in the Championship of America, while the next eight will compete in the College Championship.
The women’s action gets underway on Thursday, as the Jackets will field a pair of relays, as well as several field event entries. The women will compete in the 4×100 relay and the shuttle hurdle relay. The combination of Jessica DeFreitas, Amandi Rhett, Alisha McClinton and Dana Rogers owns a season-best time of 45.73 in the 4×100, while McClinton, Mishanta Reyes, Tosan Osaigbovo and Melanie Waits own a season-best mark of 55.43 in the shuttle hurdle event.
Like the men’s 4×400, the women’s 4×100 has the opportunity to advance to one of two finals on Friday.
Headlining the field events for the women will be ACC high jump champion Jennifer Ledbetter and all-conference long jumper Reyes, who also holds the Tech school record. Senior throwers Dana Hall and Angela Levens are also expected to compete in the shot put and hammer throw, respectively. Both are school record holders in those events.
The meet also features several world-class athletes, including the likes of Marion Jones, Maurice Greene, Gail Devers and former Tech great Angelo Taylor. ESPN2 will televise a portion of the competition beginning at 6 p.m.
The meet in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sunday opens with the hammer throw at 9:30 a.m. Running events begin at 2 p.m. with the 100 meters and conclude with the 3000 meters at 4:35 p.m.
-GT-
