University of Georgia Athletics
Georgia Track & Field Travels To Arizona State Invitational
March 26, 2009 | Track & Field
ATHENS, Ga. --- After tallying seven NCAA regional qualifying marks and 11 wins at the season opener, Georgia track and field will make the cross-country trip to Tempe, Ariz., for the Arizona State Invitational on March 27-28.
Georgia will be joining the Sun Devils and teams from Air Force, Colorado State, Dartmouth, Illinois, Kansas State, Nebraska, Northern Arizona, Notre Dame, Purdue, Texas A&M, UC Riverside and Utah.
Junior Emily Sanders and sophomore Rachel Travis will start the action for Georgia in the women’s hammer throw at 4 p.m. EDT on Friday afternoon. Senior Nate Rolfe, sophomore Branislav Danis, junior John Freeman and junior David Schiedt are all expected to represent the Bulldogs in the men’s hammer immediately following the women's finish.
The first event scheduled for Saturday is the women’s discus at 1 p.m. while the first event on the track is the women’s 100-meter hurdles at 8 p.m.
“The Georgia Relays last weekend were kind of an icebreaker for us, but now we are going to a loaded meet to see what we are made of,” said head coach Wayne Norton, whose teams are expecting to be competing under sunny skies with temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s. “A meet like this will give us the opportunity to evaluate exactly where we are and I think we are ready to go. (Chris) Hill is ready to throw and Justin Gaymon and those guys will have plenty of competition so we are excited about traveling to a place where we haven’t been and competing against teams like the ones that will be there.”
Georgia’s runners will be competing at 8 p.m. and after on Saturday night and Norton believes this will actually be beneficial to his team.
“We want our crew to get up fairly early, but not be up all day so that they can get some rest during the day,” Norton said. “These are all young people who are used to staying up at night so I think we will run better at 10 p.m. than we would if there was a 10 a.m. start.”
Junior Chris Hill is the most notable addition to the Bulldogs’ lineup this weekend after sitting out the Georgia Relays in Athens. Hill, who had the nation’s longest javelin throw in 2008 with his school record toss of 268 feet, 1 inch, is the defending NCAA champion. Hill’s last meet in the state of Arizona provided the Sulphur, La., native his second win last year as he had a top mark of 244-3 at the Jim Click Invitational in Tucson, Ariz.
Georgia’s two All-Americans from this year’s indoor season senior Justin Gaymon and freshman Torrin Lawrence will also be making their outdoor debut in Tempe. Gaymon begins his final campaign as the two-time defending Southeastern Conference and NCAA East Regional champion in the 400-meter hurdles. He broke the school record in the event to finish fourth at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., over the summer with a time of 48.46.
Lawrence will be returning to familiar territory as the outdoor season arrives after he competed in the first indoor meets of his life earlier this year. In his career debut at UGA, Lawrence shattered the school indoor record in the 200 (20.77) and went on to not only be a part of a new No. 1 time in the 4x400 relay (3:07.45) in Georgia’s record books, but also earn All-American honors in the 200.
With only a portion of the distance runners and sprinters participating at the Georgia Relays, the throwers had the most success at their home facility. Junior Michelle Thompson, who transferred from Cuyamaca College, made her debut for the Lady Bulldogs by winning the women’s javelin with a regional qualifying mark of 162-4, which is No. 5 in the record books.
In the men’s hammer, Rolfe, who had a top effort of 215-8, Danis and Freeman all had regional marks after finishing first-second-third, respectively. Junior Israel Machovec also had success in his first outdoor meet of the year by earning the top collegiate honors in the discus with a regional qualifying throw of 172-3.
Full results and a recap from this weekend’s Arizona State Invitational will be found at georgiadogs.com.
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