University of Georgia Athletics
Bulldogs Charge Into 2010 SEC Indoor Championships
February 25, 2010 | Track & Field
ATHENS, Ga. --- Georgia's track and field teams return to Fayetteville, Ark., for the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships running Friday through Sunday after also completing their last regular season meet on the University of Arkansas' campus.
The men's heptathlon is scheduled to kick off the meet on Friday at 2 p.m. EDT with the 60-meter dash. Georgia's Tommy Barrineau, Cory Holman and David Silverstein will join the rest of the heptathlon field in their first four events on Friday before wrapping up on Saturday with the final three.
Lady Bulldog freshman Lucie Ondraschkova is expected to compete in the women's pentathlon starting with the 60 hurdles at 2:30 p.m. Friday. The pentathletes are scheduled to finish all five of their events on Friday.
The first individual event of the meet is the men's hammer at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The pole vault at 1 p.m. Saturday is the first event scheduled for the women.
"We are in fairly good shape going into the SEC meet," said head coach Wayne Norton, whose teams picked up six NCAA provisional qualifying marks and one NCAA automatic qualifying mark at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville on Feb. 26-28. "We have had numerous personal bests in each meet so I feel like many of our athletes are on the verge of great performances this weekend. The facility is great so we need to do our best. I do not have any doubt that we will do well."
Georgia has several team members near the top of the conference performance lists going into the meet. Sophomore Torrin Lawrence, who was Georgia's only 2009 SEC indoor champion (200), has the world's fastest 400 time (45.03) this year and also has the league's second-fastest 200 this year (20.80) behind Kentucky's Rondel Sorrillo (20.77). Lawrence has automatically qualified to compete in both events at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Junior Tommy Barrineau is topping the SEC performance list in the heptathlon after exploding for a career-high 5,608 points earlier this season. Also vying for a win in the heptathlon will be Bulldog junior Cory Holman, who has the fifth-fastest time in the 60 hurdles this season. Holman is third in the league standings with 5,538 points.
Senior John Freeman unleashed a career-best weight throw of 61 feet, 8 inches to take over the third spot on the SEC list. Also in the weight, senior Branislav Danis is in the fifth spot (66-4.50) and senior David Schiedt is ranked sixth (61-4.25).
Also in the throws, fellow senior Israel Machovec is holding down the No. 2 position in the shot put after reaching 60-6.75 while his freshman teammate Petr Novotny is third (58-1.25).
On the women's side, sophomore Nikola Lomnicka is leading the conference and is tied for fourth in the nation with a top weight throw mark of 67-6.75. In addition, junior Alesha Asijie has a mark of 61 feet in the weight and is fourth in the SEC.
Sophomore Kristie Krueger registered a career-best 4:41.64 at the Tyson meet and is No. 2 on the league mile list. Senior Bridget Lyons has clocked the third-fastest time in the 5000 in the SEC (16:36.03, also at Tyson) and is gunning to end her indoor career as a scorer.
In the high jump, the Lady Bulldogs have four competitors who have cleared 5-8 or better and are ranked fifth through eighth in the conference. Carin Walker, Shaquita Young and Saniel Atkinson have all gone over the bar at 5-8.50 and Latroya Darrell has cleared 5-8.
"We are looking for improvement over 2009 which will indicate that the teams are moving in the right direction as we work on being a good outdoor team and rising in the SEC final rankings," Norton said. "The important thing is that we must compete hard."
The Georgia men completed the 2009 SEC meet with an eighth-place finish (47 points). In addition to Lawrence's 200 title, other highlights included senior Ross Ridgewell flying to runner-up honors in the 800 and Freeman taking third in the weight. Barrineau also added four points with a fifth-place finish in the heptathlon.
The Lady Bulldogs had the lowest finish at an SEC indoor meet in program history last year after scoring the second-fewest points (14) in history. While the distance medley team picked up a third-place finish, only two more women scored in three events for Georgia. Krueger made the best of her debut at a league meet by taking eighth in the mile and Sarah Madebach scored in both the 3000 and 5000.
Live results and recaps following each day of the three-day meet will be available at georgiadogs.com.
The men's heptathlon is scheduled to kick off the meet on Friday at 2 p.m. EDT with the 60-meter dash. Georgia's Tommy Barrineau, Cory Holman and David Silverstein will join the rest of the heptathlon field in their first four events on Friday before wrapping up on Saturday with the final three.
Lady Bulldog freshman Lucie Ondraschkova is expected to compete in the women's pentathlon starting with the 60 hurdles at 2:30 p.m. Friday. The pentathletes are scheduled to finish all five of their events on Friday.
The first individual event of the meet is the men's hammer at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The pole vault at 1 p.m. Saturday is the first event scheduled for the women.
"We are in fairly good shape going into the SEC meet," said head coach Wayne Norton, whose teams picked up six NCAA provisional qualifying marks and one NCAA automatic qualifying mark at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville on Feb. 26-28. "We have had numerous personal bests in each meet so I feel like many of our athletes are on the verge of great performances this weekend. The facility is great so we need to do our best. I do not have any doubt that we will do well."
Georgia has several team members near the top of the conference performance lists going into the meet. Sophomore Torrin Lawrence, who was Georgia's only 2009 SEC indoor champion (200), has the world's fastest 400 time (45.03) this year and also has the league's second-fastest 200 this year (20.80) behind Kentucky's Rondel Sorrillo (20.77). Lawrence has automatically qualified to compete in both events at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Junior Tommy Barrineau is topping the SEC performance list in the heptathlon after exploding for a career-high 5,608 points earlier this season. Also vying for a win in the heptathlon will be Bulldog junior Cory Holman, who has the fifth-fastest time in the 60 hurdles this season. Holman is third in the league standings with 5,538 points.
Senior John Freeman unleashed a career-best weight throw of 61 feet, 8 inches to take over the third spot on the SEC list. Also in the weight, senior Branislav Danis is in the fifth spot (66-4.50) and senior David Schiedt is ranked sixth (61-4.25).
Also in the throws, fellow senior Israel Machovec is holding down the No. 2 position in the shot put after reaching 60-6.75 while his freshman teammate Petr Novotny is third (58-1.25).
On the women's side, sophomore Nikola Lomnicka is leading the conference and is tied for fourth in the nation with a top weight throw mark of 67-6.75. In addition, junior Alesha Asijie has a mark of 61 feet in the weight and is fourth in the SEC.
Sophomore Kristie Krueger registered a career-best 4:41.64 at the Tyson meet and is No. 2 on the league mile list. Senior Bridget Lyons has clocked the third-fastest time in the 5000 in the SEC (16:36.03, also at Tyson) and is gunning to end her indoor career as a scorer.
In the high jump, the Lady Bulldogs have four competitors who have cleared 5-8 or better and are ranked fifth through eighth in the conference. Carin Walker, Shaquita Young and Saniel Atkinson have all gone over the bar at 5-8.50 and Latroya Darrell has cleared 5-8.
"We are looking for improvement over 2009 which will indicate that the teams are moving in the right direction as we work on being a good outdoor team and rising in the SEC final rankings," Norton said. "The important thing is that we must compete hard."
The Georgia men completed the 2009 SEC meet with an eighth-place finish (47 points). In addition to Lawrence's 200 title, other highlights included senior Ross Ridgewell flying to runner-up honors in the 800 and Freeman taking third in the weight. Barrineau also added four points with a fifth-place finish in the heptathlon.
The Lady Bulldogs had the lowest finish at an SEC indoor meet in program history last year after scoring the second-fewest points (14) in history. While the distance medley team picked up a third-place finish, only two more women scored in three events for Georgia. Krueger made the best of her debut at a league meet by taking eighth in the mile and Sarah Madebach scored in both the 3000 and 5000.
Live results and recaps following each day of the three-day meet will be available at georgiadogs.com.
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