University of Georgia Athletics
University of Georgia
Sea Ray Relays
Georgia Sweeps Sea Ray Relays In Decathlon, Heptathlon
April 14, 2011 | Track & Field
April 14, 2011
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. --- The Bulldogs finished 1-2-3 in the decathlon and claimed a victory in the heptathlon to complete a memorable two days at the Sea Ray Relays in Knoxville, Tenn., on Thursday.
Junior Michael Ayers shot to second on UGA's all-time top-10 list to cruise to a victory in the decathlon with 7,659 points. Sophomore Ben Davies, who moved to fourth in the school record books, was second with 7,385 points as senior Tommy Barrineau took third with 7,363 points. All four Bulldogs, including 10th-place finisher David Silverstein (6,336), wrapped up the competition with personal-best point totals.
Freshman Lucie Ondraschkova scored the second-most points of her career (5,447) in the heptathlon to edge Kentucky's Precious Nwokey by 138 points. Ondraschkova won all three events on Thursday, including a career-best finish of 2:14.43 in the 800-meter run.
"The weather was great and I thought this was an outstanding opener for all of our folks," said Georgia multi-events coach Petros Kyprianou, who expects both Ayers and Ondraschkova to advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships with theirs scores. "They could have done a little better in a couple of events, but I am pleased with the results. I thought Lucie had a really good finale in the 800 and I'm proud of the way she closed out the meet. All of the guys battled the whole way through, although they had some problems in the pole vault. I'm encouraged for the future after this meet."
Davies led the Georgia charge in the opening event on Thursday by taking fifth in the 110 hurdles (a season-best 15.18). Ayers, Silverstein and Barrineau took ninth, 10th and 11th, respectively, in the decathlon's sixth event.
Davies then topped Ayers in the discus for the win in the discus by three feet. Davies hit a mark of 132-9 on her final attempt as Ayers took second with a throw of 129-10.
Despite not hitting 16 feet, the Bulldogs finished first, third and fourth in the pole vault. Ayers, who has gone over the bar at 17 feet in his career, passed on 16 heights in the competition and cleared 15-9 on his second attempt to win.
Georgia flexed its strength in the javelin by claiming the first three spots. Davies (200-2) broke 200 feet for the second time this season to finished ahead of Barrineau (190-11) for the top spot. Ayers claimed third place with a throw of 176-5.
Barrineau sped to a personal-best finish of 4:31.36 in the 1500 to shoot himself into third place overall with a victory in the event. Ayers clinched his win in the decathlon after taking sixth with a time of 4:52.89, while Davies, who had to pause during the race to deal with cramps, was still 10th.
In the heptathlon, Ondraschkova started the day by reaching at least 19-5 in the long jump in her second consecutive meet. Ondraschkova split two fouls with a mark of 19-5.25 to pick up a 1 ¾ inches win.
The Opava, Czech Republic, native returned in the javelin and built to a third throw that measured 116-8. This was Ondraschkova's first fair mark of the year in the javelin.
In the 800, Ondraschkova trimmed four seconds off of her 2010 personal best and topped Nwokey by four tenths of a second. Her final event's performance boosted her final score 901 points and inched her closer to her personal-best score of 5,467.
The rest of Georgia's teams will compete at the War Eagle Invitational in Auburn, Ala., on Friday and Saturday.
