Track Travels to Florida, Raleigh Relays

Thursday, March 28

Gainesville, FL

All Day

University of Georgia

Florida Relays

March 27, 2019 | Track & Field

Raleigh Relays Start Lists Raleigh Relays Schedule Florida Relays Schedule Thursday Start Lists - Florida Relays Friday Heat Sheets

ATHENS, Ga. --- The Bulldog track and field teams will open another group of their team members at the Florida Relays in Gainesville, Fla., starting on Thursday and at the Raleigh Relays in Raleigh, N.C., beginning on Friday.

This weekend's meet builds up to next week's annual Spec Towns Invitational and Bulldog Decathlon & Heptathlon on the Spec Towns Track in Athens.  Georgia's two-day home competition begins on Friday, April 5 and continues through Saturday, April 6.

What Bulldogs Are Competing & When: Action this week will start at the Florida Relays on Thursday afternoon and continue through Saturday evening.  Junior Micaiah Ransby is slated to open the meet for UGA in the women's 200-meter dash at 2 p.m. on Thursday.  Day two will start with senior Hayden Merrick in the women's discus at 11:30 a.m. on Friday.  Senior Denzel Comenentia is scheduled to compete in the men's discus Invitational at 11 a.m. on Saturday to start the meet's final day.

Seniors Michael Nicholls, Merrick, Comenentia, Jonathan Raines, Daniel Navarro, juniors Ransby, Tiffany Yue, Amber Tanner, Kayla Smith, Makenzi Kopp, Tairyn Montgomery, Marie-Therese Obst, Katie Jackson, sophomores Lynna Irby, Chelsea Zoller, Justes Nance, Jack Bradley, Davis Stockwell, Nate Reichard and freshmen Darr Smith, Elija Godwin, Courtney Long, Ziggy Zoller, Grace Clements, Marisa Petit, Quinn Burden and Emma Rose Bagwell are scheduled to compete in Gainesville.

Meanwhile, sophomore Halle McClintock will start the Raleigh Relays for Georgia on Friday in the 1500m at 5:40 p.m.  All seven Bulldogs traveling to this meet will compete on Friday.

Senior Grace Tavani, juniors Jessica Drop, Ansley Heavern, sophomores McClintock, Michael Hans and freshmen Sam Bowers and Clay Pender will compete in Raleigh.

Live Results: For live results for the Florida Relays, please visit: gado.gs/1vv.
For live results for the Raleigh Relays, please visit: gado.gs/21r.

Live Video: Here is where to check out live video from the Florida Relays on Friday and Saturday:
Friday(SEC Network + / Watch ESPN) – 1-5 p.m.: gado.gs/21v
Saturday(SEC Network + / Watch ESPN) – 2:30-7:45 p.m.: gado.gs/21x

Here is where to check out live video from the Raleigh Relays on Friday and Saturday:
Friday(ACC Network Extra) – 7 p.m.: gado.gs/21z
Saturday(ACC Network Extra) – 1:20 p.m.: gado.gs/221

Kyprianou's Comments: "The Florida Relays and Raleigh Relays will serve as a nice dust-off for our runners as they will predominantly feature relays and distance events," said head coach Petros Kyprianou.  "We look forward to some good weather to get our student-athletes acclimated to the outdoor season and get through the weekend in good health.  Next week, we have our true opener for everyone at our home meet with the famous Spec Towns Invitational and Bulldog Decathlon/Heptathlon and we expect there to be Bulldog fans to cheer us on! "

Glimpse At The Bulldogs' 2019 Outdoor Opener: The Bulldogs opened their outdoor season at the Yellow Jacket Invitational in Atlanta on March 15-16.  Godwin clocked a career best 10.47 into -0.4 wind to be the top 100m finisher in the 33-man field. This finish ranked No. 13 nationally and made him the No. 4 freshman nationally and the No. 3 SEC performer this year. Godwin, who was named the SEC Freshman of the Week, returned to win the 200m with a 20.90, which is his fastest time of 2019 and second best of his career, to move to No. 3 nationally as the top freshman and No. 2 competitor from the SEC.  Bowers won the 5000m during the meet's first day with a 14:49.41 as junior Jonathan Pelham was third (15:00.32) and Navarro was fifth (15:09.55).

On the women's side, Montgomery worked up to a fourth throw of 149 feet, 8 inches in the javelin to take third. In the high jump, freshman Sakari Famous cleared 5-7 on her second try to tie for second.  Merrick had a second toss of 158-2 in the discus to open with a third-place finish. Heavern was also the runner-up in the 5000m after registering a 17:36.26 while Yue was fifth (18:00.36).  Also of note, sophomore Skyla Beal lifted her second shot put attempt a personal record 43-1.50 for sixth

Last Time At The Florida Relays: Georgia last traveled to the Florida Relays in 2016 and left with a number of exceptional performances.  Maurice Freeman ran in the 200m Invite and finished third with a career-best time of 20.64.  Freeman and Raytez Jenkins joined Ayrian Evans and Derrick White in the 4x400m relay and were fifth with a season-best time of 3:07.44. A pair of senior Bulldog 800m runners left the track with 1:48s in their season debuts. Kisean Smith clocked a career-best time of 1:48.61 for 11th place in the 800m while Christian Harrison was one spot behind with a 1:48.65.

In the throws, Alex Poursanidis matched his personal record in the hammer set at the 2017 Florida Relays and was the top collegiate finisher (second overall) in the hammer at 229-11. Taking third in the collegiate ranks (fifth overall) was Comenentia, who took over the No. 8 spot on the Bulldogs' all-time top-10 list with a top effort of 227-9.  Ashinia Miller won his third straight meet in the shot put with a 63-8.25 while Comenentia opened his outdoor career in the event with the school's seventh-best throw in history (61-7.50). Zack Sims also grabbed a runner-up finish in the 5000m (14:17.84).

For the women, Shelby Ashe responded to a pair of opening fouls with a sixth throw of 203 feet, 6 inches to take eighth in the hammer throw Invite. This was a season-best effort of Ashe and moved her to No. 12 on the national list.

Glimpse At Where This Season Will Take The Dogs: This weekend's meets mark the second and third of seven scheduled regular season outdoor meets over five weekends, including the Spec Towns Invitational & Bulldog Decathlon/Heptathlon (April 5-6) and the third-annual Torrin Lawrence Memorial (April 26-27) in Athens.

The SEC Championships will arrive on May 9-11 in Fayetteville, Ark., with the NCAA East Prelims scheduled for May 23-25 in Jacksonville, Fla.  The 2019 and 2020 NCAA Championships are in Austin, Texas, on June 5-8 while historic Hayward Field at the University of Oregon is being renovated.

How To Keep Up With The Dogs: Results and recaps from the Florida Relays and Raleigh Relays will be found at georgiadogs.com.  News and updates from Georgia's track and field and cross country teams are always located on Twitter/Instagram at@UGATrack.