Track Set To Begin NCAA Postseason At Prelims

Thursday, May 23

Jacksonville, Fla.

All Day

University of Georgia

NCAA East Prelims

Photo by: Wesley Hitt

May 22, 2019 | Track & Field

Schedule Men's Start Lists Women's Start Lists NCAA Heptathlon List NCAA Decathlon List

ATHENS, Ga. --- The Georgia track and field teams traveled to Jacksonville, Fla., on Tuesday in preparation for the NCAA East Prelims, which will run at North Florida's facility from Thursday through Saturday.

The 17^th-ranked Georgia men and the 19^th-ranked Lady Bulldogs took a combined 16 team members to compete and have a total of 18 entries for the meet.  There are 48 competitors from the East Region in every individual event.

The NCAA West Prelims will be running simultaneously in Sacramento with the same format.  The top 12 in each event from both regions will advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Austin, Texas, on June 5-8.

A pair of Georgia team members have earned the right to skip the Prelims and qualified automatically for the NCAA Championships.  Sophomore Johannes Erm (decathlon) and freshman Sterling Lester (heptathlon) are ranked in the top 24 nationally (Erm – fourth; Lester – 22^nd) and have been included in the field already.

When Do The Bulldogs Start Competition?Senior Denzel Comenentia, who leads the country in the hammer throw, will begin the meet in the event at 12 p.m. on Thursday. Comenentia will also attempt to advance in the shot put and discus, which would be the first time he would have qualified in three events.  Junior Marie-Therese Obst will start for the women in the javelin at the same time on Thursday.

Georgia's first event on the track will the first round of the women's 400-meter dash at 7:20 p.m. on Thursday. Junior Micaiah Ransby will be the Bulldog representative in this race.  Two weeks after scoring in the 110m hurdles at the Southeastern Conference Championships, senior Michael Nicholls will start the action on the track for the men in the opening round of the 110m hurdles at 5 p.m. on Friday.

Temperatures are expected to be in the low 90s with mostly sunny skies all three days of the meet.  The winds are predicted to be more than 10 miles per hour each competition day.

Live Results: For live results between Thursday and Saturday, please click on: http://gado.gs/2qp.

Kyprianou's Comments: "Everyone is set and ready to go here in Jacksonville. Sunny, hot weather is predicted and we are excited for the first events to begin with conditions that will feel like the outdoor postseason," said head coach Petros Kyprianou. "We must continue to go by our motto of doing simple things extraordinarily well with laser focus and get the job done. The objective is to advance as many student-athletes to Austin as we can. There are no excuses and everyone is expected to give their all.  This is our time to prove many people right or wrong. This is not the time for celebrations but for hard, old-school grind and focus.

"There are a lot of hungry teams from all over our region that want that golden ticket to Texas. We have to be one of them and not be complacent with what has been done in the past. Go Dawgs!"

What Bulldogs Are Competing: The Lady Bulldogs have qualified the following competitors: seniors Mady Fagan (high jump), Hayden Merrick (discus), juniors Amber Tanner (800m), Jessica Drop (5000m), Ransby (400m), Obst (javelin), Kayla Smith (pole vault), sophomore Aliyah Whisby (long jump) and freshmen Imani Carothers (100m hurdles), Titiana Marsh (triple jump) and Sakari Famous (high jump).

The Bulldog men will be traveling this group: seniors Nicholls (110m hurdles), Keenon Laine (high jump), Comenentia (shot put, hammer throw, discus), junior Darius Carbin (high jump) and sophomore Antonios Merlos (high jump).

How The Dogs Fared At The 2018 NCAA East Prelims: With Louisa Grauvogel, Karl Saluri and Erm already qualified in the combined events, Georgia left last year's NCAA East Prelims with 20 additional qualifiers, including the men's 4x100m relay team.

Five of the student-athletes who advanced in six different events, including Nicholls as a leg on the 4x100m relay, are on this weekend's trip for the Bulldogs.

A Flashback From Last Year's East Prelims: Georgia traveled Tampa, Fla., for last year's meet.  This group of performers advanced to the NCAA Championships and then scored once they were there:

Comenentia won the hammer (241 feet, 1 inch) and was second in the shot put (66-8.75) to set up his historic NCAA double victory in the events.
Freshman Lynna Irby cruised into the final rounds with a 22.56 in the 200m for third and a 50.44 in the 400m to win the semifinal round.
Freshman Tara Davis (21-0.75) and senior Keturah Orji (21-0) went 1-2 in the long jump to set up big points in the event two weeks later.
As usual, Orji also cruised to a victory in the triple jump (46-1.50) before her fourth NCAA outdoor title in the event.
Junior Kendal Williams and senior Cejhae Greene finished the 100m semifinals with a 10.08 and a 10.15 for second and third place.
Williams also advanced in the 200m with a seventh-place finish (20.51) and went on to score nationally.
Laine cleared 7-1 to ease into the NCAA Championships while Merlos, who was tied for 18^thon the Prelims qualifying list coming into the meet, cleared 6-11 to advance and eventually score at Nationals.
Drop finished in a comfortable third in the 5000m after clocking a 16:12.58.
Senior Tatiana Gusin was one of 12 competitors to hit 5-10.75 and advance in the high jump.

A Glimpse From The Dogs' Last Action: The Bulldogs started the postseason at the SEC Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., on May 9-11.

Here is a breakdown of Georgia's highlights from the Razorbacks' campus:

Comenentia became the meet's top scorer and earned the SEC Commissioner's Trophy for the second consecutive year by winning the shot put for the third year in a row with a mark of 65-7, launching a season-best effort of 192 feet to take second in the discus and finishing as the runner-up in the hammer (234-6).
Freshman Karel Tilga piled up 7,236 points for second place in the decathlon while freshman Ziggy Zoller competed in his first 10-event competition and scored three points by taking sixth.
Tanner earned runner-up honors in the 800m after completing her two laps in 2:05.01.
Drop finished in the top three for the second consecutive year in the 5000m, taking third with a time of 15:54.83.
Obst reached 167-10 for third place in the javelin as she attempts to advance to her second NCAA meet in a row.
Lester tallied 5,534 for third-place honors in the heptathlon to tie for the best freshman field performance at the meet.
Smith hit a mark of 13-11.75 to tie for fourth in the pole vault.
Merrick worked up to a top effort of 168-6 to finish fifth in the discus.
Tanner combined with Ransby, Lester and Chelsea Zoller to take seventh in the 4x400m relay thanks to the third-best time in school history and best for UGA since 2002 (3:34.09).
Nicholls sped to a 13.81 to score in the 110m hurdle final, taking eighth place.

Results and recaps from the NCAA East Prelims 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.