Dogs Return To Arkansas For SEC T&F Meet

Thursday, May 9

Fayetteville, Ark.

All Day

University of Georgia

SEC Outdoor Championships

May 08, 2019 | Track & Field

Schedule SEC Championships Meet Notes Men's Start Lists Women's Start Lists

ATHENS, Ga. --- Members of the Bulldog track and field program traveled to Fayetteville, Ark., on Wednesday in preparation for the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championships, which will be run at John McDonnell Field from Thursday through Saturday.

The Georgia women and Bulldog men will be back competing at the conference level for the first time since both taking seventh at this year's SEC indoor meet, also held on the University of Arkansas campus in late February.

UGA's last trip to the Arkansas outdoor facility was for the 2009 NCAA Championships.  The last time the Bulldogs competed at the Razorbacks' home for the SEC Outdoor Championships was in 2006.  The Georgia women completed the indoor-outdoor sweep during that visit after winning the SEC indoor crown in Gainesville, Fla., that year.

Ten combined top-10 teams will be battling each other at the SEC meet, including second-ranked LSU on the men's side and No. 1 Arkansas in the women's poll.  The Georgia men are 15^thin the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) poll while the Lady Bulldogs are 19^th.

When Do The Bulldogs Start Competition?Senior Denzel Comenentia will attempt to become just the fourth competitor in SEC history to win three conference hammer throw titles (third to win three in a row) beginning at 1 p.m. on Thursday.

Two Bulldog decathletes – freshmen Karel Tilga and Ziggy Zoller – will start their first of 10 events with the 100-meter dash at 3 p.m. on the first day.  They will complete four more events (long jump, shot put, high jump, 400m) on Thursday before wrapping up the final five events on Friday.

Freshman Sterling Lester will begin her first SEC heptathlon at 3:20 p.m. with the 100m hurdles.  Lester and the rest of the field will also complete the high jump, shot put and 200m during the meet's first day.

Another freshman, Clay Pender, will start Georgia's action on the track in the men's 800m prelims at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Where To Catch The SEC Championships: The SEC meet will air on SEC Network+ for the first two days of competition.  Saturday's action will be live on the SEC Network starting at 6 p.m.  The broadcast talent includes Dwight Stones (play-by-play), Larra Overton and Jill Montgomery (analysts) and John Anderson (sideline).

Kyprianou's Comments: "We are ready to head to Arkansas and jumpstart the postseason while trying to capitalize on some youngsters' performances who appear to be very promising for reaching our main goal, which is having success at the NCAA Championships," said fourth-year head coach Petros Kyprianou.  "Every time you compete at SECs, the pride and competitive juices are extremely high and we are eager to enter that mode.  Our student-athletes, while finishing up their finals, are starting to get focused on the big picture like we have preached to them all year long.

"We are expecting bad weather in Fayetteville but we will get our warm clothes and rain gear and go head to head with some of the best in the world.  All in all, it is our favorite time of the year and we want to close our season on a high note, especially a month from now!  Go Dawgs!"

What Bulldogs Are Competing: Seniors Mady Fagan, Grace Tavani, Hailey Branch, Hayden Merrick, Comenentia, Keenon Laine, Michael Nicholls, Jonathan Raines, Daniel Navarro, Jonathan Pelham, juniors Amber Tanner, Micaiah Ransby, Kayla Smith, Marie-Therese Obst, Ansley Heavern, Jessica Drop, Darius Carbin, sophomores Aliyah Whisby, Chelsea Zoller, Halle McClintock, Michael Hans, Antonios Merlos, Johannes Erm, Justes Nance and freshmen Imani Carothers, Lester, Titiana Marsh, Emma Rose Bagwell, Courtney Long, Sakari Famous, Sam Bowers, Tilga, Pender and Ziggy Zoller are slated to compete over the weekend.

Away From Home During Graduation: The meet runs from Thursday through Saturday, which means that seven Bulldogs will be on another SEC campus while the rest of their spring 2019 class graduates in Athens.  Smith(pole vault; Sociology), Fagan(high jump; Master in Study of Law), Tavani(10,000m; Communication Studies, Spanish), Branch(5000m; Communication Studies), Raines(200m, 4x100m relay; Finance), Navarro(10,000m; Sport Management) and Pelham(3000m steeplechase; International Affairs, Political Science) will be competing in an array of events over their graduation weekend.

Jeramey Hampton, Raytez Jenkins, Tyler Jones, Keturah Orji (Master's in Sport Administration), Emily Savage,Mary TerryandBailey Weilandwill representing their Georgia teammates at the ceremony on the UGA campus.

A Flashback From The 2018 SEC Outdoor Championships: Georgia traveled to Knoxville, Tenn., for last year's league meet and it included a host of performances that helped build momentum going into the NCAA Outdoor Championships:

Orji traveled a collegiate record distance of 47 feet, 11 ¾ inches to capture her fourth outdoor triple jump title in a row.
The Mount Olive, N.J., native also traveled a meet and school record distance of 22-4.25 to grab top honors in the long jump, her first championship in that event.
For the second straight year, Comenentia collected championships in both the shot put (68-6) and the hammer throw (meet record 249-1).
Highlighted by a wind-legal 9.9 in the 100m, Kendal Williams swept the 100m and 200m.
Tatiana Gusin cleared 6 feet in the high jump to lock down the title.
Lynna Irby came within .02 of the meet record and .06 of the school record with a 22.25 to win the 200m.
Karl Saluri concluded his conference career by winning his first SEC decathlon crown.
Drop was five seconds ahead of the third-place finisher with a 16:15.30 for runner-up honors in the 5000m.
Laine went over the high jump bar at 7-3.25 to take third.
Yanely Gomez managed to take third in the 10,000m after completing her 25 laps in 35:13.47.

A Glimpse From The Dogs' Last Action: The Bulldogs' fifth and final regular season meet weekend of the year was in their backyard with the third annual Torrin Lawrence Memorial.

Here is a breakdown of Georgia's highlights from Athens on April 26-27:

Laine and Carbin both hit the 7-foot mark yet again to go 1-2 in the high jump. Laine reached 7-2.50 on his second try while Carbin finished at 7-1.50 after clearing on his third try.
Freshman Elija Godwin swept the 200m and the 400m to highlight Georgia's events on the track. His 20.59 moved him to ninth on the school's all-time list and put him 19^th on the national list. Godwin returned in the 400m and won with a 45.92 which improved his No. 7 spot in the UGA record books and 17^th on the national performance list.
Comenentia hit a season-best mark of 189 feet in the discus and rested in both the shot put and hammer throw.
Erm won the open long jump with a 25-2 as he continued to train for his postseason in the decathlon.
Whisby opened with an effort of 22-2.25 in the long jump, which gave her the lead in the competition, improved her national lead, moved her to No. 2 on the all-time UGA list and shot to fourth on the 2019 world list.
Marsh returned after the long jump to grab top collegiate honors in the triple jump. Soaring a personal best 44-2.75 on her second try, Marsh traveled 44-8.75 on her fifth attempt to be second behind only Orji, who shot to second on the 2019 world list with the second-longest mark of her career (48-1.25). This effort made Marsh the top freshman nationally and ranked No. 6 on the NCAA list. She stands third on UGA's all-time top-10 list.
A week after hitting a personal record of 14-1.75, Smith reached the 14-foot mark again at 14-0 to finish first in the pole vault.
Lester bettered her personal record to 13.32 in the open 100m hurdles, which ranks sixth on the school's all-time list.
Obst won in the javelin at 157-2 while Merrick was the top collegiate finisher in the discus with the fourth-best effort in school history
Famous inched up in the high jump to 5-10 to grab top honors.

Last Time In Fayetteville: Georgia last competed in Fayetteville outdoors when the Razorbacks hosted the 2009 NCAA Championships. The Bulldog men scored 19 points, including an individual national championship, to take 11^thwhile the Georgia women did not score at the meet for the first time since 1994.

Here are the highlights from that meet:

Not long before winning the javelin at the USA Championships with a school record mark of 275-2, Chris Hill topped the nearest competitor by 20 feet to win the javelin title with a long effort of 268-4.
School record holder Justin Gaymon ran a 49.02 to take third in the 400m hurdles.
The Bulldogs managed to go 7-8 in the hammer as Nate Rolfe reached 214-7 and John Freeman countered with a toss of 213-3.

Team Trophy Hoisted At Arkansas: The last time the Bulldogs competed at the SEC Outdoor Championships in Fayetteville, the Georgia women returned with the team trophy in 2006. Completing the indoor-outdoor sweep that year, the Lady Bulldogs had Kierney Jackson (pole vault), Levern Spencer (high jump), Jenny Dahlgren (hammer throw), Patricia Sylvester (long jump, triple jump) and Krista Woodward (javelin) all win league titles at the meet.

Down The Line: Following this weekend's SEC action, Georgia will then rest and train through the next weekend before the NCAA East Prelims arrive in Jacksonville, Fla., on May 23-25. Those qualified will then continue their seasons during the final rounds at the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas, on June 5-8.

How To Keep Up With The Dogs: Results and recaps from the SEC Championships 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.