Track & Field Set For Finale At NCAA Championships

Wednesday, June 8

Eugene, Ore.

All Day

University of Georgia

NCAA Outdoor Championships

202021 NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Outdoor Track & Field Championship21 NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Outdoor Track & Field Championship

Photo by: NCAA Photos via Getty Images

June 07, 2022 | Track & Field

2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships - Schedule Men's Start Lists Women's Start Lists 2022 NCAAOutdoor Championships - Meet Notes

EUGENE, Ore. --- Members of the Bulldog track and field program traveled to Eugene, Ore., this week before the NCAA Outdoor Championships arrive at Hayward Field on Wednesday through Saturday.

The top-ranked Bulldog men begin the meet on Wednesday after winning a team NCAA title at the same facility in 2018.  The 22^nd-ranked Lady Bulldogs come to the University of Oregon campus having finished in the top five at six of the last seven outdoor Nationals, including second-place finishes at the facility in 2017-18.

Oregon's Hayward Field recently underwent a $270 million renovation, which pushed the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships to Austin, Texas.  In addition to last summer's U.S. Olympic Trials, the 2022 World Athletics Championships are coming to the Ducks' campus on July 15-24.  Bulldog decathlete Kyle Garland, who is the collegiate record holder in the multi-events, has already punched his ticket to Worlds.

Georgia qualified 12 individuals in a combined 14 events from the NCAA East Prelims in Bloomington, Ind., on May 25-28.  Garland (NCAA No. 1) and senior decathlete Johannes Erm (NCAA No. 4) had already qualified automatically for the final round because of their national top-24 scores in the decathlon.

When Do The Bulldogs Start? Garland and Erm will start the meet for the Bulldogs in the decathlon's first event (100-meter dash) at 3:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday.  The duo will complete four more events (long jump, shot put, high jump, 400m) on the first day before wrapping up the final five on Thursday.

Junior Alencar Pereira begins the open events for the Bulldogs in the men's hammer throw at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.  Senior Titiana Marsh is the first Lady Bulldog to compete (long jump) on Thursday at 10 p.m.  Marsh will return to competition in the triple jump on Saturday.

Other than the decathlon running Wednesday-Thursday and the heptathlon going Friday-Saturday, the meet is set up to be a men's competition on Wednesday and Friday and a women's competition on Thursday and Saturday.

Where To Catch The NCAAs: ESPN has exclusive rights to broadcast the meet and will feature the Nationals on a variety of platforms:
Wednesday: 7:30 p.m., ESPNU
Thursday: 8:30 p.m., ESPNU
Friday: 9 p.m., ESPN2
Saturday: 5:30 p.m., ESPN

Live Results: To check out live results throughout the four-day season finale, please check: http://gado.gs/9dw

Coach Caryl's Comments: "After training and competing for 10 months, the time has come to line up against the country's best, and truly some of the world's best, at the NCAA Championships," said head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert.  "Our goal and mission has been to put ourselves in position to win and our men are knocking on that door.  While we only have four women going, I believe they will all score and provide a solid foundation for our teams going forward."

"Hayward Field in Oregon is an unbelievable facility and there will be overwhelming excitement there with NCAAs, the U.S. Championships and then World Championships all happening in the next two months. The key for us is reining in that excitement and transforming it into our best performances of the year. We are beyond fired up for the days to come and to see what we can produce. Go Dawgs!"

What Bulldogs Are Competing: For the women, graduate transfer Jamari Drake (high jump), Titiana Marsh (long jump/triple jump), junior Ana da Silva (shot put) and freshman Elena Kulichenko (high jump) will line up for the Lady Bulldogs.

On the men's side, Johannes Erm (decathlon), senior Elija Godwin (400m, 4x400m relay), Alencar Pereira (hammer throw), senior Ahmed Magour (javelin), senior Darius Carbin (high jump), senior Clay Pender (800m), juniors Matthew Boling (100m, 200m, 4x400m relay), Caleb Cavanaugh (400m hurdles, 4x400m relay), Kyle Garland (decathlon) and freshman Bryce McCray (4x400m relay) are slated to compete.

Honors Begin To Roll In: While the most important meet of the outdoor season is still to come, an SEC honor has already rolled in.  Kulichenko completed the indoor-outdoor sweep after being named the SEC Outdoor Women's Freshman Field Athlete of the Year.

In addition, Marsh and junior distance runner Wesley John were included on the SEC Community Service Team for their dedication to volunteering in order to help others.

FLASHBACK – 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships: Georgia crossed the country to Oregon last year and left with a pair of top-five team showings.  The Lady Bulldogs tallied 37.5 points to earn bronze medal honors while the Georgia men tallied 25 points for a fifth-place finish.

Here are past scoring performances from three Bulldogs returning in 2022:

Boling was fifth in the 200m, sixth in the 100m and ran a leg on the runner-up 4x100m relay. Godwin was also a leg on last year's silver medal relay team along with Arian Smith and Delano Dunkley.
Marsh was seventh in the triple jump after taking 17^th in the long jump.

Familiar – And Memorable – Confines In Eugene: The NCAA outdoor meet has been in Oregon nine times since 2010, including six years straight from 2013-18.  During that stretch, the Bulldogs have posted five "trophy finishes," which teams fourth place or better.

The Bulldog men closed the old Hayward Field out in style in 2018 after scoring 52 points to win the program's first NCAA team title, topping the nearest competitor by 10 points.  The Lady Bulldogs came up one point short of a national championship that year after USC, led by Smith Gilbert, pulled ahead 53-52 in the meet's finale, the 4x400m relay, to edge UGA.  The Georgia women had already captured the 2018 NCAA indoor team title that year.

Did You Know? During that Lady Trojan victory in the 2018 4x400m relay that bumped the Lady Bulldogs to second, current Georgia assistant Deanna Hill ran the third leg for USC and improved her team's position from fourth to third before the anchor leg took control.  The Lady Trojans edged Purdue by .07 after the Lady Boilermakers had a sizable lead through three legs.

A Glimpse From The Dogs' Last Action: The Bulldogs continued their 2022 postseason at the NCAA East Prelims on the University of Indiana's campus on May 25-28.

Here is a breakdown of Georgia's qualifying performances from the meet:

Cavanaugh ran the fastest time in the 400m hurdle quarterfinals of 49.59 to clinch his second consecutive spot in the field and better his No. 4 spot in the school record books.
Da Silva continued her torrid pace in the shot put, recording the second-best mark (17.99 meters/59 feet, ¼ inches) in her first year with Georgia.
For the second NCAA outdoor meet in a row, Marsh will be competing in both the triple and long jumps after going second (6.37/20-10.75) and fourth (13.22/43-4.50), respectively, in Indiana.
Boling finished third in the 200m (20.24), 11^th in the 100m (10.18) and ran a leg on the sixth-place 4x400m relay (3:03.77). Cavanaugh, McCray and Godwin joined Boling on the relay.
Godwin had the fourth-fastest 400m time (45.35) in the quarterfinals to advance for the second year in a row.
Pereira punched his second straight ticket in the hammer throw thanks to a toss of 69.02/226-5 to take fourth.
Arriving to UGA prior to the pandemic, Magour made his long-awaited NCAA postseason debut and finished fourth in the Prelims (72.52/237-11).
Kulichenko went over the bar at 1.84/6-0.50 to tie for sixth in the high jump after earning First Team All-America honors indoors.
Drake made it two Lady Bulldogs in the high jump with a matching clearance of 1.84/6-0.50.
Carbin had a high jump clearance of 2.15m/7-0.50 to finish ninth after last competing at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2019 (was a First Team All-American taking seventh that season).
Pender will be making his NCAA Championships debut with a 10^th-place finish in the 800m thanks to a 1:48.77, which was the final time qualifier to get into the meet from the East Prelims.

Results and recaps from the NCAA 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.