Track Competitors Set For Next Week’s NCAA Championships

ATHENS, Ga. --- The Bulldog track and field team will have 11 competitors in a total of 10 events at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, N.M., on March 10-11, according to an NCAA announcement.

The seventh-ranked Georgia men will have senior Matthew Boling (200-meter dash, 4x400m relay), senior Elija Godwin (400m, 4x400m relay), freshman Will Sumner (800m, 4x400m relay), junior Caleb Cavanaugh (4x400m relay), freshman Christopher Morales Williams (4x400m relay), senior Johannes Erm (heptathlon) and senior Kyle Garland (heptathlon) representing them. One of the relay legs will serve as an alternate.

The 10^th-ranked Lady Bulldogs will feature freshman Kaila Jackson (60m, 200m), freshman Autumn Wilson (60m, 200m), sophomore Elena Kulichenko (high jump), senior Titiana Marsh (long jump, triple jump) and junior Mikeisha Welcome (triple jump).

ESPN+ will stream the Championships live starting at 11:30 a.m. ET Friday, March 10 and starting at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, March 11. There will be two re-airs of the meet. The first re-air will take place starting at 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 12 on ESPNU. The second re-air of the meet will take place starting at 7 p.m. Monday, March 13 on ESPNU.

Here's a look at those Bulldogs who qualified:

Boling, a native of Houston, Texas, will be making his third appearance at the NCAA indoor meet. Boling is a seven-time First Team All-American indoors: set a school record to win the 200m title in 2021, took seventh in the long jump and was on the fourth place 4x400m relay; finished fifth in the 60m, was third in the long jump, ran a leg on the fourth-place 4x400m relay team and advanced to the 200m final but was disqualified last year.
Godwin, a native of Covington, Ga., will also be appearing at his third indoor Nationals. He is a two-time First Team All-American indoors after running on both of the aforementioned relays in 2021 and 2022. Godwin has advanced twice to the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 400m, taking 14^th last year and ninth in 2021.
Cavanaugh, a native of Houston, Texas, and former high school teammate of Boling's, also scored on both of those relays during the 2021-22 indoor seasons.
Erm, a native of Tallinn, Estonia, has scored at the NCAA Indoor Championships twice, taking fourth in the heptathlon in 2018 and fifth in 2019. He was the country's top-ranked heptathlete in 2020 before the meet was canceled a day before the meet due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Garland, a native of Philadelphia, Pa., has posted second-place finishes at both the 2021 and 2022 Nationals, scoring 6,200 points in the heptathlon at both meets. Garland was ranked third nationally in the heptathlon headed into NCAAs before the meet's cancelation.
Kulichenko, a native of Odintsovo, Russia, scored a point to become a First Team All-American during her freshman year after taking eighth in the high jump last year. The 2022 SEC Indoor Freshman Field Athlete of the Year recently cleared a personal record 1.92 meters/6 feet, 3 ½ inches to earn runner-up honors at SECs.
Marsh, a native of Chester, Va., competed in both the triple and long jumps at the 2021 and 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships and is aiming to score for the first time at the meet this year. She also qualified in the triple for the 2020 canceled meet.
Welcome, a native of Saint Vincent who transferred from Oklahoma, scored in the triple jump at the 2021 NCAA Indoor Championships with a seventh-place showing and was 13^th at last year's meet for the Sooners. She, too, was qualified in the triple prior to the pandemic three years ago.

This marks the first trip to the NCAA Championships for freshmen Sumner, Williams, Jackson and Wilson.

Georgia will train through this weekend before traveling to Albuquerque. The Bulldogs have already competed in New Mexico at the facility once this regular season during the Dr. MLK Jr. Invitational on Jan. 21.

Last year, the Bulldogs scored 23 points to take eighth at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Ala., while the Georgia women were 46^th (2.2 points).

Where To Find Bulldogs News: Results and recaps from the NCAA Indoor 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.

Track Competitors Set For Next Week’s NCAA Championships

Players Mentioned

Matthew Boling

Caleb Cavanaugh

Johannes Erm

Kyle Garland

Elija Godwin

Kaila Jackson

Elena Kulichenko

Titiana Marsh

Christopher Morales Williams

Will Sumner

Mikeisha Welcome

Autumn Wilson

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