UGA track begins SEC championship competition

The fifth-ranked Georgia women and Lady Bulldogs traveled to Oxford, Miss., on Tuesday in preparation for the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championships at the Ole Miss Track & Field Complex scheduled for Thursday through Saturday.

Ole Miss last played host to the SEC meet in 2004 during a meet that the Georgia men and women each finished third overall.

When Do The Bulldogs Start?: Four Georgia women – juniors Ana da Silva, Mia Anderson, Elsie Igberaese and sophomore Charlotte Cattermole-Williams – will start the meet in the women’s hammer throw at 1 p.m. ET.  Senior Johannes Erm begins the decathlon competition for Bulldog men with the 100-meter dash at 3 p.m. on the first day followed by the dec’s long jump, shot put, high jump and 400m.  The first open event on the track for UGA is the women’s 800m prelims with senior Halle McClintock and sophomore Charlotte Augenstein slated to run at 7:30 p.m.

Who Is Ranked In The SEC?: A total of 16 SEC men and women’s track and field programs are included in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) top 25 national rankings released Monday, including 10 in the top 10.  A nation-leading eight SEC men’s teams are ranked: No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 LSU, No. 5 GEORGIA, No. 6 Texas A&M, No. 12 Tennessee, No. 15 Kentucky and No. 18 Arkansas.

A nation-best eight SEC women’s teams are also ranked in the top 25: No. 2 Texas A&M, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 LSU, No. 5 Arkansas, No. 7 Kentucky, No. 17 South Carolina, No. 20 Ole Miss and No. 22 Auburn.

Where To Catch The SEC Championships: The ESPN broadcast talent includes Dwight Stones, Dan O’Brien, John Anderson and Larra Overton during the meet coverage.

SEC Network+ / SEC Network info:

Day One – Thursday, May 12

SEC Network+ - 1:00-7:15 PM (Stream Only): http://gado.gs/9bd

SEC Network+ - 7:30-10:30 PM (Broadcast): http://gado.gs/9be

Day Two – Friday, May 13

SEC Network+ - 2:45-6:45 PM (Stream Only): http://gado.gs/9bf

SEC Network+ - 7:00-10:30 PM (Broadcast): http://gado.gs/9bg

Day Three – Saturday, May 14

SEC Network+ - 1:30-5:45 PM (Stream Only): http://gado.gs/9bh

SEC Network - 6:00-10:00 PM (Broadcast): http://gado.gs/9bi

Live Results: For results throughout the weekend, please visit: http://gado.gs/9bb

Coach Caryl’s Comments: “The SEC Championship meet is not only the start to the postseason, but it is also a display of the immense talent that our conference boasts year in and year out,” said first-year Bulldog head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert.  “Annually if you have success at this meet, you will have success in the next rounds so we have worked hard to prepare for these next three days.  I am still always looking for improvements to our personal bests and hoping that trend continues in Oxford.  Go Dawgs!”

What Bulldogs Are Competing?: For the Lady Bulldogs, graduate transfers Jamari Drake, Julia Harisay, seniors Imani Carothers, Destiny Jackson, Titiana Marsh, McClintock, juniors Anderson, Sara Bailey, Anna Marian Block, da Silva, Igberaese, Shelby Tyler, sophomores Augenstein, Cattermole-Williams and freshmen Eddiyah Frye and Elena Kulichenko traveled for SECs.

On the men’s side, graduate transfer Ty Kunzman, seniors Sam Bowers, Darius Carbin, Alejandro Collins, Delano Dunkley, Erm, Elija Godwin, Ahmed Magour, Clay Pender, Alencar Pereira, juniors Gavin Beverage, Matthew Boling, Caleb Cavanaugh, Wesley John, sophomore Chase Condra and freshmen Noah Hayes and Bryce McCray will represent Georgia.

Diploma Dawgs: A total of 17 Bulldogs are graduating on Friday, including Block, Dunkley, Erm, Jackson, Marsh, McClintock, Pender and Tyler who are competing at SECs.

Déjà vu Dawg: For the second time in his career, Boling has been named the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year.  After earning the 2021 indoor honor, the Houston, Texas, native is the 2022 outdoor honoree.  Boling has a 3.4 GPA in Marketing and was a CoSIDA Academic Third Team All-American last year as a sophomore.

Top-10 Bulldogs Abound: The Bulldogs have 10 individuals who are ranked in the top 10 nationally in a nine different events (SEC rankings also listed).

For the men:

200m – 1st  – Boling (school record 19.92)   *1st in SEC

High Jump – 1st – Carbin (school record 2.30m/7-6.50)   *1st in SEC

Decathlon – 1st – Kyle Garland (collegiate record 8,720 pts.)   *1st in SEC

4x400m relay – 3rd – Cavanaugh, Boling, McCray, Godwin (school record 3:02.10)   *3rd in SEC

100m – 4th – Boling (school record 9.98, top national wind-legal time)   *2nd in SEC

Hammer Throw – 8th – Pereira (70.74m/232-1)   *2nd in SEC

For the women:

High Jump – 5th – Kulichenko (1.87m/6-1.50)   *3rd in SEC

High Jump – 7th – Drake (1.86m/6-1.25)   *4th in SEC

Shot Put – 7th – da Silva (17.56m/57-7.50)   *2nd in SEC

Collegiate Record Goes Down At The Hands Of A Bulldog: While most of the Bulldogs trained through the weekend (May 6-7) following their competition at the Torrin Lawrence Memorial in Athens on April 30-May 1, junior decathlete Kyle Garland was hard at work in Fayetteville, Ark., at the USATF Combined Events Championships.  Garland, a native of Philadelphia, Pa., earned USTFCCCA National Men’s Athlete of the Week and SEC Men’s Field Athlete of the Week honors after annihilating the collegiate record in the decathlon to take second and earn a spot on Team USA for the coming World Athletics Championships.

Garland competed in just the fourth decathlon during his collegiate years and scored 8,720 points to take second behind former Bulldog All-American Garrett Scantling, who registered a world leading 8,867 points.  Posting six personal bests, three event victories and three adjustments to the Bulldog all-time top-10 lists, Garland shattered the collegiate record by 181 points (Texas A&M’s Lindon Victor, 8,539, 2017) and the school record by 236 points (Karel Tilga, 8,484. 2021).  He becomes the No. 8 all-time American performer thanks to his mammoth point total.

In addition, Garland is also one of the 17 Georgia team members who is graduating on Friday.

A Glimpse At The 2021 SEC Championships: The Lady Bulldogs scored 64 points to finish fifth at last year’s conference meet while the Georgia men tallied 48 points to take eighth.  Georgia combined to have 20 scorers, including league champions Marie-Therese Obst (javelin), Garland (decathlon) and Jasmine Moore (triple jump).  Six returning Bulldog competitors scored in individual events, including Boling’s second-place finish in the 100m and third-place mark in the 200m and Godwin’s bronze in the 400m.

What’s Next For The Bulldogs?: After the SEC meet, the Bulldogs will train through the next weekend before traveling to Bloomington, Ind., for the NCAA East Prelims (May 25-28).  The NCAA Championships will arrive in Eugene, Ore., for the second year in a row and for the ninth time in 13 years.  The Bulldog men captured the 2018 team national championship in the last meet before Oregon’s Hayward Field was renovated.

Where To Find Bulldogs News: Results and recaps from the SEC Outdoor 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.

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