Georgia Track and Field begins at Georgia Tech Saturday

ATHENS, Ga. — Just six days removed from Georgia finishing with a pair of top-15 finishes at the 2024 NCAA Indoor Championships, the Bulldog track and field teams return to work in their outdoor opener on Saturday at the Yellow Jacket Invitational in Atlanta.

This meet was originally scheduled to be a two-day meet, however the rain on Friday pushed all events to just Saturday.

The Competition: Auburn, Augusta, Belmont, IUPUI, Kennesaw State, Lipscomb, Mercer, Middle Tennessee State, Missouri, Oglethorpe, Ole Miss, Reinhardt, Shorter, UAB and Western Kentucky are expected to join Georgia and the Yellow Jackets at the meet.

When Do The Dogs Start: A number of Bulldogs will take the George C. Griffin Track in the first event on Saturday, the women’s 5000 meters. Audrey Knoper, Katherine Law, Bella Cammarota, Gracie O’Neal and Lorel Golden will race at 9 a.m. to start the meet. Cooper Bocko and Diego Santiago-Cardona are slated to compete in the men’s 5000m immediately after the women’s race.

Live Results: For a glimpse at results from Saturday’s meet, please visit: http://gado.gs/bkk

Coach Caryl’s Comments: “It’s always a quick turnaround when we start the outdoor season less than a week after an indoor season that lasted for two and a half months,” said Georgia head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert. “But it’s been a month or maybe longer since many of our team members have had the opportunity to compete so we are excited to bust the rust off in Atlanta. We will be featuring only our middle distance and distance group at the Yellow Jacket meet with many of our others opening up next weekend in Miami. We had a convincing finish for the women indoors as they took third at the NCAA Indoor Championships. And I saw a number of things to be optimistic about on the men’s side so I am excited to get the outdoor season going and see what these groups can develop into. GO DAWGS!”

What Dogs Are Competing: On the women’s side, Charlotte Augenstein, Lily Cincola, Nina Ouellette, Simone Rojas, Kieley Gayle, Samantha Aromin, Bella Cammarota, Caitlin Schroeder, Ashley Thompson, Audrey Knoper, Katherine Law, Gracie O’Neal, Bella Brick, Lorel Golden and Ella Kepple are the Lady Bulldogs scheduled to make the trip to Georgia Tech.

For the men, Cooper Bocko, Andrew Balogh, Logan Dingman, John Jessup, Ryan Olree, Zack Truitt, Luke Churchwell, Conner Inman, Wesley John, Kushan Patel, Jake Westing, Diego Santiago-Cardona, Luke Kalarickal and Ethan Nordman are slated to compete in the outdoor opener.

Glimpse At Where This Season Will Take The Dogs: The outdoor opener marks the first of nine scheduled regular season outdoor meets over seven weekends. Next up will be the Hurricane Collegiate Invitational in Miami, Fla., on March 23.

The SEC Championships will arrive on May 9-11 in Gainessville, Fla., with the NCAA East Prelims scheduled for May 22-25 in Lexington, Ky. The 2024 NCAA Championships return to the site of this year’s U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., on June 5-8. The Trials will run June 21-30 at the Hayward Field facility.