Georgia Track & Field Sending Competitors To Boston, Nashville

ATHENS, Ga. — The Bulldogs will split up during their second indoor meet weekend of the year to Boston, Mass., for The Track at New Balance Collegiate Showdown and to Nashville, Tenn., for the Vanderbilt Invitational.

The meet in Boston is a one-day competition on Saturday at the site of this year’s NCAA Indoor Championships. The Vanderbilt event will run on Friday and Saturday and marks the first of two times that Georgia will travel across state lines to Nashville (Music City Challenge, Feb. 9-10).

When Do The Bulldogs Start?: Katherine Law will start the action at Vanderbilt in the women’s 5000 meters at 8:25 p.m. ET Friday. Ella Kepple, Charlotte Augenstein, Nina Ouellette and Simone Rojas will begin day two at the meet in the women’s 800m at 5 p.m. Saturday..

Live Results: For Vanderbilt Invite results throughout the weekend, please visit: http://gado.gs/b9i

For The Track at New Balance Collegiate Showdown results on Saturday, please visit: http://gado.gs/b9j

Coach Caryl’s Comments: “As we anticipated, we had a number of new faces emerge and have success last weekend, and a solid group of our returners had strong starts,” said Bulldog head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert. “This weekend, we have the power group testing out this year’s NCAA Indoor facility in Boston, which is always important to us, and our distance runners trying to record some fast times against a talented field in Nashville. I’m excited to see continued development as the short indoor season progresses. GO DAWGS!”

What Bulldogs Are Competing In Boston?: For the Lady Bulldogs, Aaliyah Butler, Daszay Freeman, Eddiyah Frye, Kieley Gayle, Kimberly Harris, Sydney Harris, Kaila Jackson, Elena Kulichenko, Kelsie Murrell-Ross,, Karsen Phillips, Zoe Pollock, Haley Tate, Autumn Wilson and Bella Witt travel to compete in Boston.

On the men’s side, Gavin Beverage, Brody Buffington, Jan Duhovnik, Mekhi Gammons, Jehlani Gordon, Hossam Hatib, Chance Jones, Alex Kolesnikoff, Micah Larry, Jordan McKenzie, Christopher Morales Williams, Riyon Rankin, Alon Rogow and Zavien Wolfe will represent Georgia.

In Nashville, Charlotte Augenstein, Sophia Baker, Bella Brick, Ella Kepple, Lorel Golden, Katherine Law, Gracie O’Neal, Nina Ouellette, Gracey Owens and Simone Rojas are slated to run in distance events.

Andrew Balogh, Cole Heron, KC Heron, John Jessup, Sumner Kirsch, Ryan Olree, Conner Rutherford and Zack Truitt are also registered to compete at Vanderbilt.

Dawg Debut: Twenty-six Georgia competitors battled in the red and black for the first time last weekend at the Clemson Invitational. That number included 18 true freshmen, four transfers, three graduate transfers and one redshirt.

Early SEC Honors: Riyon Rankin has been named the Southeastern Conference Men’s Freshman of the Week following Georgia’s indoor season-opening action at the Clemson meet over the weekend.

Rankin, a true freshman from Brunswick, Ga., collected the second-best high jump mark in the nation this year with a clearance of 2.21 meters/7 feet, 3 inches to win. Rankin situated himself in a tie for seventh on the Bulldogs’ all-time top-10 list as well as on the 2024 world list.

What’s Next For The Bulldogs?: Following this weekend’s meets, the squad will ready for the Razorback Invitational on Jan. 26-27 at the site of this year’s SEC Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. There will be a total of six regular season indoor meet weekends before the conference met on Feb. 23-24. This year’s NCAA Championships will also be in Boston for the first time in history on March 8-9.