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Bulldogs Have Strong Opening Day At Florida Relays
GAINESVILLE, Fla. ---
Bulldog senior steeplechaser Matt Cleaver finished with the country’s
fastest time in his event to pace Georgia during the first day of
action at the Florida Relays in Gainesville, Fla., on Friday.
“It
got kind of tough later in the day with windy conditions as a cold
front moved in,” Georgia assistant coach Jon Stuart said. “But
there was some strong competition out there today and I think our teams
elevated their performances and stepped up. Some of our best are
starting to step up so that’s a good sign. We are looking for big
things (on Saturday).”
Cleaver, the defending Southeastern
Conference champion in the 3000-meter steeplechase, won his second
straight race with a national-leading time. Cleaver recorded a
time of 8:49.38 to pick up a 10-second victory and come within four
seconds of his career best in the steeplechase.
Sophomore Megan
Malasarte ran her first 800 of the outdoor season and finished with the
third-best time in school history. Malasarte clocked a 2:06.05 to
be the top collegiate finisher (second overall) and move to No. 5 on
the national performance list.
Junior Leslie Boozer improved her
own No. 3 time in school history in the women’s steeplechase.
After registering a personal-best 10:24.84 at last year’s NCAA East
Regionals, Boozer was the runner-up on Friday night after completing
the course in 10:24.15. This is the seventh-fastest time in the
nation this year.
Savannah Kirk bettered her No. 9 time in the school record books to 10:55.52 for 11th place in the event.
While
his teammate and SEC leader Brian Moore took the weekend off, sophomore
Braydon Anderson watched his second throw travel a personal-best 222-5
for third place. Anderson moved from 10th to ninth on the Georgia
all-time top-10 list.
Senior Torrin Lawrence made his season
debut and managed to move to fifth on the all-time top-10 list for UGA
in the 200. Lawrence, who won the 2009 SEC indoor 200 crown,
clocked a career-best 20.51 to finish seventh.
In the women’s
discus Invite, sophomore Hilenn James had the second-best performance
of her career to take third. James lifted her opening attempt
169-7 before suffering five consecutive fouls.
Fellow senior
sprinter Phillip Adams continued to drop his season best time in the
400 hurdles to take seventh. Adams completed his lap in 51.22 and
moved into the top 15 nationally.
Sophomore Justin Welch opened with two identical season-best marks of 203-7 to take eighth in the hammer throw Invite.
Senior
Morgan VanGorder improved her personal-best time in the 5000 to
17:01.32 in one of the night’s final events. VanGorder finished
fourth in the competition as senior Abbie Robinson shaved time of her
career best to take 12th (17:44.08).
The Bulldogs finished sixth through 10th in the men’s 5000 with sophomore Brandon Lord leading the way (14:21.03).
In
his first action of the season, senior decathlete Cory Holman finished
with the second-fastest 110 hurdle time of his career (14.19) to take
26th. Holman’s personal best of 13.99 happened as he won the
event during the 2010 SEC decathlon competition.
Also, junior Saniel Atkinson cleared 5-8.75 on her second attempt to take fifth as senior Carin Walker tied for seventh (5-7).
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