On the first day of the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, on Friday, current and past Bulldogs qualified for three finals and six semifinals.
Two former Lady Bulldog jumpers and one current student-athlete from Georgia both went to the next round of their respective competitions.
Two weeks prior, in the same facility, Marc Minichello had won the Georgia NCAA javelin title. With the top 12 moving on, he managed to slip into ninth place with a third try of 70.64 meters (231 feet, 9 inches).
In the triple jump, Keturah Orji finished third with a legal attempt before passing twice, and Titiana Marsh ended one position behind Orji with her best performance of the season.
In the 400-meter dash, three former Georgia sprinters, one current UGA assistant, and two current Lady Bulldogs made it to the semifinals.
Elija Godwin and Matthew Boling, two past Bulldog NCAA champions, both made up to the men’s 400-meter semifinals. Boling, who already holds the Olympic standard, finished fourth overall in 44.94 seconds, while Godwin, who qualified for the next round on Sunday, finished 19th in 45.53 seconds, a career best.
Georgia qualified four out of four in the women’s 400-meter first round. Former NCAA champion Lynna Irby-Jackson finished first in the first heat and third overall with a time of 50.89. Current sprinter Kimberly Harris finished second in her heat and seventh overall (51.07); current assistant Bailey Lear finished one spot behind Irby-Jackson with a time of 51.12 and was ninth in the first round. Current sprinter Aaliyah Butler won the second heat with a time of 50.44 to be second overall. The two with the Olympic standard, Butler and Irby Jackson, will compete in the semifinal on Saturday.
After the first day of competition, Kyle Garland, a former Bulldog NCAA champion, is in third position in the decathlon. He is 152 points ahead of the competitor in fourth position with 4,456 points from five tournaments. With 4,288 points, fellow former Georgia NCAA champion Devon Williams is in sixth place, 168 points behind the coveted third-place position.
Between June 21 and 30, six current Bulldogs and nine past Georgia standouts will compete in their home nation’s Trials. The Bulldog men’s and women’s teams just placed ninth and tenth, respectively, at the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships (June 5-8), where the competition is being hosted on the University of Oregon campus. If the competitors do not have the required standard mark or time in their event, the best three finishers in each event in the Trials will go to the Olympic Games in Paris, which take place from August 1–11.
When Do The Bulldogs Start Day Two? On Saturday, at 1 p.m. ET, Garland and Williams will begin the 110-meter hurdles, the first of their last five decathlon events. Day two’s events will be the 1500m, javelin, pole vault, and discus after the sixth event. At 8 p.m., former Lady Bulldog Jamari Drake will lead off the open events with the women’s high jump.
The meeting will air on USA, Peacock, and NBC. The whole schedule for broadcast and webcast is as follows: gado.gs/byx
The Lowdown: Heading into his last javelin throw, West Pittston, Pennsylvania native Minichello was in 13th position, one spot shy of advancement. With a best performance of 70.64m/231-1, he advanced to Sunday at 9:40 p.m.’s final.
Orji, the 2016 Olympic fourth-place finisher, cleared 13.75 meters/45 meters-1.50 feet on her first try and finished third after failing on her following two efforts. On her third and last attempt, Marsh set a season best with a time of 13.54 meters (44-5.25), finishing fourth and moving on to her second straight Olympic Trials final.
Garland began the decathlon by winning fourth place in the 100 meters with a time of 10.64, which was a season best. Williams finished tenth in the first race with a time of 10.74. In the second event, the long jump, Williams came back with a winning mark of 7.56m/24-9.75 on his second attempt, while Garland finished fifth with a single legal mark of 7.41m/24-3.75 on his first try.
Garland finished third overall in the shot put with the third-longest throw of the day, 15.33 meters/49.50 feet. Williams took eighth place after sandwiching his best throw of the competition, which measured 14.72m/48-3.50, between his first and third attempts. After the third event, he was in fourth place overall.
In the high jump, Garland recorded six clears, placing second with a season-best 2.13m/6-11.75. In the fourth event, Williams achieved his highest point of the season at 1.95m/6-4.75, placing him ninth. Won the first heat and had the fifth-fastest 400-meter time (48.42) in Friday’s Dec final. Garland finished sixth in the heat and eleventh overall (48.91) after finishing out of the final group.
