A return to Blacksburg, Va., is in store for Georgia track and field this weekend.

After an off-week, the Bulldogs will travel back to Virginia Tech only two weeks removed from an excellent showing at the Hokie Invitational.

WAYNE NORTON

Georgia’s men’s and women’s squads will join a collection of eleven ACC and SEC squads competing at the Virginia Tech Elite Meet.

The Bulldog women have shown marked improvement up to this point in the campaign, and the meet offers another opportunity to continue the trend.

At the Hokie Invitational in January, the women’s squad went on to take the top two spots in two separate events — the weight throw and high jump.

Weight throwers Nikola Lomnicka and Alesha took first and second place, respectively, as Lomnicka scored another NCAA provisional qualifying mark. Likewise, sophomore Carin Walker won the high jump event with her personal-best mark (5 feet, 8.5 inches), which was matched only by junior Shaquita Young’s second-place finish.

“We’ve got a few [women’s] groups that are making some slow progress, and hopefully it will continue,” head coach Wayne Norton said. “For the rest of the year, I think the [women’s] middle distance group is one that will keep getting better.

For the No. 22 Georgia men, the premium competition promises to be a challenge. Four of the men’s teams ranked in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Top-25 will be in attendance, including the No. 2 Florida State Seminoles and arch-rival No. 5 Florida Gators.

“It doesn’t matter who the opponents are,” Norton said. “We are still just trying to improve on our performances, and the goal is to get better regardless of who the competition is. Hopefully, the better the competition, the better our performances will be so that we get in the habit of performing when it really counts.”

Virginia Tech’s Rector Field House was kind to the Bulldog men earlier in the season, as they notched 10 top-five finishes. Sophomore Torrin Lawrence’s 300-meter run highlighted the entire meet during the last visit, as he shattered the collegiate record in the event.
Beginning today, the Bulldogs will find out if there are more records to be broken this time around.