Georgia Track: Uibo Repeats As Decathlon Champ, Women Start Final Day in Third Place
In nearly a century, only one competitor had repeated as the NCAA Decathlon Champion. Georgia Track and Field’s Maicel Uibo makes it two.
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Georgia junior Maicel Uibo raced into the NCAA history books history on Friday. With a decathlon 8,356 point total, the fourth highest total in NCAA history and a Georgia record, Uibo is the second person to win two consecutive Decathlons in the 94 year history of the NCAA Track and Field Championships.
“Day two was a lot better to us than day one was,” said Bulldog head coach Wayne Norton to Georgidogs.com. “Today we bounced back with Uibo defending his title, which is a very tough thing to do. And not only did he defend it, but he got a personal best with a score that ranks near the top of the world list.”
On Wednesday, senior Nick Vena put the Bulldog men on the scoreboard with a sixth-place finish in the shot put.
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The Bulldogs climbed to fourth place with Vena and Uibo’s efforts behind Oregon, Florida and USC . But with day one injuries to decathletes Garrett Scantling and Devon Williams and no runners qualified, the men will earn no more points. “The men’s scoring is done, we have no more bullets to shoot,” said Norton. Holding at 13 points, points the Dawgs could only watch as other schools passed them on the leader board.
The Georgia men finished in 15th place as the Oregon Ducks repeated as national champions.
For the Lady Bulldogs, it’s a different story. Led by a record-breaking second-place finish from sophomore Kendell Williams in the heptathlon, the Georgia women are in third place going into the women’s second day with 21 points, a point behind Arkansas and 10 points behind Oregon
Coach Norton spoke to Georgiadogs.com. “On the women’s side, I thought we finished the heptathlon nicely with Kendell and Quintunya (who finished third overall) scoring with personal bests so we were proud of their effort.” The person who was fourth was the national leader coming in so we did a good job there. We thought we could finish higher than we did in the long jump, but the jumping was out of this world with some of the best jumps in the history of the NCAA. Our girls did well in the event so we have to be happy with that.”
Quintunya Chapman took third in the heptathlon, junior Freya Jones was fifth in the javelin and freshman Keturah Orji and junior Chanice Porter went 7-8, respectively, in the long jump for the Lady Bulldogs.
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“We were also fifth in the javelin with a competition where the top two girls really threw well and set the precedent. Freya wasn’t at her best, but she did have her best meet of the year and I am pleased she scored. This meet has evolved into an elite, world-class meet so we have to accept where we are and be grateful. We will now look forward to trying and scoring some more points on the women’s side on Saturday. Our goal is still to win this championship.”
Junior Leontia Kallenou, junior Chanice Porter and sophomore Tatiana Gusin compete in the women’s high jump at 4:30 p.m. ET. Kallenou is the defending NCAA champion in the event.
Orji will compete in her second event of the Championships, the triple jump, at 5 p.m. She is the NCAA leader and swept the SEC indoor and outdoor titles.
With four competitors remaining and two excellent opportunities to claim first place points Saturday, a first place finish is unlikely, but the Lady Bulldogs are in the hunt for a top five finish.