Golden Eagles perform well at Gamecock Open Meet, qualify three more for NJCAA nationals

The Chattahoochee Tech men’s track and field team finished third out of 21 teams at the Emory Classic last weekend in Atlanta against a strong field of NCAA opponents. The Golden Eagles men finished with 102 overall points, just behind second-place Oberlin with 104 and trailing first-place Emory (170).
Emory won in both the men’s and women’s team standings, where the Chattahoochee Tech women finished in 11th place out of 21 teams.

The men’s squad had four winners on the weekend. Sprinter Kory Gipson finished first in the prelims of the 100 meter dash with a time of 10.85, then improved on that mark in the finals with a 10.78 to take the win.

Casey Arthur bested the field in the 800 meter run with a time of 1:57.80, and he also helped the men’s 4x400 relay team to a victory, running the first leg. Chris Johnson, Darreon Andrews and David Thomas followed Arthur to give the 4x400 team a time of 3:18.68, nearly two seconds ahead of second-place Clayton State.

In the field events, Cedric Stadom brought home a win in the men’s discus. Stadom, also a standout lineman on Chatt Tech’s national champion club football team, achieved a throw of 136’10”, over seven feet farther than the next competitor. Stadom also took eighth in the hammer throw.

Levi Josephs also excelled for the Golden Eagles, ending the meet with two second-place finishes and a fourth-place finish. Josephs took second in both the 110 meter hurdles (15.31) and the triple jump (45’.5”), and finished fourth in the long jump. The men’s 4x100 relay team finished just behind Columbus State to take second place, running a 42.26, just behind CSU’s 41.90. Gipson ran anchor on the 4x100 on a team that also included Thomas, Johnson, and Baylen Garrett.

Darreon Andrews took fourth in the 400 meter dash, running a sub-50-second time of 49.59. Jamael Smith scored a top five, finishing fifth in the 800 meter run at 1:56.68, and Arthur was right behind him in sixth place with a 1:57.80.

Also placing in the field events were Dewayne Gurley (fifth in hammer throw, sixth in shot put), Deins Paberzins (fifth in discus, fifth in javelin), and Anthony White (eighth in javelin).

On the women’s side, the team had a few close calls with a second-place finish, a third-place finish, and several other scoring performances. Madison Brown, coming into the meet with three straight victories in the javelin, just missed another win with a second-place finish. Brown threw for a mark of 33.30 meters (109’03”), just .16 meters and six inches off the mark set by Whittney Ryals of Columbus State. Sydney Whittle also scored points for the Golden Eagles with a seventh-place finish in the javelin.

Kandice Dixon continued her strong season with a third-place in the 200 meters (25.74). Dixon was followed by Jazmyne Taylor in the event with a seventh-place finish. Dixon also took sixth in the 400 with a time of 59.81. The women’s 4x400 relay team finished in scoring position with an eighth-place performance. Hillary Jackson also took seventh in the discus.

The Golden Eagles will gear up for a pair of SEC-hosted meets, heading up to Columbia, S.C., this Wednesday, April 4 for the Gamecock Open and going to Oxford, Miss., on April 13 for the Mississippi Open.