Marquee attractions: Oregon, Georgia track teams make first visit to Tech

In the first five seasons after Texas Tech opened the Sports Performance Center, many of track and field's top college programs from across the country came to Lubbock, several sufficiently impressed to make return trips.

Perhaps the most tradition-rich program has never come to a Tech meet — until now.

Oregon, situated in Track Town USA and winner of 32 NCAA team championships and track and cross country, is entered in the three-day Texas Tech Open and Multis that start Thursday.

"They made a coaching change, and I think that's the main consideration," Tech coach Wes Kittley said Wednesday. "They've said for years they're coming, but then they'd always back out at the last minute. But they've got a new coach (Jerry Schumacher), and I think he's heard many stories of some good things."

Georgia is another first-time visitor, though its coaches have plenty of familiarity with Tech meets. Caryl Smith Gilbert, who won two NCAA championships as head coach at Southern California from 2014-21, brought Trojans teams to Lubbock in the recent past. Georgia hired Smith Gilbert after the 2021 outdoor season, and she hired James Thomas away from Texas Tech to be the Bulldogs' associate head coach.

"Caryl loved it when she came here two or three times from USC," Kittley said, "and then of course James knows what he's getting into bringing the (combined events) and field-event people."

Other teams entered include Auburn, Nebraska, Arizona, Kansas State and Ohio State.

Among the teams represented this weekend, there are 11 men who have accounted for 12 top-five times or marks in NCAA Division I this season. Likewise, there are 11 women who have accounted for 12 top-five times or marks in Division I this season.

"There's going to be some records broken in here this weekend," Kittley said.

Oregon's contingent includes Micah Williams, the NCAA 60 meters champion in 2021 and a Team USA member at the Tokyo Olympics. Among Georgia's stars are sprinters Elija Godwin and Matthew Boling and combined-events man Kyle Garland. Godwin was an Olympics bronze medalist on the U.S. mixed 1,600-meter relay team in Tokyo.

Boling, the decorated schoolboy sensation at Houston Strake Jesuit, has been a 10-time first-team all-American at Georgia. He's achieved that status, conveyed on top-eight finishers at NCAA championship meets, in the 60 meters, the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump and the 400- and 1,600-meter relays.

In addition to Williams, Godwin and Boling, the sprints field includes Auburn sophomore Favour Ashe, who last year placed third in the 60 meters at the NCAA indoor and second in the 100 at the NCAA outdoor. He did that for Tennessee, then transferred to Auburn after the season.

The meet begins at noon Thursday with one of the most loaded competitions, the heptathlon. Garland, Georgia's 6-foot-5, 220-pound junior, set the collegiate record in the decathlon during the 2022 outdoor season with 8,720 points.

Garland finished second in the heptathlon at last year's NCAA indoor championships. He'll face off again Thursday and Friday with Texas' Leo Neugebauer and Auburn's Alex Spyridonidis, who finished third and sixth at the NCAA indoor. Also in the field are UT-Arlington's Lucas Van Klaveren and Abilene Christian ex Jonathan Ply, first-team all-Americans in the decathlon at last year's NCAA outdoor.

The Texas Tech men are No. 2 and the women No. 10 in the season's first rankings released Monday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, though some of the Red Raiders' athletes responsible for those rankings aren't scheduled to compete this weekend.

Kittley said he plans to rest sprinter Courtney Lindsey, sprinter/hurdler Caleb Dean and hurdler Demisha Roswell, all of whom excelled in the first two meets of the season. Lindsey is ranked No. 1 in Division I in the men's 200 meters, Roswell is sitting No. 2 in the women's 60-meter hurdles and Dean is tied for No. 10 in the men's 60 and tied for No. 7 in the 60-meter hurdles.

The plan is for them to compete again next weekend at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic in Albuquerque, , which is the site of the NCAA championships on March 10-11.

One heralded newcomer will debut for the Red Raiders this weekend. Bahamian freshman Antoine Andrews won the 110-meter hurdles in a wind-legal 13.23 seconds at the Under-20 World Championships five months ago in Colombia, and will run the 60-meter hurdles indoors.

"He's only been here two weeks," Kittley said. "He came in in, we feel like, pretty good shape. That's the only reason we're kind of allowing him (to open this weekend). He's begging us to run.

"He's the world under-20 champion for high school. You raise the hurdles 3 inches. We'll see how he handles those. But he's looked really good in practice. I expect him to run pretty fast."

Vashaun Vascianna, a first-team all-American in the 60 hurdles last year as a freshman, is out for this season for hip surgery to repair a labrum.

Track & field

What: Texas Tech Open and Multis

When: Thursday through Saturday

Where: Sports Performance Center

Thursday's schedule: Men's heptathlon event start times, noon to 3 p.m. Women's pentathlon event start times, 12:20 p.m. to 5:20 p.m.

Friday's schedule: Men's heptathlon event start times, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Field event start times, 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Running event start times, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Saturday's schedule: Field-event start times, 10 a.m. to noon. Running-event start times: 11:30 a.m. to 4:05 p.m.

Live results/schedule: pttiming.com

Top performers

The following athletes have posted top-five times or marks in NCAA Division I this season. An "a" denotes a time converted to account for higher altitude.

Men

Running events

60 meters: 2. Micah Williams, Oregon, 6.54 seconds; 4. Favour Ashe, Auburn, 6.57

200: 1. Courtney Lindsey, Texas Tech, 20.48-a (not scheduled to compete this weekend)

400: 4. Elija Godwin, Georgia, 46.20-a; 5. Matthew Boling, Georgia, 46.24-a

60 hurdles: 5. Darius Luff, Nebraska, 7.70

1,600 relay: 1. Texas Tech (Caleb Dean, Courtney Lindsey, Shaemar Uter, Nylo Clarke), 3 minutes, 4.96 seconds-a

Field events

High jump: 2. (tie) Mayson Conner, Nebraska, Dontavious Hill, Auburn, 7 feet, 3 inches

Pole vault: 1. Zach Bradford, Texas Tech, 18-9 1/4; 4. Branson Ellis, Stephen F. Austin, 18-4 1/2

Shot put: 1. Jordan Geist, Arizona, 70-5 3/4; 4. Maxwell Otterdahl, Nebraska, 64-11 1/4

Weight throw: 3. Maxwell Otterdahl, Nebraska, 73-2 1/2

Combined events

Heptathlon: 3. John Murray, Auburn, 5,624 points

Women

Running events

60 meters: 3. Rosemary Chukwuma, Texas Tech, 7.13-a; 5. Kaila Jackson, Georgia, 7.18.

200: 3. Rosemary Chukwuma, Texas Tech, 23.06-a

400: 5. Arianna Sharpe, Auburn, 53.01

60 hurdles: 2. Demisha Roswell, Texas Tech, 8.00-a (not scheduled to compete this weekend)

High jump: 2. Jenna Rogers, Nebraska, 6-1 1/4

Triple jump: 2. Mikeisha Welcome, Georgia, 44-9 3/4; 3. Titiana Marsh, Georgia, 43-9; 5. Onaara Obamuwagun, Texas Tech, 43-2 1/4.

Shot put: 1. Jorinde Van Klinken, Oregon, 59-5; 4. Jaida Ross, Oregon, 57-1; 5. Maura Huwalt, Auburn, 56-8 3/4

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Marquee attractions: Oregon, Georgia track teams make first visit to Texas Tech