EUGENE, OREGON — Georgia’s Keturah Orji became the first freshman to win the women’s triple jump title and helped lead the Lady Bulldogs to their second straight fifth-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Ore., on Saturday.
Orji, a native of Mount Olive, N.J., took off for an effort of 46 feet, 5 ¼ inches on her second try in the triple jump to win by more than two feet. Orji’s performance bested her own school and American Junior records and she became the No. 4 all-time collegiate performer with the No. 5 all-time collegiate performance.
Only three times have both Georgia teams won an NCAA outdoor individual title in the same season after junior Maicel Uibo captured the decathlon crown on Thursday for the men. This is the first Lady Bulldog to win a national triple jump championship indoors or outdoors.
This 10-point finish for Orji added to junior Leontia Kallenou taking third in the high jump and sophomore Tatiana Gusin finishing fifth in the high jump on Saturday put the Georgia women in fifth place with 41 points. Oregon (59), Kentucky (50), Texas A&M (47) and Arkansas (43) rounded out the top five finishers.
This marks the third consecutive top-11 national outdoor finish for the Lady Bulldogs. Georgia was fifth with 35 points at the 2014 NCAA Outdoor Championships. The Lady Bulldogs have finished in the top five four times and in the top 10 nine times in history.
The Bulldog men learned they finished 15th in their team race on Friday. Thanks to a combined 13 points from Uibo in the decathlon and senior Nick Vena in the shot put, the Georgia men finished with its third top-15 finish in the last seven years.
Meet host Oregon (85) won the NCAA men’s team title by 29 points over Florida (56) while Arkansas (53), LSU (45) and USC (40.50) rounded out the top five.
“When we headed out to Oregon, I thought we could really win,” said Bulldog head coach Wayne Norton. “And if things had gone a little differently maybe we could have. But I am very happy with the finishes. The men didn’t have a great meet, but we still finished 15th. For the seniors leaving, I hope they understand that they were a part of a great team that even when they didn’t have their best results at a meet, they had really good finishes.
“The women, like the men, are part of something really special here. These last two, three or four years, the women have had some really nice success and now I am hoping they build on that. The women pulled it off with some key performances today, led by Keturah Orji in the triple jump. Keturah got the job done all year long and can build on this finish. We also did a really nice job in the high jump with Leontia getting third and Tatiana getting fifth. These meets bring the best out in a lot of people and that happened today. I am pleased with the way these two competed.
“We are not satisfied with both team finishes but we did enough this week to stay relevant, so to speak, in the track and field world.”
Orji came into the meet as the national leader in the triple jump and left with a mark even more impressive. While the second-place finisher could only reach 44-4.75, Orji posted two marks over 46 feet and another pair longer than 44-8. She finished 4-0 in the event this season with a run that included an SEC title.
Winning the last three NCAA high jump titles in a row (2014 indoor and outdoor, 2015 indoor), Kallenou managed a third-place finish on Saturday. The Cyprus native had four first-attempt clearances and finished at a height of 6-1.50.
Gusin added her four points with a fifth-place finish. Finishing ninth and one spot out of scoring at the 2014 NCAA outdoor meet, Gusin cleared 6-0.50 on her third try to score this time around with a height that earned her seventh at this year’s NCAA Indoor Championships.
Junior Chanice Porter, who scored a point for the Lady Bulldogs with an eighth-place finish in the long jump, finished just outside of scoring in the high jump with a 10th-place finish. She cleared 5-11.25, which was a height that three scorers cleared who had fewer misses than Porter.
For the first time in history, the NCAA meet went to a staggered schedule featuring just events for the men on Wednesday and Friday and only women’s events on Thursday and Saturday. The two exceptions were the decathlon and heptathlon competitions, which started on Wednesday and were completed on Thursday.
Full results and recaps from the NCAA Championships will be located at georgiadogs.com.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2015/6/316764/georgias-orji-wins-ncaa-title-to-highlight-lady-dogs-5th-place-finish