Georgia men’s track and field in 2nd after Day 2 of NCAA Outdoor Championships

Published 12:42 pm Friday, June 7, 2019

The Georgia men’s track and field team finished in second place after Day 2 of the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Austin, Texas. With a total of 22 points, the Bulldogs only trail first place team Mississippi State by two points.

Georgia was led by a dominant performance from sophomore decathlete Johannes Erm. Erm won the national decathlon title by posting a personal record 8,352 points. This point total was enough to earn himself first place overall by a margin of 342 points.

“That was a special performance by Johannes on a day that was delayed over and over with bad weather,” head coach Petros Kyprianou said.

In addition to winning the national decathlon title, Erm also reached the Olympic standard score while dealing with the inclement weather in Austin.

“Anytime you win an NCAA title and hit an Olympic standard score by going through what he did today is an incredible accomplishment,” Kyprianou said. “He has wanted to continue the legacy that the decathletes before him at Georgia had created and now he’s doing that.”

Erm finished with five personal bests that propelled him to what would be the sixth best collegiate performance of all time in the decathlon.

The Georgia women’s track and field team began competing on Thursday with sophomore Aliyah Whisby providing a scoring contribution in the long jump. Whisby finished the day in eighth place overall, enough to earn one point for the women’s team.

“Aliyah also scored a point for our women in the long jump with a performance that she is not satisfied with,” Kyprianou said. “But this was her first NCAA outdoor meet with us and I look forward to watching her develop.”

The Georgia men’s track and field team will conclude the tournament with a final day of competition on Friday while the women will continue competing into the weekend.