Graduate student Marc Minichello won the Southeastern Conference javelin title for the second year in a row while fellow thrower Stephanie Ratcliffe claimed silver in the hammer throw to highlight day one of the SEC Outdoor Championships on Thursday in Gainesville, Fla.
The Lady Bulldogs tallied 11 points on the meet’s first day and sit in fourth place heading into Friday’s action. The Bulldog men collected 10 points and rank fifth after one day of competition in Florida.
Fast Facts
Minichello captured his second straight SEC javelin title and the fourth total conference title of his career, recording a throw of 77.92m/255-7 on his sixth and final attempt to earn First Team All-SEC honors. Minichello has won three straight conference titles dating back to his time at Penn, where he claimed the Ivy League javelin title in 2022 before his back-to-back SEC victories in 2023 and 2024. The native of West Pittston, Pa., was also the Ivy League javelin champion as a freshman at Penn in 2019. The graduate student has earned victories at all three meets in which he has competed this season.
Ratcliffe recorded a throw of 67.68m/222-0 on her second attempt to claim silver in the hammer throw with the No. 2 mark in program history. Competing in her first SEC Championships after transferring from Harvard, Ratcliffe posted a new season best in the event to claim Georgia’s first points of the weekend and Second Team All-SEC Honors.
Erin McMeniman collected three points for the Lady Bulldogs with her sixth-place finish in the javelin. The graduate student shot from ninth to sixth on her final throw, which sailed a personal best 51.45m/168-9 to move her into scoring position. McMeniman now ranks eighth on Georgia’s all-time top-10 list with the mark.
Kaila Jackson (200m) and Dominique Mustin (400m hurdles) qualified for the finals in their respective events, which will take place on Saturday. Jackson clocked a personal best 22.52 to place sixth in the 200m prelims, running the fifth-fastest time in the NCAA this season. The sophomore also moved into fifth on Georgia’s all-time top-10 list in the event. Mustin posted a personal best time of 56.22 in the 400m hurdles to place fifth overall, running the No. 10 time in the NCAA in 2024. She improved her No. 2 time in program history by three-tenths of a second.
Ella Rush tallied 3,313 points in day one of the heptathlon to land in third place heading into the event’s final day. Rush placed in the top five in three heptathlon events on the day, highlighted by fourth-place finishes in the high jump and shot put.
Up Next
Day two of the SEC Outdoor Championships will open with the final day of competition in the multi-events. Rush will resume her heptathlon with the long jump at 11:45 a.m. to open the day for the Bulldogs. Gavin Beverage and Alexander Kolesnikoff will kick off the open field events at 4:15 p.m. when they compete in the shot put, and Zack Truitt will participate in Georgia’s first open track event of the day at 5:40 p.m., running the 1500m. Action from the meet’s second day will be broadcast on SEC Network+ beginning at 11:25 a.m.
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