Georgia track has 22 athletes competing for NCAA titles in Oregon starting today

South Region's newly named Women's Head Coach of the Year Wayne Norton, who is the head coach of all of UGA's Track and Field Program, has his squad in Eugene, Oregon today competing in this year's NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.  Assistant Petros Kyprianou was named the women's assistant of the year for the region, and freshman Kendall Williams won the region Field Athlete of the Year award for her dominance in the heptathlon.

Williams, and 21 teammates will represent UGA in the final athletic event of the 2013-14 school year.  She is also the top rated competitor going into the heptathlon, which begins with the 100 meters on Thursday afternoon.  Joining her as the top rated athletes in their respective events going into the University of Oregon-hosted meet are women's high jumper and sophomore Leontia Kallenou, and in the men's decathlon sophomore Maicel Uibo and junior Garrett Scantling are rated 1-2.  The decathlon events begin today at 2:30 eastern.  ESPN3 will stream coverage today and tomorrow, with ESPNU putting it on TV Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 5:30 p.m. (both times Eastern).

Williams and Kallenou will be joined on the women's side by sophomore Freya Jones, as she looks to repeat as champion after winning last year's javelin throw launching the spear 180 feet, 3 inches.  Seniors Megan Malasarte (800m) and Elizabeth Tepe (hammer), juniors Quintunya Chapman (heptathlon) and Carly Hamilton (1500m), sophomore Chanice Porter (long jump), and freshman Tatiana Gusin (high jump) round out the other athletes we'll have competing on the women's side.

Accompanying Uibo and Scantling on the men's side of things are senior Johnathan Smith (100m, 4x100 relay), juniors Drew Branch (400m hurdles, 4x400 relay), Brandon Lord (10,000m), and Nick Vena (shot put), sophomores Jamario Calhoun (4x100relay) and Maurice Freeman (4x400 relay), a trio of freshman relay runners in Ayrian Evans (4x400), Reggie Glover (both the 4x100 and 4x400), and Brandon Thompson (4x100), and a pair of freshman in the hammer throw with Alex Larsson and Alex Poursanidis.

"The bad thing about being a coach is that I have already started thinking about next year," Norton told Georgiadogs.com.  "This is a young group and as you have seen the last two years, we have had some young people do big things.  ...  We are bringing in athletes who are prepared and ready to win from the beginning and not looking for a redshirt year to develop.  I told this team at the start of the postseason that we don't want you to come to these meets to get experience.  We want you to come here and get the job done.  We expect high-level performances in Oregon and for them to come back and do it all again next year."

You can get the media notes for the meet, as well as the meet's schedule, results and recaps from georgiadogs.com.  Results and recaps can also be found on twitter at @UGA_XTCF.