THERE ARE VERY FEW meets in the world more competitive in the sprints than the SEC Championships. It took 22.75 to make the final of the women’s 200 at this year’s meet, only slightly slower than the 22.71 needed to make the cut at the NCAA Championships.
But that level of competition shouldn’t be too daunting for Adaejah Hodge. The 18-year-old Georgia prize recruit has already made it to the semis at both the ’23 World Championships and this past summer’s Olympic Games, representing her native British Virgin Islands.
“Those experiences are going to benefit her because she’ll know what pressure is,” says Caryl Smith Gilbert, the Bulldogs’ director of men’s and women’s track & field. “The SEC is brutal. But I think she’ll handle it better than most freshmen because she’s already been in those high-pressure situations.”
Hodge, who moved to Georgia from the BVI when she was about 9, emerged as one of the top prep sprinters as a junior, her first year running for Montverde Academy in Florida. She set the High School Indoor 200 record (22.33) to win the New Balance Indoor Meet in March ’23. That outdoor season she ran 11.11 for the 100 and a wind-aided 22.31 in the 200 before winning the New Balance Outdoor title over half a lap. In Budapest she held her own at Worlds, advancing out of the heats and finishing 7th in her semi.
A stress fracture in her right foot this spring disrupted her senior year momentum, but after 6 weeks of recovery she rallied to place 3rd at New Balance in both the 100 and 200 and clock season’s bests — and HS-list-leading times — of 11.19 and 22.66. She qualified for the Olympics and advanced to the 200 semis in Paris out of the repechage round.
“From Day 1 I knew I had to take it one race at a time and just focus on my lane,” Hodge says of her experience at Stade de France. “I knew going in that most of the competition had better PRs than me, but I knew I couldn’t focus on that because I would lose myself in the race.”
Later in August she capped her season by taking 200 gold and 100 silver at the World U20 Championships in Peru.
Hodge was already an accomplished sprinter in her early years at Alexander High in Douglasville, Georgia, with bests of 11.29, 23.25 and 53.26, but she credits her move to Montverde with her breakthrough. “My sophomore year in high school I was distracted, wanted to be popular,” she admits. “When I moved to Montverde, I was able to mature a little bit more. I was able to find who I wanted to be through God and the support of my coaches and my teammates and my mom.”
Smith Gilbert credits Montverde coach Gerald Phiri, a Texas A&M star who ran the 100 at the ’12 and ’16 Olympics for Zambia, for preparing Hodge for the rigors of international and collegiate track.
“What Coach Phiri did very well was introduce her to a regimented program. So although we may not be doing everything alike, she has very good intensity and intentions,” Smith Gilbert says. “She’s very inquisitive. She loves to know why we do things. And she’s also very agreeable and coachable. She’s one of the kids who’s always in the office, wants to know what’s going on. She loves track.”
In fact, Smith Gilbert found Hodge to be more than eager to get started in Athens. “When she got back, I told her you have to rest. You should take 6 weeks off,” the coach recalls. “But Adaejah came to practice every day, just to watch and to help me. She didn’t have to be there. 6 A.M. lift [sessions], Adaejah’s there. I’m like why are you here? She said, ‘Well, I’m just getting used to being here. So when I start it’ll be normal.’ I’ve never seen that. She loves track.”
For Hodge, it was the ideal way to get familiar with the team culture. “When I committed to Georgia I knew I was embedded into a family,” she says. “Even though I was on break, I decided to help out a little bit. I learned the ropes before I got back into training.”
She hasn’t yet formulated specific individual targets for her frosh year but wants to help Smith Gilbert hoist some hardware in ’25. “My biggest goal for this year is to win the SEC championships and the NCAA championships with my team.”
Smith Gilbert knows she’s working with a special talent. “I’d like to see her contend for the NCAA championship, make the World Championship final, and get a medal,” she says. “I think she can do it.”