Georgia
Georgia Tech student becomes youngest to complete Ultraman Florida
ATLANTA – A Georgia Tech sophomore has made history after competing in one of the toughest challenges in the country.
Second-year biomedical engineering student Jacob Beldick is now the youngest person to complete Ultraman Florida – a three-day, 320-mile challenge that tested him to his limits.
Local perspective:
The triathlon almost forced Beldick to give up. Instead, he doubled down, and now he’s sharing his message of perseverance and resilience.
“When I crossed the finish line, it was actually a really different experience than what I thought it was gonna be,” Beldick told Good Day Atlanta.
He called the race one of the most intense experiences of his life.
On the first day of the triathlon, participants hit the lake for a six-mile swim.
Beldick trained for this in the pool at Georgia Tech’s recreation center, but he wasn’t expecting how strong the winds would be on competition day.
“I’m getting thrown around by the waves,” he said. “It was crazy.”
He ended up swimming eight miles, then he still had 90 more to go on his bike.
Jacob Beldick on his bike. (Courtesy of Jacob Beldick)
On day two, Beldick got back on the bike for 261 miles. That’s when fate threw a curveball.
“Around mile 85 of the bike, I ended up getting a flat tire and noticed that the saddle for my bike had broken,” he said.
And that’s not all.
“I was having just extreme lower back pain,” he said. “The best way I found to describe it would be imagining if someone took a power drill and dug it into your lower spine.”
Dig deeper:
As a beginner, Beldick didn’t have an official team behind him – just the love and support from his mom and dad, who also had no experience with such an intense race.
But Beldick said he found help along the way.
“They were fully prepared to do the entire three days just helping me out, but we got lucky, and a couple down there that’s been very involved in Ultraman ended up helping us on Day 2 and 3. They realized my parents were getting me to the finish line, but they were struggling a bit just with the logistics.”
After all the adversity, Beldick survived and moved on to the double marathon on the third day.
It took him a little over 11 hours to run the 52.4-mile course.
It may seem impossible to some, but Beldick had months and months of training to pull from.
“Around this track, I did a lot of running. Two to four hours was generally my sweet spot,” he told Good Day at Georgia Tech. “My shorter training days were around the 10-12 mile mark, and then my longer days would go over a marathon distance.”
The sophomore challenged his mind, too.
“A lot of that had to do with mastering my thought process. While I was actually in the training sessions, I would stimulate exercises where I wouldn’t have access to water for a bit, or I might not have access to my nutrition all the time. Maybe I’d run out of electrolytes and have to go a few miles before I catch up with my crew.”
What’s next:
After all of the ups and downs, the moment came. Beldick raised his arms in victory as he crossed the finish line. His total time was 35 hours, 17 minutes, and 20 seconds.
Beldick’s total time was 35 hours, 17 minutes, and 20 seconds. (Courtesy of Jacob Beldick)
But for him, that wasn’t the ultimate reward.
“When someone is trying to achieve something great, the actual reward for getting there isn’t the actual reward,” he said. “The real reward lies in the type of person they become by putting themselves through that challenge.”
It was a double celebration for Beldick after finishing the race. He turned 20 years old the day after the competition.
He’s now qualified for Ultraman Hawaii but he doesn’t have plans to compete. Instead, he is thinking about doing a 100-mile race to raise money and awareness for Save a Child’s Heart, a charity that helps underprivileged children get access to treatments for various heart conditions.
The Source: Good Day’s Michael Addison reported this story out of Atlanta.
NORCROSS, GEORGIA — Geoff Duncan, former Republican lieutenant governor of Georgia, won’t stop apologizing.
He’s sorry for supporting the state’s 2019 “heartbeat bill,” which bans abortion at around six weeks, after a fetal heartbeat is detected. He’s sorry for facilitating the passage of a “constitutional carry” bill in 2022, which allows most people to carry a concealed handgun with no license or background check. He’s also sorry for opposing Medicaid expansion, arguing at the time that it was not fiscally responsible.
“I’m sorry for those positions and any harm that they may have done,” Duncan told me.
Duncan first rose to prominence as one of the Republicans who resisted President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s narrow 2020 win in Georgia. Duncan has been speaking out against what he calls Trump’s “toxic” and “dangerous” Republican Party since leaving office in 2023, and even endorsed Kamala Harris and spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2024. After being excommunicated from the Georgia Republican Party in January 2025, Duncan switched parties in August. He is now running for governor as a Democrat in what will be one of the most closely watched races in the midterms.
Georgia Tech didn’t let the weekend get away.
The No. 2 Yellow Jackets were flying high with a 13-game win streak heading into the weekend showdown against No. 3 North Carolina. The Tar Heels took the first two games, but Tech salvaged the finale 5-2 on Sunday.
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – No. 2 Georgia Tech got back to its winning ways, defeating No. 3 North Carolina (33-7-1, 15-6 ACC) by a final score of 5-2 from Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Yellow Jackets (32-7, 16-5 ACC) held UNC in check from the third inning on, using 6.1 scoreless innings from Caden Gaudette and Mason Patel to salvage the series and collect its 10th Top 15 victory of the season for this first time this century.
After both teams traded runs in the first inning, the Jackets struck for three runs on three hits in the third. The inning started with a leadoff double from Drew Burress who was quickly brought to the plate by a single from Jarren Advincula. Vahn Lackey drew a walk off a full count before Kent Schmidt connected for an RBI double, bringing in Advincula for what would become the game-winning run. Lackey made it a three-run inning when he scored on an RBI groundout by Ryan Zuckerman. UNC would work the bases loaded and score a run in the bottom of the inning before Gaudette entered the game and induced an inning ending groundout. UNC wouldn’t get another runner into scoring position until the eight inning as Gaudette and Patel slammed the door on any potential comeback.
QUICK HITS: TEAM
- The Jackets improve to 32-7, the best start to a season since 2010. Tech is 16-5 in ACC play, the best start since 2011.
- Tech has won 32 of its first 39 games for only the 6th time in the program’s 131 seasons: 2010, 2003 2002, 1997, 1993 and now 2026.
- James Ramsey owns the best record by any GT head coach in his first season through 39 games (32-7).
- The Jackets improve to 8-1 in nationally televised games this season.
- Tech has now won 10 games over Top 15 opponents for the first time this century.
- Tech has scored 417 runs through their first 39 games. It’s the most runs Georgia Tech has recorded after 39 games in the program’s 131-year history and the most runs any Power 4 team has scored through 39 games in the BBCOR era (since 2011).
- The Jackets scoring average now stands at 10.7 runs/game this season. The program record is 10.3, set back in 1984.
- GT is outscoring its opponents 417-174, that +243 margin is the highest through 39 games in program history.
- The bullpen delivered 6.1 scoreless innings, marking the 15th scoreless outing of the season and second of the weekend.
QUICK HITS: THE BATS
- Junior Drew Burress produced his 17th multi-hit game of the season, going 2-for-5 with a double and two runs scored.
- He has scored 51 runs this season, one shy of Vahn Lackey for the most on the team. Burress has scored 201 runs over his career, tied with Danny Payne (2005-07) for the 11th most in Georgia Tech history.
- He becomes the first Yellow Jacket in the BBCOR era to record 200+ runs over a career.
- Junior Kent Schmidt went 2-for-4 with a go-ahead RBI double and a shift-beating bunt.
- He leads the team with 26 RBI in ACC play and has delivered 35 for the season.
- Schmidt has now collected extra base hits in three straight games for the first time this season and third time in his GT career.
- He finishes the series with a .500 average, going 4-for-8 with two doubles, a home run, three RBI, two runs scored and three walks
- Junior Jarren Advincula recorded his 24th multi-hit game of the season, going 2-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored.
- He leads the ACC with 68 hits this season, averaging 1.7 hits per game and putting him on pace for 94 hits over the course of the regular season. With potential postseason games, that would put him in striking distance of being the first 100-hit player at GT since 2005 (Wes Hodges & Tyler Greene).
- He drove in his 45th RBI of the season, the third most on the team behind Vahn Lackey and Ryan Zuckerman.
- Junior Ryan Zuckerman became the first Jacket to reach 50 RBI when he drove in Lackey for the fourth run of the game.
- Sophomore Caleb Daniel came off the bench in the 5th inning and blooped an RBI double, it was his 24th RBI of the season and his 5th as a pinch hitter.
QUICK HITS: THE ARMS
- Sophomore Jackson Blakely made his sixth consecutive weekend start, pitching 2.2 innings with two earned runs allowed and three strikeouts.
- He has only allowed runs in only three of his eight appearances this season (37.1 innings) this season.
- His ERA stands at 2.65, the lowest among all starting pitchers on the roster.
- R-junior Caden Gaudette made his team-leading 16th appearance of the season and 2nd of the weekend, pitching 2.1 scoreless innings.
- He entered the game with a two-run lead (4-2) and the bases loaded with two outs before inducing an inning ending groundout to short.
- Gaudette lowers his ERA to 2.86 in 22.0 innings of work.
- The man they call “Rock” pitched a total of 3.1 innings this weekend, allowing only one hit with four strikeouts.
- He has now pitched as many innings this season as he had in his previous two years combined (22.0) while allowing less than half as many earned runs (7 in 2026, 15 in 2024-25) and exactly half as many hits (12 in 2026, 24 in 2024-25).
- Mason Patel got the ball to start the 6th inning, keeping the score at 5-2 for the final four frames and collecting his fourth save of the season.
- Since recovering from an injury that saw him miss 20 days, Patel has made six appearances out of the bullpen, pitching 13.2 scoreless innings with a victory and four saves.
- Over the last two seasons, Patel has made 29 appearances out of the bullpen, posting 12 wins and nine saves.
- This was his longest relief appearance of the season (4.0 innings) after pitching at least 3.0 innings in 15 of his 23 appearances during his All-American season last year.
Up Next
Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate. Tuesday at 7 pm at Truist Park. Tickets are available HERE with all proceeds benefiting the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
For the latest information on the Georgia Tech baseball team, follow us on X (@GTBaseball), Facebook, Instagram (@gt_baseball) or visit us at www.ramblinwreck.com.
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