July 10, 2007

South Carolina’s rising sophomore Brandi Cross added a gold medal to her growing load of medals over the years and incoming freshman Johnny Dutch (Clayton, N.C.) showed Gamecock fans a bit of what he is about at the Pan American Junior Track and Field Championships this past weekend in Sao Paulo, Brazil when he won both the 110m hurdles and the 400m hurdles. He added a silver medal with the USA’s 4x400m relay as an exclamation mark.

Dutch ran a 13.46 to win the 110m hurdles and a 50.82 to cross the finish line first in the 400m hurdles. Dutch later ran a leg of the USA’s silver medal winning 4x400m relay, with the foursome posting a time of 3:06.15.

Rising Gamecock sophomore Brandi Cross finished fourth in the 400m at 52.32. Cross later led the USA team to the gold medal in the 4x400m relay with a time of 3:29.76 – the fourth fastest time ever.

Cross was the USA women’s captain – being named as the captain of a USA team for the second time in her career. Cross joins Gamecock three-time NCAA champion Natasha Hastings in making five USA Junior Championship teams.

The women’s team was headed up by Gamecock Assistant Head Coach Dee Quarles and both teams collected 48 medals over three days in Brazil.