Sept. 10, 2005

Clemson, S.C. –

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Stepping up their performance since last week’s season opener, South Carolina Cross Country finished fourth in the Clemson Invitational Saturday morning. Nationally ranked Georgia won the meet, while Charlotte finished second and Clemson in third.

“We ran better than we did last week,” said USC Coach Stan Rosenthal. “So we ran well. Rebecca Chain ran her second best time in cross country and stayed in the front of the pack with a couple of Georgia’s top runners, so she had a good performance.”

Chain, the top runner for the Gamecocks, ran an impressive 18:41 for 12th place overall and a 23-second improvement from last week’s performance at the Gamecock Invitational. Finishing as the number two runner for the Gamecocks and leading the freshmen were Laura Regensburg, who ran 19:26 for 25th place, also an improvement from last week’s performance.

Freshman Theresa Verostek finished 31st with a time of 19:35, while a pack consisting of freshmen Anna Petrov (19:38), Alyse Shayer (19:40) and junior Nicki Breves (19:44) came in 33rd, 34th and 35th. Freshman Kelsey Bristol finished as the seventh runner in 37th place with a time of 19:46. Also finishing the 5K for the Gamecocks were Jessica Smith, Caitlin McGroerty, Karen Wigal, Lauren Jaynes, Julie Reale and Jessica Franklin.

Georgia’s runners finished in second, third, sixth, ninth and 10th places, while the 5K was won by Charlotte’s Cassie Ficken, a 49er All-American.

The Gamecocks will be heading to Rock Hill, S.C. next week for the Winthrop Cross Country Invitational. Results will be available at www.uscsports.com.