Gamecocks Join Nation's Best at Florida Relays

COLUMBIA– The Gamecocks make a trip to Gainesville, Florida, for the 2022 Pepsi Florida Relays on Friday and Saturday on the Percy Beard Track. It’s the second of three regular-season road trips for Carolina track and field and is the last chance to put compete until April 16’s Gamecock Invitational. A host of SEC teams including Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee will be at the meet.

Live results can be found at deltatiming.com. Portions of the Florida Relays will be on SEC Network+. Friday’s stream begins at 5 p.m. and Saturday’s stream begins at 1:30 p.m. Fans can follow along with updates on Twitter @GamecockTrack. A full recap will be posted on Twitter, Facebook and GamecocksOnline.com.

Meet Schedule
The college portions of the Florida Relays are set for Friday and Saturday in Gainesville, Florida.

Friday’s action begins at 11:30 a.m. with the open section of the women’s discus. Collegiate track events begin at 5 p.m. with the women’s 1,500 meters. Saturday’s program is set to begin at 11 a.m. with the invitational section of the men’s discus while track events are slated to start at Noon with the prelims of the women’s 100-meter hurdles.

Last Time Out
Makenzie Dunmore ran an NCAA-leading time of 52.38 in the women’s 400 meters at Weems Baskin last weekend. She also helped the 4X100-meter relay team run the 7th-fastest time in the country with a time of 43.83. Tierra Frasier was also on that relay team. She also ran a top-20 time in the 200 meters. Frasier earned SEC Women’s Freshman of the Week honors for her performances.

For a full recap of Friday, please click here. For a full recap of Saturday, please click here.

Weather Report
FRIDAY
– Conditions: AM Showers
– Temperature: High of 81°
– Chance of Precipitation: 46%

SATURDAY
– Conditions: PM Showers
– Temperature: High of 80°
– Chance of Precipitation: 39%
 

Coach Frye on the Meet
On the Florida Relays
“The We’ve had two meets where our kids got a chance to open up the season and see where their training has taken them. Now we have an exam. Not a midterm, but a test. I look forward to good results because this is going to be a challenge. Athletes rise to the challenge and we’ll find out a lot about them.”

On having elite competition
“It does two things. You either rise to the occasion or you don’t rise. Then you go back and work on what side. Was it the mental side? Or the physical side? Are you putting in what the other people are putting in? So it’s a good test for these athletes. There are many times people don’t take the responsibility that comes with being good. We’re in a stage where our kids are accepting challenges and accepting responsibility. That’s a good sign. Some people have excuses. Some people might complain they ran a race into the wind and someone else had the wind at their back. You have to choose to have the wind at your back.”

On having a young core of outstanding freshmen
“This is a sign of great facilities, great academics and even our reputation of what we have done. The honesty in Zoom recruiting that occurred during the pandemic gives the personality of our coaches to come through with recruits. That’s what you have to have to get people to buy in. In the past, some people just want the glitter and gold and you lose. COVID showed us you have to have something tangible (to win recruits). We’re in a new age. Kids today are different than kids even three years ago. We have tangibles. The graduation rate is a tangible. Minorities being at over 12 percent is tangible. Professionals that graduate that come from the African American community are tangible. The amount of doctors and lawyers that ran track here compared to other places is important.”

A Look at the Leaderboard
The Gamecocks have 20 performances in the top 50 of the NCAA after two weekends of competition, including six top-10 performances.

Makenzie Dunmore ran the NCAA lead in the women’s 400 meters last weekend. Dunmore ran a time of 52.38 to win the event and put her name atop the NCAA Performance List. Dunmore also has one of the best times in the country in the NCAA in the 200 meters. She ran a time of 23.24 at the Tiger Track Classic for the No. 7 time in the NCAA this season.

Rachel Glenn had the second-best performance in the country in the women’s high jump. She cleared 1.90m/6-2.75 to win the invitational section of the high jump at Weems Baskin. It is the highest bar she’s cleared since her high jump title in June of 2021.

The women’s 4X100-meter and 4X400-meter relay teams are both ranked in the top 10. The 4X100-meter relay team ran a time of 43.83 at Weems Baskin to rank seventh in the country. The 4X400-meter relay team ran the NCAA’s sixth-fastest time in the country at the Tiger Track Classic when they ran a time of 3:31.84.

Evan Miller also has a top-10 time in the country. He ran a time of 20.51  in the 200 meters at Weems Baskin to rank sixth in the country. Miller is coming off an indoor season in which he earned his first ever First Team All America honor with a sixth-place finish at Indoor Nationals.

The Gamecocks have four top-30 times in the women’s 200 meters. Dunmore, Tierra Frasier, Jayla Jamison and Angel Frank all rank in the top 30 in the event.

Carolina’s women also have three top-25 times in the women’s 400 meters. Dunmore, Alysia Johnson and Frank all are in the top 25 of the NCAA.

The Gamecock men have two athletes tied at 33rd in the country in the pole vault. Dillon McCarthy and Carson Lenser both sit in a tie for 33rd in the NCAA.

Carolina track and field athletes have big opportunities to put up some of the nation’s best times again with some of the best competition in the country heading to Gainesville, Florida, this weekend.

Phenomenal Freshmen
Tierra Frasier earned SEC weekly honors for her performances at the Weems Baskin Invitational last weekend, the conference office announced on Tuesday.

Frasier was named the SEC Women’s Freshman of the Year after running in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4X100-meter relay for the Gamecocks.

The Rock Hill native ran a time of 23.47w in the 200 meters to finish second behind only Melissa Jefferson who is the reigning indoor 60-meter national champion. Frasier’s 200-meter time puts her at No. 18 in the NCAA, ninth in the East Region and seventh in the SEC. She is also the third-fastest SEC freshman at 200 meters in the SEC.

Frasier also contributed to the Gamecocks’ 4X100-meter relay team, which was victorious with a time of 43.83. That squad ranks seventh-best in the country and third in both the East Region and SEC.

The true freshman also ran the 100 meters and took fourth with a time of 11.62w. That time puts Frasier in a tie for 62nd in the NCAA, tied for 37th in the East Region and 12th in the SEC.

Frasier’s honor marked the second week in a row a Gamecock freshman has been honored for their performances. Carson Lenser won the Men’s Freshman of the Week honor for his performance at the Tiger Track Classic.

Frasier and Lenser joined Anthony Greenhow, Jr. and Jayla Jamison as Gamecock freshmen to be honored as the conference’s top freshman in 2022.