LAST TIME OUT – TIGER TRACK CLASSIC

A portion of the Gamecocks began their outdoor season last weekend at the Tiger Track Classic in Auburn, Ala. The Gamecocks picked up five victories during the meet with All-Americans Filip Demsar and Aliyah Abrams highlighting the weekend. 

“I’m really happy we got going today with some good runs and performances,” South Carolina head coach Curtis Frye said. “Our team knows the urgency of the season because not every day is guaranteed. Having Filip [Demsar] get out and put up a solid time and Malik [Paul] putting up just a solid marks. Those are really great starts for them and then Aliyah [Abrams] in her open and also her split on the 4x400m team was just fantastic. I’m proud of the whole group and especially those marks.” 

Demsar began his outdoor career with a 13.77 in the 110m hurdles to win the meet. Demsar’s time was good enough to put him among the top five in the nation in the first weekend of the outdoor season. For Abrams, in her first action with Carolina since the 2019 SEC Indoor Championships, clocked an impressive 52.01 in the 400m to easily win the event. Abrams wasn’t finished with a 51.1 split in the 4x400m relay later in the afternoon that helped the team finish second at the Tiger Track Classic. 

In the field it was Malik Paul who highlighted the weekend for Carolina. Paul earned the victory in the discus event with a toss of 56.63m (185-9), a new personal record for the senior. The mark also propelled Paul to ninth on the Gamecocks all-time top 10 outdoor list in the event, a list that he previously sat 10th on. Hailey Sweatman was also victorious in the women’s pole vault for the Gamecocks on Saturday. The 2020 All-American cleared 4.15m (13-7 1/4), a season-best mark indoors or outdoors, to earn the first victory in her 2021 season. Finally the men’s 4x400m relay got off on the right foot with a 3:09.32 with the team of Evan Miller, EJ Richardson, Jackson Junkins and William Spencer Jr., winning the meet handily. 

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP (click to expand)

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ABRAMS NAMED SEC CO-RUNNER OF THE WEEK

The University of South Carolina opening weekend of outdoor action led to senior sprint Aliyah Abrams named the SEC Runner of the Week laurels on Tuesday, the conference office announced.
 
Abrams turned in a 400m time of 52.01 last Saturday at the Tiger Track Classic in Auburn, Ala., which sits atop the national lists after the first official week of outdoor track and field across Division I. Later that afternoon Abrams anchored the women’s 4x400m relay team that currently has the second-fastest time in the country this season with Abrams’ anchor leg clocking in with a sub-52 split. The honor is the first weekly conference honor for Carolina since the 2019 season when the Gamecocks won seven SEC Athlete of the Week laurels. For Abrams it is her fourth conference honor of her career at South Carolina. 

HOME MEET INFORMATION

There will be no general fan admission for the Weems Baskin on Friday or Saturday. Fans can follow the meet live on Adkins Trak here. The meet begins on Friday at 10 a.m. with the field events and track events begin at 4 p.m. On Saturday the action starts at 10 a.m. in the field and 11 a.m. on the track. For more information on the meet, find our home meet information here. 

RETURNING OUTDOOR GAMECOCKS

A number of Gamecocks will have the opportunity to return to the outdoor scene after last year’s cancellations. At the Weems Baskin the Gamecocks could enjoy the return of more notable student-athletes that were not able to compete during indoor season after exhausting their eligibility. Eric Favors will be one of the highlighted names for the Garnet and Black, the 2019 NCAA qualifier and SEC bronze medalist has trained all indoor season and was even able to compete as an unattached athlete during the indoor season, breaking another Ireland indoor national record in the shot put. 

Other individuals who are returning for only the outdoor season this weekend include Adele Blalock in the pole vault, Jordan Fields in the high jump, Sarah-Sims McGrath and Anna Kathryn Stoddard in the distances, Jhari Williams in the sprints and Noah Walker in the sprints and hurdles.

LAST TIME AT THE WEEMS BASKIN (2018)

After the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the 2020 Weems Baskin meet, and South Carolina not hosting the event in 2019, the meet returns in 2021 for the first time since 2018. In that meet the likes of Aliyah Abrams (400m), Josh Awotunde (Discus), Yann Randrianasolo (Long Jump), Rougui Sow (Long Jump), Hailey Sweatman (Pole Vault) and multiple relay teams captured wins. The team picked up a total of 10 wins during the meet with current Gamecocks like Eric Favors, Sierra Biber, Stephanie Davis and Caitlyn Little also contributing during the meet.  
 

GLENN HIGHLIGHTS 2021 NCAA INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Gamecocks enter the outdoor season on the heels of one of the program’s best NCAA Indoor Championships in recent past. The Carolina women finished tied for 20th, the third time since 2014 they have finished among the top 20 indoors with the highest finish coming in 2019 when the team finished seventh. The Gamecock men tied for 46th. 

The highlight of the meet was Carolina’s national runner-up in the women’s high jump with freshman Rachel Glenn. Her 1.87m (6-1 1/2) was just shy of the national champion mark of 1.90m. Glenn set three personal records during the incredible meet to nearly reach the top of the podium in her national championship debut. Glenn came into the meet ranked near the bottom of the qualifiers with a 1.80m, but used the third-best high jump mark, indoors or outdoors, in school history to snag eight points at the indoor national meet for Carolina. 

Glenn’s finish was one of three events that captured first-team All-America honors during the weekend. The women’s 4x400m relay team of Knowledge Omovoh, Glenn, Ashton Lindley and Stephanie Davis finished the meet with a seventh-place finish. For Glenn it gave her two first-team honors while it made Davis the 26th female in school history to earn five different All-American laurels. 

Filip Demsar was the final first-team All-American, and the only male to earn the distinction in 2021. Demsar qualified near the bottom of the 16 participants coming into the meet but used a PR of 7.74 to reach the final. Demsar matched his new PR of 7.74 in the final to catapult him to a sixth-place finish, snagging three points for Carolina and earning a third-straight All-America nod for the Gamecocks in the 60m hurdles.

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