Demsar and Women's 4x400m Relay Score to Cap Off Indoor Season
The top-20 finish for the Gamecocks is 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 men wrapped up the indoor campaign in a tie for 46th as a team with Filip Demsar scoring in the 60m hurdles.
“It’s always great to be a top-20 program,” South Carolina head coach Curtis Frye said. “We want to be No. 1, but we always strive to be in the top 25. And with the number of freshmen we have it just speaks volumes of how we have recruited and where our program can do in the future. Everyone is back, and it is just awesome to line up this weekend and leave with a result like this.”
Demsar did not waste his opportunity on the national stage in his first NCAA Championships experience. The sophomore reached the NCAA final after a 7.74 in Friday’s semifinal round to finish in eighth. Demsar matched his preliminary time in the final to improve his place to sixth, the highest finish by a Gamecock in the men’s 60m hurdles since Dondre Echols in 2016 who also finished in sixth. The finish gave Demsar First Team All-American status, the third-straight year a Gamecock has earned that distinction. Demsar’s 7.74 also propelled him into the top-10 all-time indoors for Carolina, tying Thomas Hilliard (2007) for the No. 10 time.
“Filip was just incredible today,” Frye said. “Knowing the history of the hurdles at Carolina with Echols, Terrence Trammell and Isaiah Moore who he can train with here is important. We constantly turn out hurdlers here at South Carolina and same with our women’s high jumpers. We’ve had national champions in that event so we expect a lot out of those events and it was great to see them show what they are capable of this weekend.”
The women’s 4x400m relay wrapped up the Gamecocks’ 2021 indoor campaign in the final event of the meet. The combination of Knowledge Omovoh, Rachel Glenn, Ashton Lindley and Stephanie Davis finished in seventh to snag another two points for South Carolina. The All-American status is the sixth time since 2013 the Gamecocks have had an indoor 4x400m relay team earn the distinction. For Glenn, it gives her two All-America honors during her first NCAA Championships after she finished as the national runner-up in the high jump on Friday. Davis becomes the 26th woman in South Carolina history to earn five different All-America honors. Omovoh’s participation gives the junior two All-America distinctions in her career at South Carolina while Lindley, a freshman, earns All-America status in her first season in Columbia.
“Our team has really come a long way this season and I can’t thank our administration enough for helping give us the opportunity to compete this year,” Frye said. “Now we have to look outdoors and see if we can get to some places to get some great competition. We just have so much enthusiasm as we shift to the outdoor season.”
South Carolina will waste no time shifting to the outdoor season as it will begin next weekend with the Tiger Track Classic that will be held in Auburn, Ala. from March 19-20. The Gamecocks will host its first outdoor event from March 26-27, at the Weems Baskin.
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| MARCH 11-13 • NCAA INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS • MEN’S RESULTS | ||
| 60m Hurdles | ||
| Filip Demsar (First Team All-American) | 6th. 7.74 (7.74 in prelims) | |
| 200m | ||
| Evan Miller (Second Team All-American) | 13th. 21.33 | |
| MARCH 11-13 • NCAA INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS • WOMEN’S RESULTS | ||
| 60m Hurdles | ||
| Destinee Rocker (Second Team All-American) | 9th. 8.17 | |
| 4x400m | ||
| Omovoh, Glenn, Lindley, Davis (First Team All-Americans) | 7th. 3:32.67 | |
| High Jump | ||
| Rachel Glenn (First Team All-American) | 2nd. 1.87m | 6-1 1/2 (PR) | |
