Track & Field Announces 2026 Season Slate
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Oct. 20, 2025) – Third-year South Carolina Track & Field head coach Tim Hall has announced the 2026 slate on Monday. The Garnet & Black will compete in a total of 23 meets over 18 weekends, with four meets held in Columbia.
INDOOR COMPETITION
South Carolina will take part in 11 indoor meets over a nine-week span, opening the season on Friday, Dec. 5 at the Clemson Opener and Saturday, Dec. 6 at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Opener in Boston, Mass. Following the split weekend in December, the Gamecocks will host the first of three home meets on Saturday, Jan. 10 with the Gamecock Opener. South Carolina will also host the Carolina Classic (Feb. 6-7) and the USC Invite (Feb. 21).
The remaining regular season road meets will be the Orange & Purple Invite (Jan. 23-24) at Clemson, S.C., Razorback Invitational (Jan. 30-31) in Fayetteville, Ark. and then another split weekend on Feb. 13-14 at both the Tiger Paw Invitational (Clemson, S.C.) and the David Hemery Valentine Invitational (Boston, Mass.). This year’s edition of the SEC Indoor Championship will take place in College Station, Texas on Feb. 27-28, while the NCAA Indoor Championship will run March 13-14 in Fayetteville, Ark.
RUNNING OUTDOORS
The Gamecock outdoor schedule consists of 12 meets over nine weekends, with one home outdoor meet. The lone meet at Cregger Track will be the Weems Baskin Invitational on Saturday, March 28 and will serve as Senior Day.
The Garnet & Black open the outdoor season on Thursday, March 19 – Saturday, March 21 when the team travels to Conway, S.C. for the Alan Connie Shamrock Invitational. The following week the Gamecocks will run at the Raleigh Relays (March 26-28) in addition to the Weems Baskin Invitational. During the month of April, South Carolina will take part in the Florida Relays (April 3-4), Wake Forest Invitational (April 16-17), Tom Jones Invitational (April 17-18) and the Tiger Track Classic (April 24-25). The last regular season weekend will be when South Carolina splits the team for the East Coast Relays (May 1-2) in Jacksonville, Fla. and the Torrin Lawrence Memorial (May 2) in Athens, Ga.).
This year’s outdoor postseason trek will begin on May 14-16 in Auburn, Ala. with the SEC Outdoor Championship. The Gamecocks will then travel to familiar territory in Lexington, Ky. for the NCAA East Regional (May 27-30). The NCAA Outdoor Championship returns to Tracktown USA in Eugene, Ore. on June 10-13.
THRIVED IN 2025
Hall, back-to-back USTFCCCA Southeast Regional Women’s Coach of the Year, is coming off a season where he coached 21 All-SEC honorees and 26 All-Americans between the indoor and outdoor campaigns. Both the men and women finished inside the Top 10 at the 2025 SEC Indoor Championship for the first time since 2012 in Hall’s second season. During the indoor season, Hall’s team accounted for 50 new Top 10 program mark with six new program records.
During the outdoor season, the Gamecock women finished fifth at the SEC Outdoor Championship and seventh at the NCAA Outdoor Championship for the best team finish since 2006. Hall was responsible coaching Ford to an 200m national title in Oregon as well as winning the SEC Commissioner’s Trophy after earning four gold medals at the SEC Outdoor Championship. Ford also earned SEC Women’s Runner of the Year and USTFCCCA Southeast Region Women’s Track Athlete of the Year under Hall’s tutelage. Hall directly oversaw 15 All-American honorees during the outdoor season.
PORTAL POWER
The Gamecocks hit the portal ahead of the 2026 season, grabbing six male athletes and six female athletes. On the women’s side, Alexis Brown arrived as a highly sought after transfer from Lenoir-Rhyne where she was an eight-time national champion and 14 time All-American. Brown is joined by outdoor 400mH runner-up Akala Garrett from Texas and Garrett’s teammate Lauren Lewis who is a three-time First Team All-American. Jathiyah Muhammad joins the field events as a pole vault transfer from Arizona, while Eline Mast (Houston Christian) and Abir Reffas (Cal Baptist) join the ranks of the distance team.
On the men’s side, South Carolina welcomes 2024 Nigerian Outdoor 110mH Champion and former Kentucky runner, Alexander Chukwukelu. Tyson Williams (Johnson C. Smith) and Robert Stitts Jr. (Chabot College) represent the sprints transfers, with Williams winning an NCAA Division II indoor title in 2025 in the 200m sprint. Jeremy Nelson (Lafayette) arrives as a 2025 Second Team All-American honoree in the triple jump. Logan Montgomery (Florida) and Edouard Lecrivain (Houston Baptist) round out the male portal class with Montgomery in the throws and Lecrivain on the distance team.
