May 30, 2003
Results?|? Quotes?|? Notes?|? Photo Gallery
FAIRFAX, Va. – South Carolina’s first day of regional competition was highlighted by Tony Allmond’s second-place finish in the long jump, advancing him on to the NCAA Championships in Sacramento. USC also advanced 11 other athletes to Saturday event finals at George Mason University. The men’s team is in sixth place while the women are tied for 11th early in the meet.
“We had some good things happen and some bad,” said head coach Curtis Frye. “Overall, we are pleased with the good things that we did today. Otis Harris and Jonathan Fortenberry reached the 400m dash finals and we had three women reach the long jump finals.”
Allmond finished second in the men’s long jump competition with a final mark of 25′ 4.5″ while teammate Greig Cryer placed eighth with a jump 24′ 6.5″. In the women’s long jump, Antoinette Wilks placed sixth while teammate Chelsea Hammond finished seventh.
Tiffany Ross equaled her season-best time of 13.35, and notched the second-best preliminary time, en route to the finals of the women’s 110m hurdles.
A pair of USC women advanced to Saturday’s 100m dash final. Aleen Bailey won her heat by posting the second best preliminary time (11.51) while Erica Whipple placed first in her heat (11.56) to move on.
The Gamecocks also sent a female duo to the finals of the 400m hurdles. Ross ran the day’s fastest preliminary time, 56.40, and Shevon Stoddart posted a time of 58.71 to advance.
Corey Taylor ran a career-best time of 13.70 in the 110m hurdles, posting the second-fastest preliminary time to advance to Saturday’s final.
“I just did my best to win the heat,” said Taylor. “I knew the heat winners would move on to the finals so I just wanted to concentrate on getting through it.”
Adrian Durant reached the finals of the 100m dash with a preliminary time of 10.57 and also advanced in the 200m dash with a time of 20.89. In both events, he qualified for the finals by a tiebreaker going to the thousandth of a second difference.
Harris advanced to Saturday’s 400m final by running a time of 46.06 in the preliminaries. He will be joined by teammate Fortenberry who ran a time of 46.53 to reach the finals.
In the women’s 400m dash, Stoddart reached the finals with a time of 53.03, setting a new career-best mark.
Otukile Lekote ran a time of 1:49.21 to qualify for the finals of the 800m run.
USC’s men’s 4×100 relay team, including Durant, Shamus Singletary, and Taylor, recorded the fifth-fastest preliminary time of 39.91 seconds to advance to Saturday’s final. The women’s quartet of Ross, Whipple, Alexis Joyce, Bailey topped the 4×100 relay finals qualifiers by running a time of 44.16.
Saturday’s finals begin with field events at 9:30 a.m. ahead of the start of running events which begin at 4 p.m. Complete results and live scoring updates can be found on George Mason’s athletics website, www.gmusports.com.
