Feb. 20, 2016

Complete Results

COLUMBIA, S.C. | BLACKSBURG, VA. – The 2016 indoor regular season came to a close Saturday with the final day of the Virginia Tech Challenge, and the Gamecock Invitational. The team performed well at both, picking up notable season bests in the women’s high jump and the men’s weight throw.

Up in Blacksburg, the team would compete in just four field events. Nakita Gray notched her second win in the high jump for the season, beating the field by almost a half foot. She would bow out at 5-11 ½, which stands as a new season high for her. Her male counterpart in the high jump, Tye Williams, finished fourth in his competition. Michael Wamer wrapped up the jump team’s weekend by finishing second in the triple jump at 50-2 ¾, his second-best mark of the season.

Back home, Makyla Stanley started the day in the long jump and picked up a new collegiate best at 18-9 ¾ to place second overall. The men picked up two collegiate wins in the throws, starting with Clarence Gallop in the weight. He reached a season-best distance of 60-8 to placed third overall but tops among college competitors. Josh Awotunde won his shot put competition outright, throwing 60-4 to take the win by over six feet.

The women would be big winners on the track, racking up three wins for the day. It started with Alexis Malmberg in the mile, as the freshman shaved four seconds off her last race at home and came in just ahead of teammate Anna McElrath at 5:23.58. Then in the 800, Breanna Cole won with a time of 2:25.14. Allie Sprague had an outstanding run in the 3000 to close out the meet, running a season-best time of 10:26.32 to give her new personal bests in consecutive meets.

In the sprints, seniors Gabby Gray and Ahtyana Johnson went out as podium finishers for the 55m dash, finishing second and third. Their careers at home come to an end in a unique way, as Saturday was likely the final competition in the team’s indoor facility before major planned renovations get underway.

UP NEXT

The Gamecocks head back to Fayetteville next week for the SEC Indoor Championships, hosted by Arkansas at the Randal Tyson Track Center. The meet begins Friday and will air live on the SEC Network +. In last season’s championship meet at Kentucky, the men placed 10th and the women took 14th. This season, the SEC boasts the nation’s top four men’s teams and three of the top four women’s teams.

QUOTABLE: HEAD COACH Curtis Frye

Opening thoughts on the Virginia Tech Challenge
“Isaiah (Moore) had a good week, he did a great job in the weight room and in turn he got his power up. Our strength and conditioning staff has done a great job of tapering our kids in towards the conference meet and yesterday was a good indication of that. We’re proud that he’s going into the conference meet with the fourth-fastest time in the SEC and we need that to set us up for three guys in the finals. Then to get Simon in the pole vault as the seventh-best in school history and on a high heading into SECs, and Chalese Davis performing well too. Last night was a good night for us.”

Takeaways from the Gamecock Invitational
“This was the last time hopefully in the history of Carolina that we’ll run on a square track, we’re fortunate to be getting into a new facility and our kids did a good job today closing the facility. Our seniors Gabby and Ahty had great efforts and to see seniors go out on a high note here is great. We needed this to get our kids a chance to compete, because a lot of them don’t get to go to the conference, or New York, or to Tyson, but they work extremely hard. This is a meet where we can reward athletes that put in commitments so they can get some experience.”

Looking ahead to next weekend
“This weekend was a fruitful one for our athletes. I think next week (at SECs) we’re going to have a lot of kids who are ready to compete for each other.”