May 16, 2015

Complete Results | Photo Gallery

STARKVILLE, MS. – A silver medal for junior hurdler Dondre Echols was the main highlight on the final day of the SEC Outdoor Championships. In the final team standings, the men finished 11th with 36 points. The women finished 13th with 19 points.

The men’s team scored big in its lone individual track event of the day, placing three in the top eight of the men’s 110 hurdles. Leading the way was Dondre Echols in second place with a time of 13.46. It was the best finish for Carolina since 2010 (Booker Nunley) and now is the fifth-fastest time in school history, passing Kenneth Ferguson (13.53, 2003). Currently, his time ranks second in the nation and is redemption for the junior after he missed the finals of the 60 hurdles indoors.

Jermaine Collier ran 13.73, a season-best time to place seventh overall. His time ranks 12th nationally. Isaiah Moore would round out the scorers with an eighth-place finish, his time of 13.76 is the tenth-fastest in school history and ranks 13th nationally.

The women’s team saw an early surprise result from sophomore Natasha Dicks, who posted a fifth-place finish in the triple jump. She entered the weekend ranked 15th in the conference, but shattered her personal best to score for the team.

After fouling her first two attempts, Dicks soared for a mark of 43-2.25 to move all the way up to third and qualified for the finals. That mark would hold for fifth. She moves up the program’s all-time rankings from sixth to third, and posted the best triple jump for Carolina since 2005.

The women also had just one individual race, the 5k. After a great time to finish 12th in the 10k on Thursday night, Mary Reiser again led the way for the Gamecocks. She ran 29th overall in a field of 50 runners, with a time of 17:16.60 that comes in as the team’s fastest of the Spring.

In the relays, both the men and women started the day strong, with season-best times by each side in the 4×100. The quartet of Kendall Kee, Dondre Echols, Eric Winfrey and Chris Walker finished sixth with a time of 39.56. For the women, Gabby Gray, Alexis Murphy, Ahtyana Johnson and Tamera Harris took almost a half second off their previous best this season and placed eighth with a time of 44.90.

Dondre Echols would hand off to Eric Winfrey for the third leg. Winfrey would peel off a split of 45.44 to move the team into third, and Ryan Bermudez ran an anchor split of 45.29 to hold off Texas A&M’s Deon Lendore for the bronze medal. Both Winfrey and Bermudez’s splits, if compared to the team’s top ten 400s ever, would rank third and second, respectively.

With a time of 3:03.13, the team moved in to fourth in program history, the best time since 2009. It was more than four seconds faster than the team’s previous season best.

The women’s mile relay would be equally impressive, with a time of 3:36.48 to finish seventh overall. Aalayah Faulcon and Briana Haith set the pace on the first two laps of their heat, and Gabby Gray and Ahtyana Johnson ran in the mid-54s to close out the race. Coming into the weekend, the team’s season best time was 3:44.32.

NOTABLES

• The 36 points scored by the men were the most since the 2010 season.
• Natasha Dicks was the first Gamecock to score in the triple jump since 2012 (Radiance Basden) and posted the best finish since Basden went fourth in 2011).
• Dondre Echols’ time of 13.46 in the 110 hurdles currently ranks 15th in the world so far this outdoor season.
• The final day of events were slowed by constant weather delays as storms rolled through the area. The area received almost three-quarters of an inch of rain for the day.

QUOTABLE South Carolina Head Coach Curtis Frye

On the team’s performance for the weekend
Efforts, efforts. If we didn’t score in an area, it was because we were trying to do something that was beyond what we had done for the season. We didn’t have anyone that didn’t put forward a big effort, and even though we didn’t have as many bullets we had a big heart. I know we’ve got hearts returning, and my challenge to the team is to take this momentum into regionals and see who we can get to the national championships.

Junior Dondre Echols

On winning his first SEC outdoor medal
I didn’t know I was number two, I thought I got third but I made sure I dived at the finish line and when I saw the finals up at the top I got pretty excited. That was my PR, I couldn’t be too mad about not being first place but that was my goal – to get first place… I expected to come here and do very well.

UP NEXT

The team will prepare now for the NCAA East Regionals, to be held in Jacksonville, Fl. in two weeks. The top 48 athletes at each event from the east region will square off for a chance to make it to the NCAA championships in Eugene, Ore. from June 10-13.