April 24, 2015

Photo Gallery

PHILADELPHIA, PA. – It was a wildly successful day two of the Penn Relay for South Carolina, who took home one relay and three individual titles on Friday. Along with the men’s win in the shuttle hurdle relay, three other relay teams punched their ticket to finals on Saturday.

The 14th-ranked men wasted no time making their presence felt, as Jussi Kanervo lit up the track for a win in the 400-meter hurdles in the first race of the day. Running in the first heat, Kanervo led wire-to-wire and beat Pitt’s Desmond Palmer for what would stand up as the top time in the field of 50. He crossed in 50.18 seconds, his second fastest time of the season.

Kanervo would add to his trophy case in his next event, the shuttle hurdle relay. Teaming with fellow hurdlers Jermaine Collier, Dondre Echols and Isaiah Moore, the group won by almost three seconds, finishing in 55.53. It is the best time at the Penn Relays since 2012, and it is the first relay win for the Gamecock men at Penn since 2003 (which was also in the shuttle hurdle).

In the other relays for the men, Carolina qualified for the finals in all three of its events, the 4×100, 4×200 and 4×400. The Gamecocks finished second overall in the 4×1 and 4×2 qualifiers, and went fifth overall in the 4×4 prelims.

Josh Awotunde would rewrite both the Carolina and Penn Relay record books in the discus, setting a new event record in the college division. In his second attempt of the morning, he went for 191 feet, three inches. It would stand as the winning mark, beating out Brown’s Courtland Clavette (188-8).

Awotunde’s mark was almost four feet better than the previous event record, set back in 2005 by Villanova’s Robert McDade. In Carolina’s record book, he moves up to number five all-time, with the best mark by any Gamecock in the event since 1999. Following the discus, Josh competed in the shot put and took third overall. His throw of 18.13 meters (59-5.75) is his second best mark of the Spring.

The women would also earn a win in the throws, with freshman Shelby Freedman closing out the day with a win in the javelin. She hit 150 feet, eight inches on her second attempt of the night, and it would hold up for her second win of the season. The Danville, Pa. native now has four of the team’s top five marks for the season for the javelin.

Jeannelle Scheper continued her unbeaten season in the high jump, winning the Championship Division with a mark of 1.86 meters (6-1.25). The senior earned her first career victory at the meet and passed on the final bars as she sets her eyes on the postseason. Teammate Nakita Gray was impressive in her own right, setting a new personal record with a jump of 5-11.75 to tie for the second-best height. She bumps up from third on the program top 10 to a tie for second with Chelsea Hammond.

A strong fight against the elements earned the women’s 4x100m relay team a berth in the Championship of America Invitational Friday, and it would run even better in the finals. The team of Gabby Gray, Alexis Murphy, Ahtyana Johnson and Briana Haith improved on their qualifying time and ran a 45.74 to finish fifth overall. It was this particular group’s top time of the outdoor season.

In the preliminary races, Echols would qualify for the finals in the 110-meter hurdles after running 13.81 (+0.5). Jermaine Collier (14th place) and Isaiah Moore (28th) also ran for Carolina.

NOTABLES

• Temperatures sat in the mid 40s for the second straight day at Penn, but it was just par for the course for Kanervo. The weather was not dissimilar to that of his hometown of Espoo, Finland, where temperatures reached 50 degrees today.
• Josh Awotunde entered the program’s top 10 earlier this season, but went six feet further in his new personal best. He moved from eighth to fifth on the list, now sitting behind Art Swarts’ throw of 192-3. His mark ranks 14th in the nation, based on marks entering the weekend.
• The last men’s relay team to win at Penn came in 2003, by the SHR team of Corey Taylor, Fred Townsend, Charles Ryan, Kenneth Ferguson. That group set the meet record for the event, a time of 53.94, and were inducted into the Wall of Fame in 2013.
• Friday’s paid attendance at Franklin Field was 39,130, bring the two-day total to 61,667.

QUOTABLE South Carolina Head Coach Curtis Frye

Opening Statement
It’s a fantastic day, the big thing was to have a senior like Jeannelle come in here and win the high jump…. It has been one heck of a day, and then to go out and win a major championship in the shuttle hurdle relay capped it off to be a great day for us.

UP NEXT

The meet will come to a close tomorrow with the finals of the 4×1, 4×2 and 4×4 on the men’s side and the 4×2 and 4×8 for the women. Kaleb Zuidema will look to defend his title in the javelin throw and Michael Wamer returns to the triple jump after shattering the school record in his last competition. The day begins at 9 a.m.

TWEET OF THE MEET