Feb. 26, 2014

The Gamecocks travel west for the 2014 SEC Indoor Championships at Texas A&M’s Gilliam Indoor Stadium in College Station, Texas. As always, a challenging field awaits South Carolina at the conference meet. Fifteen SEC teams, seven men and eight women are featured in this week’s USTFCCCA’s rankings.

WEEKEND INFORMATION
Date: Thurs., Feb. 27 – Sat., Mar. 1
Time: Thurs. – 2 p.m. ET | Fri. – 2 p.m. ET | Sat. – 2 p.m. ET
Location: College Station, Texas
Facility: Gilliam Indoor Stadium
Live Results: FlashResults.com

Meet Notes | Meet Schedule
SEC Meet Central

LIVE STREAM SCHEDULE
Thursday: AggieAthletics.com (beginning at 1:55 p.m. ET)
Friday: AggieAthletics.com (From 1:55 p.m. ET until ESPN3 broadcast) | ESPN3 (beginning at 2:55 p.m. ET)
Saturday: ESPN3 (beginning at 1:50 p.m. ET)
The ESPN3 broadcast talent includes Dwight Stones (play-by-play), Larry Rawson (analyst) and Lewis Johnson (sideline reporter). The SEC Indoor Championships will air as part of a 90-minute show on ESPNU on Monday, March 10, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

With eight scoring positions up for grabs in each discipline, several South Carolina athletes are in position for a top-eight finish. On the men’s side, four individuals – junior Kendall Kee (60m – 8th), sophomores Jermaine Collier (60mH – 4th) and Dondre Echols (60mH – 9th) and freshman Alexandre Asselin (heptathlon- 9th) along with the 4×400-meter relay (8th) – enter the weekend ranked in the conference’s top 10.

The women’s team features five individual athletes in the SEC top 10 – freshman Precious Holmes (400m – 8th), junior Erika Rucker (400m-10th), senior Jeannelle Scheper (high jump – 1st), sophomore Sarah Graham (high jump – 6th and pentathlon – 10th), and senior Petra Olsen (pole vault – 4th) – and the 4×400-meter relay (6th). Scheper is the defending SEC high jump champion and the current collegiate leader.

Action begins on Thursday, with the heptathlon and the pentathlon. The Gamecocks have an entry in each event in Asselin and Graham. A full slate of events is set for Friday, beginning with the men’s 60-meter hurdles featuring sophomores Jermaine Collier and Dondre Echols, junior Andrew Seay in the men’s weight throw and senior Petra Olsen in the women’s pole vault. On Saturday, the event draws to a close. All three days are scheduled to being at 2 p.m., ET.

South Carolina’s women’s squad posted a sixth-place finish, its best since 2009, at the 2013 SEC Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., and the Gamecocks return over half of their scoring. Leading the way is defending SEC high jump champion Jeannelle Scheper. The senior, who captured the school’s first high jump conference championship last season, will look to repeat the performance. In the pole vault, senior Petra Olsen looks to score for the fourth-straight year. Olsen would be the first Gamecock to achieve the feat. Last season, Olsen won bronze in the event. On the track, junior Erika Rucker will attempt to score for the third-straight season. Rucker. The 2012 SEC Freshman Indoor Runner of the Year has posted a fourth-place finish in the 400-meter dash the last two seasons and has also been a mainstay on the 4×400-meter relay. In 2013, Rucker helped the relay to a silver medal at the conference championships. Sophomore Tyler Brockington gives the Gamecocks a second returner on the relay.

Kayla Lampe, the 2013 SEC Indoor silver medalist in the 5,000-meter run, and Chalese Davis, a two-time scorer in the pentathlon, are redshirting the 2014 indoor season and will not compete.

The men’s team will look to new faces to make an impact in College Station. With senior Clayton Gravesande (400m) and footballer Damiere Byrd (60m) out for the indoor season, South Carolina will not travel a returning individual scorer.

Up Next
The Gamecocks who reach a top-16 spot on the NCAA qualifying list will travel to Albuquerque, N.M, on Mar. 14-15.