Feb. 23, 2002
Showing the NCAA she is the Barber who will represent this year, Lisa Barber, whose twin Miki is being redshirted due to injury, ran two NCAA automatic times to qualify for the 200m and 400m finals tomorrow, the last day of the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships. The women are in fourth place with 11 points while the men sit in eighth with eight points. Arkansas leads on the women’s side while Tennessee is tops on the men’s side.
USC pushed 14 women, including five in the 400m and four in the 200m, to the finals tomorrow. The men picked up five qualifiers. On the NCAA qualifying front, USC’s women put up six NCAA automatic times and four NCAA provisional times. The men posted one NCAA automatic time and four NCAA provisional times. The meet will also feature finals in two relays, the 5000m, the triple jump, the shot put and the women’s pole vault.
In the finals of the pole vault, Chris Steddum finished fourth at 17′ 3 ? with his teammate Jared Farabee seventh 16′ 10 ?.
In the 20lb. Weight final Anderson’s Mamee Groves threw a personal best 63′ 4 to finish fourth. Her mark is also an NCAA provisional mark.
In the 200m prelims, Barber ran a 23.08, just off twin sister Miki’s NCAA winning time in 2000 (23.06). USC went 2-4-5-6 into the finals. Also making tomorrow’s finals of the 200m were heat winner Aleen Bailey (23.34 – NCAA automatic), Demetria Washington (2nd to Bailey – 23.51 – NCAA provisional), and heat winner Erica Whipple (23.41 – NCAA automatic).
“I am very happy with my performance today. In fact, both the men’s and women’s teams performances. We worked very hard to get here and we all put it on the line,” said Barber. “I haven’t ever run the 200m and 400m indoors. I told myself before the meet that it was my time, that it was time to step up and not run scared.”
In the men’s 400m, sophomore Otis Harris was second in his heat with a personal best and NCAA automatic time of 46.28 – shattering the school record set in 1999 by Jimmie Hackley (46.69).
In the men’s 200m prelims Andre Totton defeated former NCAA champion Leonard Scott to win his heat and pick up an NCAA provisional time of 20.95, qualifying for tomorrow’s finals.
Defending SEC champion Otukile Lekote won his heat with the fastest time of the day in the 800, getting across the finish line in 1:48.52. He currently has the second fastest time in the country (1:48.25).
“I felt good. I wanted to run fast today so I could get a good position for tomorrow,” said Lekote, a bronze medallist at the World University Games.
In the men’s 400m, sophomore Otis Harris was second in his heat with a personal best and NCAA automatic time of 46.28 – shattering the school record set in 1999 by Jimmie Hackley (46.69).
Behind defending SEC and NCAA champion Demetria Washington, USC put five of the nine finalists in the women’s 400m. Washington ran an easy 52.78 to win her heat of the 400m. In the next heat, Lashinda Demus won the heat at 52.97 with Lisa Barber right on her heels at 52.99. Both time are NCAA automatic times. Tacita Bass finished second in her heat at 54.09 and Shevon Stoddart was second in her’s as well at 54.07. Three Gamecocks ran NCAA automatic times – Washington, Demus and Barber, while the other two, Stoddart and Bass, bettered their own NCAA times.
In the prelims of the 60m hurdles, Demus won her heat with the second fastest time of the day at 8.39. Demus will be joined in the finals by teammates Ross, who was second in her heat at 8.49, and Stoddart, who was third in her heat at 8.49.
In the prelims of the women’s 60m, Aleen Bailey won her heat at 7.37 and Erica Whipple was second in her own (7.39) as the two qualified for tomorrow’s finals. Alexis Joyce was third in her heat at 7.47 and just missed qualifying for the finals.
In the prelims of the women’s mile, freshman Jenny Lake ran a 5:00.65 – a personal best – to finish fifth in her heat and just one spot out of the finals.
Wide receiver James Adkisson, trying his hand at the long jump, finished 19th with a jump of 19′ 11 ?.
