Feb. 22, 2003

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina men’s and women’s track teams dominated competition at the USC Invitational indoor meet in preparation for the SEC Championships next weekend in Gainesville, Fla. Seven Gamecocks were triumphant in individual events, establishing three facility records and one school record along the way. USC recorded two NCAA automatic qualifying marks and seven provisional marks.

Miki Barber set an indoor school record and a facility record when she posted a preliminary time of 6.82, a provisional mark, in the 55 meter dash. She went on to a second place finish in the event, won by teammate Aleen Bailey, as USC took the top four spots with Erica Whipple finishing third and Alexis Joyce fourth. Bailey’s time of 6.84 is a provisional mark and personal best while Whipple’s time of 6.88 is also a provisional mark.

Tiffany Ross established a new indoor facility record in the 55 meter hurdles when she ran a 7.80 provisional mark and personal best in the preliminary round. She went on to capture the event title followed by teammates Sheven Stoddart and Antoinette Wilks, who finished second and third.

Corey Taylor broke the facility record with an automatic qualifying time of 7.19, in the 55 meter hurdles, breaking the mark of 7.21 set in his previous race during the day. Charles Ryan was the runner-up in the 55 meter hurdles final after posting an automatic qualifying mark of 7.23 in the preliminaries.

Other USC victories on the women’s side included Tawana Watkins, who set a facility record in the 400 meter dash (59.42 seconds), Monica Bozenski in the high jump (1.62m), Cheryl Terrio in the pole vault (3.36m), and Nicole Kendrick in the shot put with a provisional mark of 16.35m.

On the men’s side, Greg Royster won the pole vault with a vault of 5.05 m.

The Gamecocks return to the track on Friday, Feb. 28, in day one of the SEC Championships, hosted by the University of Florida.