March 28, 2003
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – South Carolina garnered eight first place finishes and 28 top 10 finishes on a sweltering Day Three at the 60th annual Florida Relays in Gainesville. The Garnet and Black set 13 qualifying marks for the NCAA Regional Championships while two athletes, Kenneth Ferguson (400m hurdles) and Antoinette Wilks (heptathlon), set personal best marks. The final day of the meet will be Saturday with field events beginning at 12 noon and running events beginning at 3 p.m.
“I feel good about today’s performance,” said Carolina head coach Curtis Frye. “We had some excellent times today. We had a lot of people qualify [for the NCAA Regional Championships] and we showed we’ve got some great athletes here today.”
The women’s 4x200m relay team won the relay race with a time of 1:30.73 – shattering the Florida Relays and Percy Beard Track records that stood at 1:33.10 before today, set by Clemson in 1999 and equaled by Florida in 2001. The group of Erica Whipple, Miki Barber, Lashinda Demus, and Aleen Bailey also bested their season high mark of 1:33.41, set last week at the Weems Baskin Sprint Relays in Columbia, S.C.
The men’s 4x200m relay team finished second overall and placed first among collegiate relay teams with a time of 1:22.97. Thomas Lewis, Shamus Singletary, Duan Barrino, and Martin Jackson bested last week’s time of 1:23.85 with the team running without Jonathan Fortenberry or Corey Taylor.
The women’s sprint medley team finished fourth as Alexis Joyce, Khalilah Carpenter, Tawana Watkins, and Boikhutso Ramomene ran a time of 3:56.12. In the men’s sprint medley, Singletary, Adrian Durant, Otis Harris, and Otukile Lekote easily won the race with a time of 3:19.12.
The Gamecocks qualified four women for the NCAA Regional Championships in the 100m dash as they finished 1-2-8-9. Bailey won the race with a time of 11.28 with Whipple placing second, running 11.32. Carpenter placed eighth with a time of 11.74 and Joyce finished ninth with a mark of 11.76. In the men’s 100m dash, Barrino won his heat and finished 14th overall as he ran a time of 10.54
South Carolina won both 400m dashes with Barber (52.43) for the women and Jonathan Fortenberry (45.99) for the men winning in their respective races. Otis Harris placed second for the men with a time of 46.01. All three times qualify Barber, Fortenberry and Harris for the NCAA Regional Championships.
Carolina placed three in the top eight places in the 400m hurdles with Tiffany Ross leading the way, recording a qualifying time of 57.84. Shevon Stoddart placed fourth with a time of 59.17 and Watkins placed eighth with a time of 1:00.13, both of which were qualifying marks. In the 100m hurdles, Ross finished third with a time of 13.35, a NCAA automatic qualifying mark.
On the men’s side of the 400m hurdles, Ferguson set a personal best and recorded a qualifying time of 49.27 to win the race.
Ramomene placed 11th in the 1,500m run with a time of 4:39.75 while Jenny Lake placed 13th with a mark of 4:40.69. On the men’s side in the 1,500m run, William Emase ran 3:50.50 to finish second. Emase finished eighth in the 800m run with a time of 1:51.92.
Brook Antonio finished fourth in the men’s hammer throw with a mark of 177’11”. Adam Bishop placed fifth in the men’s discus with a mark of 154′ 6″.
India Odum won the women’s shot put with a qualifying mark of 50′ 9.5″. Odum finished 12th in the women’s hammer throw with a mark of 159’7″. In the women’s discus, Keri Groover placed seventh with a mark of 147′ 2″ while in the women’s javelin, Katie Desin placed 10th with a mark of 124’1″ while in the women’s discus.
In the pole vault, Jared Farabee finished second on the men’s side with a qualifying mark of 16′ 2″ while teammate Trey Bell tied for fifth with a mark of 15′ 6.25″. In the women’s pole vault, Cheryl Terrio placed fifth with a height of 11′ 4.25″.
Late Thursday night, Fred Townsend placed third in the decathlon, scoring 7,345 points while Wilks recorded a personal best scoring 5,337 points as she won the heptathlon.
“This was a good pre-meet for the SEC Five-Way next week in Columbia,” said Frye. “The Florida Relays has a rich and illustrious tradition and we came with some of our best. We’re trying to be fit, we’re trying to be healthy so we can be ready for the SEC Five-Way. We want to show our fans our best against the nation’s best [on April 5th].”
Saturday will be the final day of competition for the Florida Relays. Live results can be found at www.gatorzone.com.
