Feb. 26, 2005

Fayetteville, Ark. – South Carolina men’s track and field kicked-off the second day of competition at the SEC Indoor Championship at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville on Saturday.

Earning the first points of the meet for the Gamecocks was junior jumper Greig Cryer. After a slow start in the long jump with two fouls, Cryer came back with a leap of 24’8 ¼-his best jump this season- to finish in third place in the men’s long jump.

Starting off the day was men’s weight thrower Jake Minskey, who finished 10th with a throw of 53’8 ¼, while sophomore Tyler Trout finished just behind Minskey with a season best throw of 52’11 ½ for 11th place.

On the track, Gamecock competition started with the men’s 60m hurdles preliminaries. USC’s only athlete in the event, freshman Jason Richardson, set a season best of 7.75, winning his heat with the second fastest time of the day and automatically advancing to the finals on Sunday.

In the men’s 60m dash, the Gamecocks advanced two runners to Sunday’s finals. Adrian Durant, who had a season best performance, and Rodney Martin ran times of 6.75 and 6.77, respectively. Leroy Dixon, who ran a 6.78, finished in ninth place in the preliminaries, just missing the advance.

While the 400m preliminaries was a struggle for the Gamecocks with no advances, distance runner William Emase ran 1:50.99, finishing sixth overall in the 800m preliminaries, advancing to Sunday’s finals. In the men’s 200m preliminaries, Rodney Martin ran a 20.70, the fifth fastest time of the day and his second fastest time this season, also advancing to the finals.

The Gamecocks will be back in action on Sunday morning starting with the triple jump at noon and the men’s pole vault finals at 12:30 p.m. On the track, action will start off with the men’s 60m hurdles finals. The men’s portion of the championship will conclude on Sunday with the men’s 4x400m relay final at 3:45 p.m.

Results will be available following the meet at www.uscsports.com.