Feb. 26, 2005

Fayetteville, Ark. – South Carolina track and field opened the SEC Indoor Championship with a personal best pentathlon performance by sophomore Reanna Townsend Friday night at the Randal Tyson Track at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

Townsend finished in 15th place overall, totaling 3332 points for her best pentathlon performance of her career.

“This is a good performance for Reanna. She PR her overall score and place from last year when she was here for the SEC Championship,” said Assistant Coach Delethea Quarles. “Her 800m was the biggest high point of the day for her. It was a major personal best and breakthrough for her mentally. I feel that she is someone who can definitely score in this event in years to come.”

Townsend began the night with a 9.02 performance in the 60m hurdles, followed by a leap of 5’1 in the high jump. She threw for 9.85 in the shot put and wrapped up the night with a personal best performance of 2:38.24 in the 800m.

The Gamecocks will be back in action Saturday morning starting with the men’s weight throw at 10 a.m. in the field and the men’s 60m hurdles preliminaries at 1:30 p.m. Saturday’s events will conclude with the women’s 3,000m finals at 6:35 p.m.

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