April 6, 2005

Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina track and field put on a strong performance at the USATF South Carolina State Championship held at USC’s Weems Baskin Track and Field on Wednesday, April 6th. The Gamecocks were among the state’s top performers in what was their last home meet of the season.

Field events kicked off Wednesday’s activity on a great note for the Gamecocks, starting with the men’s hammer throw, the first of two field events of which the Gamecocks swept 1-2-3. Tyler Trout claimed the title with a personal best throw of 172’10, while Jacob Minskey finished second with a distance of 167’10, followed by Anthony Faulkner’s third place finish of 141’2. USC’s discus throwers also swept the event finishing in first, second and third places. Joseph Schroeder earned his first title of the season in the event with a throw of 157’1, while Tyler Trout finished second with a throw of 151’3 and Jason Cook in third with a throw of 137’10. Schroeder also finished first in the javelin with a personal best of 192’9, while Cook finished third in the men’s shot put with a distance of 43’3.

Gamecock jumper Derek Pressley finished second in the triple jump with a season best leap of 48’1 _, while also finishing fifth in the long jump with a leap of 21’9. Trey Bell earned his second top collegiate finish in two weeks with a second place finish in the pole vault. He vaulted a regional qualifying mark of 16’7 to lead the Gamecocks who finished second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth in the event. Dan McKenzie finished second with a vault of 15’6, while Jonathan Benton finished fourth with a height of 14’6.

Chelsea Kaczmarek represented the women’s team in the field events finishing third in the javelin with a throw of 117’0, while also finishing sixth in the long jump with a leap of 17’3 _. Cheryl Terrio earned another pole vault title and led a Gamecock sweep of the event with a personal best and regional qualifying height of 13’1 _ for first place. USC’s Marisa Quintana-Garcia and Emily Pease finished second and third with vaults of 11’0, a personal best, and 10’0, respectively.

Starting off the action on the track was the women’s 3,000m steeplechase. Jessica Smith and Caitlin McGroerty claimed the top two finishes in the women’s event with close times of 12:40.82 and 12:40.96, respectively. In other distance events, Christine Mudd earned her first title of the season with a personal best run of 5:11.44 in the 1,500m, shedding 16 seconds off her season best, while Ashley Cruse also claimed her first win with a personal best time of 19:20.18 in the 5,000m. Nicki Breves finished second with a time of 20:02.49.

Men’s distance runner Matt Hoffman also claimed his first victory in the 800m with a time of 1:58.13, while Evan Slack finished third in the 1,500 with a time of 4:18.24 and David Johannesmeyer placed second in the 5,000m with a time of 16:09.32, a personal best.

Sprinter Dishari’ck Howze also claimed her first victory of the season with a 12.26 run in the 100m dash for first place. She also ran 25.65 for third place in the 200m dash, ahead of teammates Monica King and Camille Clemmons-James who finished fourth and fifth with times of 25.67 and 25.71, respectively. King and Clemmons-James also finished eighth and 11th in the 400m, while Monica Bozenski finished second in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:07.85. Nick Lytle had another good performance for the men’s sprinters with a sixth place finish time of 10.91 in the men’s 100m dash, while Thomas Hilliard claimed his first title in the 400m hurdles with a time of 54.53.

In relay action, the women’s team claimed one more title and a second place finish on Wednesday. The 4x100m relay finished first with a time of 48.25 and the 4x400m relay finished second with a time of 4:01.43.

The Gamecocks will be back in action on Friday at the Tennessee 33rd Gatorade Classic, the SEC vs. the Big Ten, in Knoxville, Tenn. Results will be available following the meet at www.uscsports.com.