May 24, 2006

Columbia, SC – South Carolina will bring 34 athletes to the NCAA Track and Field East Regional Championship in Greensboro, N.C. May 26-27. The Gamecocks send 18 men and 16 women, including three relays, the second-best total since 2003 when the team qualified 40 for regionals.

When looking at the elite in college track and field, with the Gamecock program started just 15 years ago, South Carolina’s women absolutely must be mentioned. The South Carolina women join only the Texas women, the UCLA women and the Arkansas men as the ONLY four programs nationally to finish in the top 10 each of the last 10 years at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Sprinkled in during that same time span, USC’s men have also shined with three top 10 finishes (1999, 2002, 2003) and six top 20 finishes (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003).

The regional championship is a scored meet with the top eight places receiving 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 points. The team with the most points wins the championship. However, only the top five finishers in individual events and the top three relays automatically advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championship on June 7-10 in Sacramento, Calif. It is expected that the NCAA will take at least six people off the descending list after the regional that were not automatic qualifiers (top five), depending on the field.

At this weekend’s regional Carolina Head Coach Curtis Frye is looking for a top five finish on both sides after the women finished third and the men finished fifth at the SEC Championships two weeks ago. The women won the regional title last year while the men finished fourth.

Q: The NCAA introduced Regionals four years ago. What are some of the pros and cons with regionals?

Frye: The regionals give the little guys a chance against the big guys. Guys on our team like Derek Pressley, Tyler Trout, and Jim Mitchell – it gives them a chance to go against some people that are national level guys on the big stage.

But, it’s really tough to recover from the SEC Championship and go to the regional so quickly for elite athletes. It’s also tough to go from the regional to the nationals. I still like automatically qualifying throughout the year as the way to get to the nationals. That would be my preference.

Q: Besides NCAA individual berths, there is also a regional team title on the line. The Carolina women won the regional title in 2005 and the men were fourth, topping in-state rival Clemson. How many points will it take to win the title this year on both sides and where do you expect the Gamecocks will find themselves when the last race is complete on Saturday night?

Frye: On the women’s side, it will take 85 points to be in the top three and to win it will take 100 points. If the women had a perfect meet we could score 90 points. If Miami has a perfect meet they could score 115. Georgia too. We will have to have a great meet and they will have to have little less than perfect meet for us to win and we have done that before.

The women should be a contender for top five and possibly top three. Georgia and Miami are very strong teams. One is the SEC champion (Georgia) and the other is the ACC champion (Miami). Both are in the top five of the national rankings. We are No. 9 and those rankings are pretty close to what will happen at nationals.

For the men, a top five finish is our goal. If we can get fifth in the region I will be happy. Last year we were fourth. If we can improve on that, that would be ideal, but we have to have some special things happen.

It will be tough to be in the top five. We aren’t favored in a lot of places. Jason Richardson is our big gun and other than the mile relay everything else will have to be lifetime best. It will take 35-40 points to be in the top five.

Q: What’s different about the regional and the SEC Championship? Do you approach it in a different way?

Frye: The big thing with regionals – times and marks don’t matter anymore. It’s all about place. You have to finish in the top five to make the NCAAs.

We have always had a high finish in the regional meet. Regionals offer a different dynamic from the conference meet. Because the SEC Championship doesn’t have as many teams as regionals, which has athletes from over 100 teams competing, it spreads the points out more. You can be a stronger, if not as strong, team at the regional meet as in the SEC meet.

If we do what it took to get to the regionals we should be ok.

Q: The women’s team was third at the SEC meet outdoors and finished 10th indoors at the NCAA Championships. What are your expectations for them as individuals?

Frye: We have a strong group in the 100m and 200m – the athletes we have ranked we feel pretty confident that we can succeed (Shalonda Solomon and Amberly Nesbitt). Both are national caliber sprinters who should make the finals of both races.

In the 400m you have Natasha Hastings, who is No. 2 in the region, and Stephanie Smith, who is No. 6, and she has a shot. Shay Shelton is No. 7 in the region in the 800m and has a shot at being in the top five.

In the short hurdles Ronnetta Alexander is the favorite going in and Chiquita Martin is No. 8, which gives them an outside shot. Anything can happen. You have a shot because they take the top five plus an at-large list.

We are ranked No. 1 in the 4×1 and No. 2 in the 4×4 so we should be right in the middle of it there.

People ranked out of the top 10 in the regional will have to give it all they got. We look for Kemesha Whitmire to have a good one in her, but it’s a really tough regional for her. There are some outstanding jumpers.

Big question for USC – can Precious Akins hit 53 feet again in the shot put? We’d like to see some consistency there. The people that are in front of her are way out there and ranked very high nationally. The discus is a strange event – it’s about who hits it that day and what happens. Kerri Groover will give it all she has in the discus after suffering through a lot of injuries in her career, but she’s a gamer.

Q: What about on the men’s side? Greig Cryer is the defending champion in the long jump. Who else are you looking for to come up big?

Frye: Greig Cryer has been ‘Mr. Consistency’. He has matured and he should get through the regional. We’ve had a long jumper in the NCAA finals each of the last four years and we look to keep that streak alive. He hasn’t had a good outdoors in the triple jump and we look for big things there. Derek Pressley making the regional in the triple jump as a walk-on is big. He hit exactly the qualifying standard on his first jump at the SEC meet. Derek is a lot like Thomas Hilliard was last year (improving each week).

Leroy Dixon didn’t have a particularly good SEC meet, so he will have to do some things to get to the next level. Last year he didn’t have a good SEC meet, but a good regional so maybe he will reverse that pattern this year. He should be a guy running in Sacramento. There are big challenges there, but we are looking to get him back to the nationals.

Johnny Baez will have to run a lifetime best in the 800m to make the finals, but you can’t count him out.

In the hurdles – Jason Richardson is No. 1 seed in the 110m hurdles. Thomas Hilliard has been running lifetime bests every time he goes out and he will have to do it again. In the 400m hurdles we are no. 4 and 5 in the region and Thomas is running better than ever and Jason is capable of more. Jussi is No. 21. They all know it’s going to take 51 flat and they are all capable of it in the 400m hurdles.

The men’s 4×4 is No. 1 in the region surprisingly. They did very well at the SEC meet. You have to finish in the top three of the relay and I think they really want it. The men on the 4×4 want to go to the NCAA meet in Sacramento.

Trey Bell and Dan McKenzie have a real shot in the pole vault. It’s a strange event. It’s when you make the bar, on your first or second attempt each time. They are capable of making the meet and if they don’t, it won’t be because they didn’t give a big time effort.

Jim Mitchell came back this year and got back to throwing 57 feet, but again it’s going to take a lifetime best. To be top five he will have to throw 59 feet. Dave Zaycek is a freshman who is improving by feet and I couldn’t be more proud of a freshman than Big Dave.

Brook Antonio started out big and he is right on the edge of getting himself to the nationals. There is about a meter difference between fifth and eighth – he is capable and we look for him to give us a big run at the discus. He will have to throw three meters better to get to the top eight. But that’s only on paper. He will give them a great performance. Tyler Trout keeps improving and he has the potential to do something big. He is beginning to turn into a big-time discus thrower. Joe Schroder had his best mark back in the second meet of the year so we are waiting on Joe to return to that level. He seems to be on the right foot.

It’s gonna be exciting. You can count on that.