June 10, 2006

Sacramento, Calif. – Crowning the NCAA champion in the 100m (Nesbitt) and 200m (Solomon), the South Carolina women finished third at the NCAA Track and Field Championships. It is the 11th straight year the women have been in the top 10. Carolina joins just Texas women and Arkansas men as the only three teams nationally to accomplish this feat.

The men were 30th, finishing in the top 30 for the seventh time in eight years. The USC women scored 38 points, just a half a point out of second behind Southern Cal. Under the toolage of former Gamecock assistant coach Ralph Spry, the Auburn Tigers won the women’s title. Florida State won the men’s title. The USC women were 2nd last year.

USC collected 16 All-American honors on both sides.

USC’s Aleen Bailey won both the 100m and the 200m at the 2003 NCAA meet.

“I am just as happy as I could be,” said USC Head Coach Curtis Frye. “Our kids are good kids: good students, great on the track. They are class acts and instruments for God’s pleasure. They do everything they are supposed to do: go to class, conduct themselves like fine young ladies and gentlemen. They competed like warriors. To be in the company of Auburn, Southern Cal, Arizona State (coached by former USC head coach Greg Kraft), Texas – you name it, only a few teams can do that and for us to be up there – that’s fantastic. I won’t call us a dynasty, but our people are putting us in a position to be a constant top five program year in and year out. We have a shot at being a winner every year with this group of men and women.”

“We’ve got that kind of comeback team that I knew we could have,” said Solomon.

On finishing in the top 10 11 straight years: “The state of South Carolina deserves programs like that and I know Eric Hyman is supporting us so we can stay on top and try to put a national championship back up here again pretty soon,” said USC Head Coach Curtis Frye.

Proving Carolina sticks together across the board, soon after the meet baseball trainer Brainard Cooper called in congratulations to Coach Frye from USC baseball coach Ray Tanner, who had watched parts of the meet on TV with some of his staff as he prepared for Sunday’s Super Regional game vs. Georgia.

In the first race of the nationally-televised (CBS) NCAA Track and Field Championship Finals day, Greenville native and South Carolina sophomore Amberly Nesbitt scorched the field to win the 100m title.

Nesbitt ran a time of 11.34 to win the race in an outstanding field of athletes.

“I’m still in shock,” said Nesbitt, a graduate of J.L. Mann. “I told myself not to concentrate only on the start, but try to put all parts of my race together. I was alone all the way out in lane eight and so I was kind of in my own world and it probably helped me concentrate on my race even more. When I looked up at the scoreboard and saw my name at the top, I thought ‘OK, they are going to change that’ and then my name just stayed up there at the top. I was in shock. Coming into the meet, on paper I wasn’t even supposed to make the finals (she came in seeded No. 11).”

An hour later Shalonda Solomon stepped onto the track to win the women’s 200m title with a time of 22.66 Solomon was fifth at 11.43 in the 100m.

“I feel blessed to win because my legs were dead the last 20 meters and God willed me across the finish line,” Solomon. When you saw Nesbitt’s name up there as the 100m winner: “I first I was in shock and thought ‘what!? Amberly!’ And then I was like ‘way to go!’ God blessed her to have this great outdoor season after a disappointing finish indoors. Her win gave me some additional excitement in the 200m. I thought I just wanted to go put this race down here as a winner and go join her as a champion, too.”

Natasha Hastings was sixth in the 400m, running a 51.60. Hastings later ran the anchor leg of USC’s All-American 4x400m relay that finished eighth. Others on the relay garnering All-American honors were Chiquita Martin, Faraign Giles and Shay Shelton.

Leroy Dixon was eighth in the 100m at 10.42 and collected his second All-American honors.