Feb. 24, 2007
South Carolina Head Coach Curtis Frye
“The girls are progressing where we have strength, and the hurdles is an event in which we have good strength. I’m really proud of Ronnetta Alexander, Chiquita Martin and Brittney James for making the finals of the SECs; that’s really big. It gives us a chance to score in an event where we’re strong. This meet is about getting marks and we had three women who made provisional marks for the hurdles race. If they can run 8.20s tomorrow that’ll put them in the NCAA meet and that’s our goal tomorrow, along with scoring as many points as possible.
“In the 60 meters, Shalonda Solomon has the fifth seed and she’ll finish up strong and be in the top five. It gives us our points where we thought we could get them. She’ll finish right where we thought she would.
“We have two women in the finals of the quarter mile. Natasha Hastings is the favorite, and Stephanie Smith is a little down, but she’s in the finals and gets a chance to run again.
“In the 200, Shalonda had the second-seed time and she’ll be in lane 6 tomorrow. Kerron Stewart took over the fastest time in the world right now, so that should be a pretty good race to see who’s the fastest in the world.
“Curt McGill got our men on the board. We looked for two guys to score, but Eddie Stoudemire had a groin injury in the hurdles. That just happens in this sport. Thomas Hilliard, one of the top five hurdlers in America, hit the last hurdle and didn’t make the finals; those things happen.
“We can look forward to tomorrow with Keith Hinnant in the finals of the quarter mile and Johnny Baez in the finals of the 800 and our mile relay. That’s what we have, and if we can score another 20 points we’ve got a shot at not being at the very bottom. The SEC is loaded, and being in the top eight in the SEC would be fantastic, but it’ll be very difficult for our men.
“Our women can be top five, but it’ll be a struggle. We have a good group of kids who are working hard, and I could not ask for a better effort than what they gave today.”
