March 25, 2007

Columbia, SC – Paced by the speedy feet of Natasha Hastings and her two wins, USC picked up 13 NCAA regional qualifiers at the Jim Click Shootout in Tucson, Ariz. A scored meet with three conferences pitting their talents, the SEC, comprised of USC, Florida and Arkansas, finished as the runner-up to the Pac-10 (Arizona and California) as the Pac-10 scored 510.5 points to the SEC’s 451.5 points. The Big 12 (Texas Tech and Kansas State) finished third with 443.00 points. USC won five events individually.

Hastings, the NCAA indoor 400m champion, won two events with two regional qualifiers in her opening outdoor races. Hastings won the 200m with a time of 23.01 and later won the 400m at 51.02.

Three other Gamecocks picked up regional qualifiers in the 400m. Stephanie Smith was third with a time of 53.00 in the 400m, seventh in the 400m at 54.52 was Giles and Brandi Cross was eighth at 53.59.

Faraign Giles was seventh in the 200m at 24.43. Precious Akins was fifth in the discus at 160′ 2 and that was a regional qualifier.

Chiquita Martin won the 100m hurdles with a time of 13.35 with her first regional qualifier of the year in the 100m hurdles. Teammate Ronnetta Alexander was third with a time of 13.66. Alexander won the SEC Runner of the Week last week.

With both picking up NCAA regional qualifiers, Crystal Cantey won the 400m hurdles with a time of 57.91 and Martin ran a 59.25 to finish as the runner-up. On the men’s side, Thomas Hilliard was the runner-up at 50.87 and Jussi Heikkila was fourth at 52.31.

The women won the 4x400m relay with a time of 3:33.89.

On the men’s side Quentin Moore was third in the 400m at 47.36 and Jamil James as right on his heels at 47.55. Derek Pressler was the runner-up in the triple jump, hitting the sand with a jump of 48′ 11 ½.

Tylaer Trout was the runner-up in the hammer at 192′ 3, picking up a regional qualifier.