Feb. 26, 2009

SEC Indoor Championships | Fri.-Sun., Feb. 27-Mar. 1

Championship Central | Live Results | Meet Notes

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina track and field programs travel to Lexington, Ky., to compete in the 2009 SEC Indoor Championships held at the Nutter Field House on the campus of the University of Kentucky. Competition begins Friday with the heptathlon at 4:30 p.m.

South Carolina’s men’s team improved five spots in this week’s USTFCCCA national rankings to No. 17 thanks to the emergence of shot putter Jason Cook and Michael Zajac in the weight throw. Both had season bests at the Gamecock Invitational last week to jump into the top 15 nationally, with Zajac entering the weekend 11th in the country and second in the conference.

The Gamecock women, ranked No. 27, will seek their 12th top-five finish in Coach Curtis Frye’s 13 seasons at the helm of the program. Seven women hold NCAA provisional times heading into the championship, including two in the 400m dash (Brandi Cross, Nadonnia Rodrigues), three in the 60m dash (Lakya Brookins, Gabrielle Glenn, Shayla Mahan) and two in he 60m hurdles (Ronnetta Alexander, Kettiany Clarke).

The men bring five provisional’s and one automatic time into the meet as national leader Jason Richardson will make his first appearance since setting his automatic qualifying time in the 60m hurdles in the season opener (Jan. 17-Kentucky Invitational). Provisional qualifiers include Jason Cook in the shot put, Johnny Dutch in the 60m hurdles, Johnathan Hancock in the 60m dash, Antonio Sales in the 200m dash and Michael Zajac in the weight throw.

Live results can be found at UKAthletics.com. The 2009 SEC Indoor Championships show will air on FSN on Sun., March 8 at 3:30 p.m.