Jan. 28, 2011

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By Miquel Jacobs
Media Relations Assistant

The second week of the 2011 Gamecock track and field season is in the books as Carolina returned to Virginia Tech with solid performances before hosting the Gamecock Indoor Open on Wednesday at the USC Field House. Each week here on GamecocksOnline.com we will provide you with a variety of updates ranging from practice reports to student-athlete features to storylines to video interviews to everything going on in the world of Gamecock track and field. Our second report features a Q&A with senior thrower Michael Zajac as he prepares to compete Saturday at the Texas A&M Challenge.

The Gamecocks left for College Station, Texas Thursday to compete in the eight-team field for the Big 12-SEC challenge that is being held at the site of this year’s NCAA Indoor Championships. Competing from the Big 12 are Kansas State, Oklahoma, Texas Tech and the host Aggies. Competing for the SEC are Florida, Georgia, Ole Miss and the Gamecocks. The meet is the first featuring team scoring that the Gamecocks will participate in this season, and one of the favorites to earn maximum points for Carolina is Zajac, a redshirt senior from Lynchburg, Va.

Zajac is returning to the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium where he earned his first All-America honor. Back at the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships, Zajac placed ninth in the men’s weight throw with a toss of 67-11.75 (20.72m), a strong performance by the redshirt sophomore in his first appearance at the national meet. Zajac returns to Gilliam with a top mark this season of 67’1 ¼ (20.45m) and will look to tough competition from Oklahoma senior KP Singh who has tossed 69’2 ¾ (21.10m) already this season. SEC competitors David Scheidt from Georgia and David Triassi and Jeremy Postin from Florida will also look to challenge for the victory Saturday.

Below are videos from Michael Zajac and throws coach Mike Sergent about the senior’s goals for this season.

UP NEXT
South Carolina travels to New York City next week to compete in the prestigious New Balance Invitational. The yearly meet features the top teams in the country every year and serves as the starting point of the “championship season” in track and field.

Be sure to check back with us next week as Carolina prepares to head to The Armory!