April 25, 2014

PHILADELPHIA – South Carolina put up solid results on the second day of competition at the 120th Penn Relays in front of 38,135 fans at Franklin Field on Friday. The Gamecocks took second in the women’s shuttle hurdle relay Championship of America and pushed three relays to tomorrow’s finals, including both 4×200-meter relays to the Championship of America.

The women’s sprint hurdle relay highlighted the afternoon with their second-place finish in the Championship of America. The group of Tyler Brockington, Chalese Davis, Mollie Williams and Sarah Graham clocked in at 55.12 in a tight finish.

The men’s and women’s 4×200-meter relays ran similar races with both squads pulling away in their respective heats. The men took the track first, with Eric Winfrey, Chris Royster, Chris Walker and Brandon Sanders combining for a 1:23.95 to easily best the field in their heat. The time was seventh overall, granting them entry into tomorrow’s Championship of America at 2:45 p.m.

Just minutes later, the women’s team did the same, taking the line in a season-best 1:33.45 from the group of Ahtyana Johnson, Tyler Brockington, Vashti Bandy and Tamera Harris. Before the team advanced to tomorrow’s 4×2 Championship of America (2:45 p.m.), the same Gamecocks took fourth in the 4×100-meter relay college women’s championship. The quartet bested their qualifying time of 45.65 from yesterday with a 45.12 today.

In the Gamecocks’ first event of the day, Jermaine Collier ran a 51.93 in the men’s 400-meter hurdles. Collier’s season-best time of 50.96 currently ranks him fifth in the NCAA East.

Later in the afternoon, Collier and Dondre Echols ran in the 110-meter hurdle prelims. With the Gamecocks running side-by-side, Echols posted a season-best 14.01 while Collier clocked in 14.11. Both qualified for tomorrow’s finals (3:20 p.m.) on time after finishing 3-4 in their heat.

In the field events, Natasha Dicks took 10th in the triple jump with a mark of 39’11 ¼” (12.17m).

The weekend’s events draw to a close tomorrow with Kaleb Zuidema and Joshua Suttmeier starting the day in the men’s javelin at 9 a.m. A total of six Gamecock relays will take the track as well.