May 18, 2014

Complete Results

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kaleb Zuidema captured javelin bronze with a lifetime best throw on the final day of the 2014 SEC Outdoor Championships at the University of Kentucky. In total, the Gamecocks earned points from seven individuals and all four relays on Sunday.

Both the men and women finished in 12th in their respective team competitions, with the men scoring 23 points and the women tallying 25.5. Texas A&M took the men’s title with Arkansas claiming the women’s crown.

The Gamecocks joined many other SEC track and field programs in wearing light blue shirts to promote prostate cancer awareness on Sunday. Many teams in the conference are beginning to wear pink on a designated day at indoor championships for breast cancer as well. Conference members are hoping to inspire early detection to increases survival rate of both diseases.

Zuidema showed no nerves with his first career SEC Championships throw, posting a 223′ 2″ (68.02m) that earned a spot in the javelin finals. In the finals, the redshirt freshman unleashed a personal best heave of 229’2″ (69.87m) that jumped him into third place. His bronze medal winning mark is the third-best in Gamecock history.

In the 110-meter hurdles, South Carolina was the only program to qualify more than one athlete for today’s finals with sophomores Jermaine Collier and Dondre Echols along with freshman Jussi Kanervo. The Gamecocks racked up eight points with Collier (13.95) and Echols (14.00) finishing fifth and sixth, respectively, and Kanervo (14.22) taking eighth.

Both the men’s and women’s 4×100-meter relays finished sixth overall. First, the women took the track with a squad of Tyler Brockington, Tamera Harris, Vashti Bandy and Ahtyana Johnson. They posted a season best 44.50. The men also ran their best time of the season with Kendall Kee, Chris Royster, Echols and Eric Winfrey clocking in at 39.60.

Brockington and Harris returned to the track later in the day for the 400-meter hurdle finals. In a fast race, Brockington was just off her personal record of 57.40, running a season-best 57.74 to take sixth. Harris crossed in 58.74 in the eighth position to collect a point.

In the men’s 400-meter hurdles, Collier returned to the track after his fifth-place performance in the high hurdles. The only athlete to qualify for both the high and intermediate hurdle finals gutted through some discomfort and finished the race in visible pain in ninth (53.25).

In a race that saw the fastest 200-meter time in the world this season, Ahtyana Johnson scored for the Gamecocks with an eighth place finish behind a time of 23.81 running into the wind.

In the final event of the weekend, the Gamecock women took fifth in the 4×400-meter relay with the team of Johnson, Briana Haith, Brockington and Harris combining for a season-best 3:35.49. The men’s team of Winfrey, Royster, Ryan Bermudez and Nigel Redic were just off season-best pace, running a 3:09.59 for eighth in the mile relay to close out the championship meet.

Gamecocks who own marks in the top 48 of the NCAA East Region advance to the NCAA East Preliminary in Jacksonville, Fla., May 29-31. A top 12 finish books a ticket to Eugene, Ore., for the NCAA Outdoor Championships.