April 11, 2015

Complete Results

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Backed by wins in 14 different events, the South Carolina track and field team earned the team title at the Bill Carson Invitational Saturday afternoon. It’s the men’s second team victory of the season, and the women’s first.

Three wins in the throwing events would give the men a lead after the first day, but it would be the track events that sealed the win. Carolina won all four sprints, from the 100 to the 800. Dondre Echols showed up in a big way in the 100 dash, winning the a time of 10.47, the best by any Gamecock this season. Eric Winfrey also set a season best en route to the win in the 200, taking nearly a full second off his previous best for 2015.

In the quarter and half mile sprints, Clayton Gravesande ran his second-straight sub-47 second 400, winning with a time of 46.94. Ryan Bermudez was close behind, running a personal best time of 46.97 and Winfrey would score with a fourth-place finish. In the 800, Kevin Keating won in a time of 1:52.44, and Drew Galang scored as well.

Echols would win his second individual race of the day in his primary event, the 110-meter hurdles. He and Jermaine Collier finished 1-2, with Echols winning in 13.84 seconds. In the 400 hurdles, Jussi Kanervo set a new personal best with a time of 49.78, which ranks in the world’s top 20. He moved up the program’s all-time rankings to sixth, passing Gamecock great Jason Richardson.

To close the track events, Carolina won for the men and women’s 4×400, and the men won the 4×100.

After starting the day in third place overall, and a dropped baton in the 4×100 relay costing them early points, the women turned to their upperclassmen to comeback and win. Alexis Murphy and Chalese Davis each scored in three different events to lead the way, with Murphy winning the long jump and finishing second in the 100 and 200 dashes. Murphy’s times in the100 and 200 were the team’s fastest the season. Davis placed second in both hurdle events and third in the long jump.

The women also posted season-best times in the 400 (Briana Haith, 54.54) and Maya Evans (2:11.91, fastest by almost three full seconds). New ground was broken in the distance events, starting with the 1500. Three runners finished faster than the previous season high, led by Emily Harding (4:38.82, third place). Five finished faster than the previous season best in the 3000, with Hannah Giangaspro the top finisher in fourth. Capping off the distance events were the steeplechasers. Allie Whitley and Sarah Falta finished second and third, respectively.

It would be the field events that Carolina would gain the most ground in the team score. Jeannelle Scheper won the high jump for the fourth-straight weekend, besting her teammate Nakita Gray by six inches. Following Murphy’s long jump win, Natasha Dicks won the triple jump with a season best and Megan Wall won the pole vault after adding four inches to her previous best this season.

NOTABLES

• Dondre Echols ran the 100-meter dash for the first time with the Gamecocks. The junior’s finish of 10.47 is a tenth of a second faster than the team’s previous best, set by Chris Walker.
• Allie Whitley has improved her personal record in the steeplechase in each of her three races this season. She opened with a time of 11:55.95, then went to 11:45.25 and finished in 11:35.03 on Saturday.
• The men’s team have finished no worse than second in every regular season scored meet, dating back to the start of the indoor season.

QUOTABLE South Carolina Head Coach Curtis Frye

Opening Statement
This is a different atmosphere than Florida, but it had a lot of high-level kids that have qualified for our regionals. East Carolina is a really good, balanced team. Some of our kids got an opportunity to make a contribution and learn how to be a team player. We dropped the baton in the women’s 4×1, and then they started battling to get those extra points back and I think what ignited our team was our kids dropping the stick, because other people had to do something extra things that they didn’t expect to have to do. We ran for our teammates today.

On the Throwers Consistent Contributions
Coach Sergent has done a wonderful job with them, those are kids that we invest in and count on. They know they have to come through, so they know how to handle the pressure and come through

On Jussi Kanervo’s strong day
It was a great run for him. He understood some of the mistakes that he made at Florida last week. Breaking 50 seconds is always phenomenal for a hurdler and we’re proud of him. It was really exciting watching him.

UP NEXT

The team will have a weekend off to rest up and prepare for the Penn Relays. The multis will begin Tuesday, April 21, with the rest of the meet beginning Thursday.