May 28, 2015

Results

JACKSONVILLE, FLA. – The South Carolina track and field team opened its weekend at the NCAA East Preliminary Round Thursday afternoon, with competition in six events. Jussi Kanervo and Kendall Kee qualified for the quarterfinal rounds of their respective events to highlight day one.

After withdrawing from the SEC championship races due to injury precautions, Kanervo didn’t show any rust as he ran just a tenth of a second off the top time in his heat. He would finish fourth overall in a time of 50.51, and will return to the track Friday evening for one final race to try for a spot at nationals.

Kee would overcome an early slip in his heat of the 100-meter dash and qualified for the quarterfinal round. The junior would finish fourth in his heat and 23rd out of the 24 qualifiers with a time of 10.53 (+1.8). He will race again at 6:45 Friday evening for a chance to make nationals; his personal-best time of 10.39 that was set at this season’s SEC championships would have been good for 11th in this opening round.

To close out the men’s track events, Ryan Bermudez and Clayton Gravesande ran in the 400. Bermudez would be the top finisher of the two, taking 35th (47.36), Gravesande would run 41st (47.62). In the women’s lone track event of the day, Alexis Murphy finished 36th in the 100 dash (11.85).

In the team’s two field events, the Gamecocks put a finisher in the top 25, but were unable to break in to the top 12 necessary for a national qualifier. Clarence Gallop finished 21st in the hammer throw with a top mark of 205 feet, three inches. The 12th-place cutoff would be 211-2. In the women’s javelin, Shelby Freedman finished 24th with a top throw of 149-4 and Olivia Hassler came in 45th (132-2). The cut off for the javelin was 158 feet.

QUOTABLE

South Carolina Head Coach Curtis Frye

Impressions after the first day of competition
It was a good experience, a lot of kids got into their first run in open regionals and we got the results of open runs. Jussi is going through his injury and was a little nervous if he could get through and then he had a great run. It was an easy run and it looks like he’s got a good shot at making it to the top 12. Kendall got through and we’re happy to have him through. He got a good first two or three steps and then he stumbled, so he’s got a better race in him. It will take a personal best, but he’s capable of running fast… I wouldn’t count him out.

UP NEXT

Tomorrow’s competition will feature the opening round of the men’s 200 dash, and 110 and 400 hurdles, along with the quarterfinals of the 400 and the finals of the javelin and the discus. The women will compete in the 100 hurdle and 200 first rounds, and the finals for the long jump. The day begins at noon with Kaleb Zuidema in the javelin.