June 11, 2015

EUGENE, ORE. – Sophomore Markus Leemet accomplished something on Thursday that just one other Gamecock has ever achieved, earning All-America honors in the decathlon after finishing tenth overall. Despite entering the week ranked 18th overall, he rode the momentum of six new personal bests to defy the odds.

Leemet would finish the 7,549 points, just shy of the school record of 7,598 set in 1990. He did set a new personal record and moved into second in school history, passing Wade Brantley’s total from 1988. He becomes only the second All-American in the decathlon in program history, joining Fred Townsend from 2003.

He began his day with a new season best in the 110 hurdles, finishing 10th overall with a time of 15.13. A 16th-place finish in the discus would push him out of the top ten momentarily, but another season-best in the pole vault put him back in the running for top eight. He passed 4.50 meters on the vault to collect 760 points and a tenth-place result.

In the javelin, he was unable to beat his career-long throw that came at the SEC Championships, but his best mark of 182-10 would earn him major points and resulted in his second-best throw of the season.

Coming into the final event, the 1500, Leemet sat in eighth place, the bubble for the final podium. Despite taking almost four seconds off his previous best from this season, he would slip back two places with a time of 4:42.36 and 666 points to take 10th overall and conclude the event.

QUOTABLE

South Carolina Head Coach Curtis Frye

How Leemet Has Embodied the Team’s Character
He gave his absolute best, and he now has the second-best score in the history of Carolina track and field an he has almost a 200-point improvement from his last personal best. He just came up a little short, but he had so many other places where he came up big with personal bests over the last two days. We’re so thrilled to have him for two more years.

He’s just an example of what our kids are – good students, good support system. They’re a wonderful group of people to be around. I’m so glad to have them and I know that they are going to have an impact at this track meet at this venue next season. I wish we could start next season tomorrow.

South Carolina Sophomore Markus Leemet

On the Traditional Post-Decathlon Victory Lap
It felt amazing. Every time before the 1500 you feel like `man, why am I doing this?’ but once you get it done you feel proud of yourself and you want to go back at it. Just to have that lap with the guys was amazing.

On Breaking the 7500 Point Barrier and Earning All-American
It’s obviously it feels good to be that high in school history, but that’s not my goal. My goal is to be on that podium and score over 8000. This feels good, but my goals are bigger.

UP NEXT

Jussi Kanervo will be the only Gamecock in action on Friday; he has already clinched first-team All-America honors, but aims to secure a national title to go with it. His final of the 400m hurdles will begin at 6 p.m.