June 29, 2015

EUGENE, ORE. – Just a few weeks removed from celebrating eight new All-Americans at the NCAA Outdoor Championship, the Gamecock track and field team sent select individuals back to Oregon for the USATF Junior and Senior Outdoor Championships. The event, which ran from June 25-28, featured six current student-athletes as well as a host of legendary alumni who were all vying for a spot in the IAAF World Championships later this Summer.

The week kicked off Friday morning with freshman Hannah Giangaspro running in the junior women’s 5000-meter run. She would cross in a time of 17:35.98, just two seconds off her personal best from the regular season, and finished seventh overall. The team’s other competitor on the women’s side would be Shelby Freedman in the javelin. Her top throw would come in at 39.95 meters (131-1) and she finished 15th overall.

The men’s team sent four current athletes to the event, three in the hurdle events. Freshman Isaiah Moore would have the most exciting results of the three, setting a new personal best in the 110-meter hurdles for the junior event. He ran a wind-legal time of 13.45 (+1.7) to qualify for the finals, but would ultimately be disqualified in the next race. His preliminary time does rank as the team’s best of the season, just edging out Dondre Echols’ mark of 13.46 set at the SEC Championships.

To close out the junior championships, Greg Chiles represented Carolina in the 400-meter hurdles. He opened with a season-best time of 52.84 to qualify fifth overall for the finals, then went 53.15 in the final to move up to fourth overall.

Echols saw his first competition in over a month when he lined up for the senior men’s 110 hurdle race. His last action came at SECs, as he injured himself just before racing at the regional meet. In this race, he would come in 25th overall with a time of 14.10, but will now train up for the World University Games that run from July 3-14 in Gwangju, Korea.

Joining him at the World University Games will also be Michael Wamer, who himself was injured at regionals but returned for the meet. Competing in a talented field for the triple jump, Wamer went 15.47 meters (50-9.25) to finish 13th overall. His mark was the third best of the season.

A handful of Gamecock alumni enjoyed solid results at the meet on both the men’s and women’s side. For the men, Jason Richardson finished sixth overall in the final of the 110 hurdles (13.31) and Johnny Dutch ran second overall (48.43) in the 400 hurdles final after posting the top preliminary time.

Also in the senior men’s 400mH was future Gamecock Khallifah Rosser. He signed with the team in the Fall out of Chaffey Community College, and ran a 49.96 in the prelims and 50.14 in the semifinal round. The two times would have been second and third fastest for the team during the Spring season, respectively, ensuring that the tremendous depth in the hurdles will make them events to watch in 2016.

For the women’s alumni, Lashinda Demus and Tiffany Williams ran side-by-side in the 400mH final finishing fourth and fifth overall, respectively. In the sprints, Miki Barber ran in the 100m and 200m events, and Natasha Hastings qualified for worlds in the 400.