March 19, 2016

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Strong relay results headlined the second day of the Shamrock Invite for the track and field team, and Friday also saw the conclusion of both multi-event competitions.

Sarah Graham held on to a two-point lead in the heptathlon through the first four events on Thursday, and it would come down to the final event Friday to decide the competition. She finished third in the long jump and 800m, and sixth in the javelin to wrap up her competition. Graham would take second place overall with a total score of 5,023 points.

In the men’s decathlon, Simon Gyllensten built off a win in the 1500m on day two to finish fifth overall with a score of 5,950. Bryce Simpson finished seventh in the field with 3,688 points.

Both the men and women scored big in the two relay on Friday, highlighted by a sweep of the 4x200m. The men’s team of David Winters, Ty Jaye Robbins, Ryan Bermudez and Ncincilili Titi won with a time of 1:23.26. For the women, Aliyah Abrams, Tyler Brockington, Briana Haith and Maiya Dendy ran a time of 1:33.37 to edge Purdue out for the win. It was the best time in the event for the women since 2014.

The Gamecocks would also run in the 4x800m relays Friday, and picked up top-three finishes from the men and women. Allie Mueller, Irene Vian, Ashley Miller, and Maya Evans finished second overall, and their time of 9:10.44 put them just two thousandths of a second from cracking the program’s top 10. The men’s team of Otis Jones, Jussi Kanervo, Michael Elwood and Andrew Galang finished third in the relay, crossing in a time of 7:41.82.

Friday also featured a number of field event finals. In the throws, Kaleb Zuidema opened his season with a fourth-place finish in the javelin, coming in at 228 feet, three inches – just under a foot shy of his personal best. In the jumps, three Gamecocks finished in the top six of the women’s high jump. Chalese Davis was the team’s top finisher, placing third with a top mark of 19 feet, four inches. Right behind her in fourth was Alexis Murphy (19-0) and Milan Parks came in sixth (18-7). In the men’s long jump, Tye Williams led the team with a fifth-place finish (24-0 ¾), Michael Wamer came in sixth (23-11) and Isaiah Moore placed ninth (23-3 ¼).

South Carolina will also be sending some sprinters on to Saturday finals after qualifying six men and women between the 100m and the hurdles. DeVon Lewis will run in the finals of the 100 after running seventh in the prelims (10.63 (2.3)). In the 110m hurdles, Jermaine Collier qualified for the finals after running fifth (14.25 (1.0)).

For the women, Gabby Gray had the fourth-fastest qualifying time in the 100m dash and moves on to the Saturday final (11.84 (1.1)). Three women’s hurdlers qualified for finals, with Taranisha Taylor posting the fastest qualifying time in the field of 42 runners (13.85 (0.8)). Chalese Davis and Funlayo Oluwole ran fifth and sixth, respectively, to round out the qualifiers.

UP NEXT

The meet wraps up Saturday with sprint finals in the 100, 200 and 400, and relay finals in the 4×100 and 4×400. In the field events, the team will compete in the shot put, high jump, and triple jump among many others.